Chapter 17

The Innkeeper's Dilemma

Xiaoming woke up early in the morning, wrote a note on the door of the inn saying that business would not be conducted today, and posted it.

"Closed Today (今日休業)"

He had to close the inn today, despite it not being a regular day off, because he had something important to do.

He decided to close the inn for the day, not only because there were no customers, but also because he wanted to resolve the doubts he had heard from the broth maker yesterday.

Can a chef let a culinary curiosity pass by?

That would be a disqualification for a chef.

He began preparing to go out.

He heated water in the kitchen, washed his body thoroughly, and applied oil to his hair to make it shiny. Then, he changed into the silk clothes he had worn when he left the main house.

Ordinary Song Dynasty commoners often wore clothes made of hemp during warm seasons, and to save on fabric, men often wore short-sleeved and short pants.

Some even wore sleeveless vests because even short sleeves were considered wasteful.

I usually enjoyed wearing such clothes because they were cool, but today, I had to go undercover... No, I had to observe the wisdom of the common people in the martial world, so I decided to dress up and set out.

The reason for dressing up was to visit a restaurant.

To understand the problems with my Sichuan-style braised pork, I planned to taste the Sichuan-style braised pork from other restaurants or street vendors and compare it with the one I made.

After finishing all the preparations, I took a quick look at my face in the water basin.

Even though it wasn't particularly useful, my appearance wasn't bad. After washing off the grime and polishing myself, I looked presentable.

Despite being from a minor noble family, my growth was not malnourished, and my height and appearance were not bad.

"Well, if you don't have any other talents, at least your packaging shouldn't be bad."

However, the good mood from seeing my appearance quickly faded when I saw the broken door panel.

The door couldn't be closed.

In the end, I propped up the half-fallen door panel horizontally to block the entrance.

"Damn it! Just seeing the door panel makes me angry!"

What could be keeping the carpenter so busy that he hasn't come?

As I walked out and saw the door panel, suppressing my rising anger, I left my inn, which was located near the main road on the outskirts of Xianyou, and headed into the city.

To go to the market in the center of Xianyou.

I walked through the town and arrived at the market, entering the first restaurant I saw.

"Welcome, sir!"

A typical waiter in the martial world, with a large mole on his nose, ran out to greet me as soon as I entered the restaurant.

"Could working as a waiter automatically give you a mole?"

I wondered if they only selected people with moles or if there was a waiter qualification exam that required a mole, but it seemed strange that many restaurant waiters had large moles on their faces.

I had noticed this when visiting restaurants during my travels, where many waiters had moles on their faces.

While pondering whether the mole was a substitute for a qualification or a result of convergent evolution, the waiter led me to a quiet spot upstairs.

"Sir, please come this way."

As I followed the waiter to a quiet spot on the second floor, I could feel his eyes scanning me from behind.

The reason the waiter was scanning me with such impolite eyes was that there were no menus or price lists in this era.

One might think that the lack of menus and price lists and the waiter's rude gaze had no reason, but it was all part of the culture of face.

Without menus, the waiters at inns and restaurants became human menus, recommending food to people, and here a strange aspect of the culture of face was revealed.

If I entered wearing silk clothes and the waiter recommended cheap food, it would be a face-losing action.

Conversely, if I entered wearing commoner's clothes and the waiter recommended expensive food, it would be a face-losing action to recommend food I couldn't afford.

Damn, what am I supposed to do...

From my perspective, it seemed that the people of the Central Plains hated waiters, or rather, despised the profession of being a waiter.

If not, they must believe that waiters have some kind of mind-reading ability.

Or they are treated like punching bags, cursed, or something like that?

That's why in martial arts movies and novels from my previous life, waiters were the extras who died the most, and it felt like a realistic portrayal.

Even now, as I sat down, the waiter, who couldn't recommend food easily and was in a state of confusion, showed how much effort he put into surviving.

Perhaps because my hands were rough from cooking, he was unsure what to recommend.

If he said the wrong thing, he might face various forms of humiliation in the martial world, from a slap to a knife in the back.

I decided to save the waiter, who couldn't figure out my identity as the first customer of the morning and was in distress.

"Is it possible to have Sichuan-style braised pork?"

The waiter's face relaxed as if he had met a savior.

I felt sympathy for the waiter in my heart.

'How much have you suffered... I understand, brother...'

As I consoled the waiter in my heart, he hurriedly answered my question.

"Of course, sir. Would you like steamed buns (蒸饼) and Sichuan-style braised pork?"

"Sure, I plan to have a simple breakfast, so please bring those. Oh, and I'll have some wine too."

"Yes, I understand, sir!"

The waiter disappeared downstairs as if he were flying.

