Chapter 40 of 100

Chapter 40

14 min read3,551 words

"Hong Tao, please, please!" Hong Tao's mouth was a bit clumsy now. For him, the information from this high-end banquet of the Song Dynasty was a bit overwhelming. Although he had figured out the names of the utensils, he still hadn't figured out what this dish on the table was or how to eat it. The wine in the cup was light green, and he wasn't sure what it would taste like. His mind was preoccupied with these things, leaving no room for witty conversation.

After taking a sip of the wine, Hong Tao felt a bit more at ease. The wine was good, and he wasn't sure if it was rice wine, but it was sweet and sour with a very low alcohol content, probably similar to dry red wine from the future, or even lower. If the alcohol content was like this, he could drink two or three kilograms without a problem, so he didn't have to worry about getting drunk. The main issue now was this dish!

"This is pickled lamb slices. Take tender lamb, cut it into thin slices, and soak it in fine wine. This is the sauce, and this is plum juice, both can be used for dipping. If Brother Hong likes honey, I can bring some!" Luo Youde didn't wait for Hong Tao to ask. He had noticed that Hong Tao seemed unfamiliar with Song Dynasty food, which further confirmed that Hong Tao was from overseas. Luo Youde had met people from the Southern Barbarian countries before, and when he first invited them to eat on the ship, they also acted this way, which was hard to fake.

"No, no, no, the sauce is fine..." Hong Tao understood. This was raw lamb slices. He didn't mind eating raw meat, but the idea of dipping raw meat in honey was unappealing, so he decided to pass.

Just as he had taken a couple of bites of the first dish, the second dish was brought in. This time, Hong Tao recognized it. Wasn't this something like cold noodles? He picked up a few strands to taste, and it was indeed similar, but it had a slightly fishy taste and was very chewy, not quite like vermicelli.

"Hehehe... Brother Hong must have a deep connection with this dish! It's made from the skin of the crocodile shark you caught, called shark skin noodles. The shape of the noodles is derived from this, and they can also be made from wheat flour or rice flour." Luo Youde began to explain. This meal was tiring, but it was also interesting, as they discussed each dish as it was served.

What exactly were these noodles? Hong Tao thought they were like cold noodles or rice noodles, or perhaps more like flat noodles. In fact, the appearance of this dish varied depending on the ingredients used. In the future, there were several noodle dishes that resembled shark skin noodles, such as cat's ears and kao lao. In Japan, the true tradition of Song Dynasty shark skin noodles was preserved, and there was a restaurant in Yamanashi Prefecture that specialized in shark skin noodles, with a sign that read: "Shark Skin Noodles, Unmoving!"

However, using shark skin to make noodles was the most luxurious option. Sharks were not easy to catch in the Song Dynasty, and even the Tanka people avoided them, making them rare and valuable. In fact, the shark skin noodles had no distinct flavor, similar to vermicelli, but they looked translucent and beautiful.

After eating these two dishes for a while, things changed again. Ah Cai refilled the wine cups for Luo Youde and Hong Tao, and then three or four maidservants came in and quickly cleared the two silver plates in front of them. More people came in and set a new dish in front of the three of them. By this point, Hong Tao understood everything. It seemed that the Song Dynasty had invented Western-style dining! After the appetizers, the main courses were served, and it was a separate serving system, just like Western dining. It was probably even more refined and sophisticated than 18th-century Western dining.

He wasn't sure when this dining style was transmitted to Europe and then inherited and developed by them. As for the Song Dynasty, a dynasty that had been overthrown, who would want to say they learned it from them? It was too depressing. Whether Hong Tao's view was correct or not, who knew? But he believed it and wanted the world to remember the Song Dynasty, preferably never to forget it! So, Western dining was Chinese!

Hong Tao's view actually had some merit, but the Song Dynasty banquet didn't distinguish between appetizers and main courses, and the variety of dishes was much greater than in Western dining. How much greater? Several times to ten times more! According to Luo Youde's introduction, this banquet had twelve dishes, which were served according to the pace of drinking. Two dishes per cup of wine, after six cups of wine, the main courses of the banquet were all served.

Two dishes per cup of wine was considered mid-range in the Song Dynasty. Since they were on a ship, the variety of dishes was limited, so Luo Youde apologetically told Hong Tao that he could only serve him mid-range dishes for now. After they reached Zhenzhou, he would take Hong Tao to the best restaurant in the area to enjoy a high-end banquet with three dishes per cup of wine. As for whether there were banquets with four dishes per cup of wine, they existed, but no one dared to eat them because they were reserved for the emperor's banquets for foreign envoys, and the common people were not allowed to exceed this.

These twelve dishes were not all stir-fried. There were steamed, boiled, stir-fried, and stewed dishes, as well as meat, vegetables, and main courses. Speaking of main courses, it made Hong Tao feel a bit uncomfortable. The Song Dynasty had different names for several foods compared to the future, and it was a bit confusing. For example, steamed buns were called "cooked cakes" in the Song Dynasty, while baozi were called "steamed buns"! There were meat steamed buns and vegetable steamed buns. This custom still existed in the future, as in some places in Wenzhou, people called baozi "steamed buns" and steamed buns "solid baozi," which was likely a tradition passed down from the Southern Song Dynasty.

After finishing the meal and drinking the wine, the banquet was still not over. More people came in, some to clear the tableware and others to bring in a pile of silver plates filled with various fruits. Indeed, there were fruit platters at Song Dynasty banquets, and the variety was very rich. Hong Tao counted and found there were six or seven types, including tropical and temperate fruits: oranges, bananas, melons, plums, loquats, lychees, pears, and peaches. Hong Tao tried to discuss the fruits of the Song Dynasty with Luo Youde and discovered that there were no apples or pineapples. Watermelons existed, but they were not widely cultivated in the Jiangnan region, having only been introduced about a decade ago by an official who brought back watermelon seeds from a trip to the Jin Dynasty.

While eating the fruit platter, a few women began to play and sing in the room. Although they were not Tanka people, Hong Tao could only understand less than half of what they were singing. Fortunately, it didn't matter whether he understood or not. Hong Tao evaluated women by sight, not by sound, so the quality of their voices was not important to him. These maids or courtesans, in his eyes, only scored 60 points, just passing. It wasn't that Hong Tao's standards were too high, but their bodies were too small and underdeveloped, like malnourished fifteen-year-old girls. Hong Tao valued a woman's figure more than her face, so giving them 60 points was already a stretch. He only glanced at them a few times at the beginning and then didn't look at them again, focusing entirely on his conversation with Luo Youde, or rather, mutual learning.

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