Looking at the waiter's disappearing back, I thought.

'I need a waiter if I want to run my business properly...'

It would be a mistake to think of a waiter as just a servant who does odd jobs in the restaurant.

The reason I couldn't hire a waiter was not only because I had few customers but also because their salaries were not cheap.

Waiters, based on their skills, which involved reading the status of customers, could earn salaries as high as millions in my previous life.

Such skilled waiters were very smooth, and if they recommended cheap food to a rich person and were insulted, they would say, "Sir, although it is a cheap dish, we wanted to show our skills to someone of your high status and get your evaluation."

Or if they recommended expensive food to a poor person, they would say, "I mistook you for a high-ranking official due to your good appearance. Please forgive me."

They displayed their survival skills and smooth talk, which made them very expensive.

As I drank the tea the waiter prepared and pondered how to hire a waiter, the waiter brought the Sichuan-style braised pork and steamed buns to the table and said,

"Sir, our Sichuan-style braised pork is well-known in the area. I'm sure you'll enjoy it."

The spicy aroma of Sichuan-style braised pork and ten steaming hot steamed buns.

'Let's start with the aroma.'

I brought my nose close to the plate to smell the Sichuan-style braised pork. It had a plain aroma, not enhanced with scallion oil or garlic.

I poked it with chopsticks to examine the contents. It had finely chopped herbs, bamboo shoots, leeks, and pork. Nothing particularly different.

As I brought a chopstickful to my mouth, the magical taste of Sichuan pepper and the spicy taste of chili spread.

'What? It's subtly different...'

Although the strong taste of Sichuan pepper stung my tongue, something was different. I had tasted it after the broth maker and his group left yesterday, and it wasn't like this.

It left a tingling sensation on my tongue, but this one stung and then faded smoothly.

Moreover, the stinging sensation was much stronger.

'Yes, definitely different.'

I tasted a few more chopsticks of Sichuan-style braised pork, reduced the spiciness, and bit into a steamed bun to fill my stomach for breakfast.

After chewing for a while, I realized the filling of the steamed bun was missing.

'Oh no!'

I realized my mistake from the taste of the steamed bun, which was full of flour in my mouth.

The problem was that I had ordered steamed buns (蒸饼) without thinking, out of habit from my previous life.

'If I wanted to eat meat-filled bao, I should have ordered bao (包子) or dumplings (饺子)!'

What I wanted was a meat-filled bao, but they don't call it that here.

Actually, even in my previous life, in China, they didn't call it that.

They called it dumplings (饺子).

In China, they call it a bao if it has no filling and a dumpling if it has filling. So, if I wanted to eat a filled bao, I should have ordered a bao (包子) or dumplings (饺子).

And since there is no word for dumplings in the Song Dynasty, if I wanted to eat dumplings, I should have ordered them by another name.

Water dumplings (水点心), rice flour dumplings (粉角), flat dumplings (扁食), water dumplings (水角), or small dumplings (饺子儿)...

I don't know why, but all these names refer to dumplings.

All five names.

If you order by these names, you get the same dumplings.

The reason for the different names is the lack of a standard. The food makers just call it whatever they want, and different terms mix together.

It's not like the United States created the American Standard during World War II.

They wanted to ensure that parts made in any U.S. factory could be used anywhere without inconvenience.

Here, it would be great if one word could be understood anywhere.

'Ah, a standard!'

I called out for a standard in my heart.

Because of this, I thoughtlessly recalled the meat-filled bao from my previous life and ordered steamed buns (蒸饼) without thinking, and what I got was a real bao.

A large, contentless, soft beige steamed bun.

You might wonder why the people of the Central Plains eat such tasteless food, but this is their staple.

There are two staples in the Central Plains.

One is rice, and the other is wheat.

If you divide the Central Plains in half, the south, where rice can be grown, mainly eats rice, and the north, where wheat can be grown, mainly eats wheat-based bao.

Ordering a few dishes like Sichuan-style braised pork and eating bao instead of rice.

'I'm such a fool. No, to come here and order bao and look for dumplings...'

I made a foolish mistake.

But while it would be a pitiful mistake if my body did it, it was an unavoidable mistake since I did it.

'Understand, body.'

I apologized to my body and, unable to fill my stomach this way, headed to another restaurant.

With the leftover bao wrapped and handed to me by the waiter.

In the morning, I visited two more restaurants and three street vendors.

But I couldn't find the cause.

'No, to hide the secret so tightly. Damn it!'

I gave up on finding the secret at the restaurants and, thinking there might be a problem with the herbs themselves, finally found the cause at the pharmacy.

'These guys really?!'

And I couldn't contain my anger at the trivial cause.