Menu

In the afternoon, Xiaoguo had just put down her needle and thread and was stretching her neck.

At that moment, Jiang Danhe entered the room. Xiaoguo quickly covered the boots with the blanket.

“What happened?”

Xiaoguo looked at Jiang Danhe nervously, unsure if he had seen her just now.

“Nothing much. Someone’s coming over tonight. Do you think you can make a few dishes?”

The first thing Jiang Danhe did when he returned was to ask Xiaoguo if she could prepare dinner. At first, he did not agree to it. However, that person somehow knew about Xiaoguo’s good culinary skills, so he specifically requested to try it. Jiang Danhe could not refuse and therefore agreed to it.

“Why don’t we just let the kitchen prepare it?”

Jiang Danhe felt that it was a little too much to ask from Xiaoguo, so he thought for a moment and decided to let the chefs prepare the food instead.

“No, it’s fine. I love cooking. I can handle the cooking tonight.”

Xiaoguo stopped Jiang Danhe, who was about to leave. She had wondered what was going on, so it was just this. From his expression, she had thought that he had seen the boots she was sewing.

“Is there anything that should not be on the menu? Or is there anything that the person does not eat?”

Upon hearing Xiaoguo’s question, Jiang Danhe tried to recall and realized that there was nothing. He shook his head and said, “There’s nothing he doesn’t eat, but he especially likes fish.”

Jiang Danhe remembered that when they ate together, there would usually be fish at the dining table. And there were hardly any leftovers, so he guessed that the guest might prefer fish meat.

After Xiaoguo made a mental note, she immediately started to think about the menu for the night. Jiang Danhe usually would not trouble her. The person who was coming this time must be quite important. Otherwise, Jiang Danhe would not let her work so hard.

Just as Xiaoguo was thinking about the menu, Jiang Danhe suddenly hesitated.

“Will it be too much work?”

Jiang Danhe asked tentatively.

“It’s okay. If you think it’s going to be hard, then you can help me.”

Xiaoguo said jokingly.

When Jiang Danhe heard this, he replied without hesitation, “Okay!”

Xiaoguo smiled. She obviously didn’t take Jiang Danhe’s words seriously. Weren’t men supposed to stay away from the kitchens during ancient times? Xiaoguo took Jiang Danhe’s words with a pinch of salt.

When Xiaoguo was in the kitchen preparing the ingredients, Jiang Danhe appeared at her side.

Xiaoguo sized up the serious-looking man. She didn’t expect him to keep to his word.

“What should I do?”

Xiaoguo came back to her senses and looked at Jiang Danhe, who was also wearing an apron.

“Are you really going to do it?”

Jiang Danhe heard the doubt in Xiaoguo’s voice, so he nodded seriously to show her how serious he was.

Xiaoguo understood Jiang Danhe’s determination. But immediately after, she had another doubt. “Can he cook?”

“I can’t cook, but I can help to prepare the ingredients.”

Jiang Danhe said confidently, but under Xiaoguo’s puzzled gaze, his confidence began to waver. “…I think so.”

Xiaoguo smiled. “It is not important whether he could cook or not. As long as he doesn’t make things worse.”

But would things really turn out as Xiaoguo expected?

–

“Hey, you can’t pick the leaves like this.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Hey, you can’t cut things this way…”

“…”

“You threw away the part that is edible and kept the non-edible part…”

“I will pick it up…”

“You haven’t removed the scales.”

“I’ll do it now…”

“This dish can’t… this meat is too thick… you haven’t washed these… the meat isn’t minced properly…”

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

From time to time, Xiaoguo’s voice could be heard from the kitchen, accompanied by Jiang Danhe’s endless apologies.

Fortunately, when the two of them came into the kitchen earlier, the chefs had deliberately vacated the kitchen. Otherwise, their eyes would probably pop out of their sockets if they saw the usually awe-inspiring general being criticized like a primary school student.

“This pork should be cut into shreds.”

Jiang Danhe was standing in front of the chopping board with a knife in his hand. He looked at the meat that he had cut into chunks and was at a loss.

Xiaoguo had no choice but to put down her knife and take over the knife in his hand to demonstrate.

“We’ll do this first. Then we’ll cut them into thinner pieces and arrange them neatly. Then we’ll cut them into thin shreds.”

Xiaoguo took a small piece of meat and cut it into shreds. She placed the shredded meat on a plate and left the rest to him.

Although Jiang Danhe didn’t know how to cook, he was quick at learning. Whatever that Xiaoguo had demonstrated, he was able to follow and execute the exact steps. He was indeed a little clumsy, but Xiaoguo felt that it was quite a feat for him to do this.

“Yes, that’s it. It’s wonderful!”

Jiang Danhe cut the shredded meat a little clumsily. To be honest, this was his first time cooking, so the cutting was inconsistent. However, when he thought of the promises he had made to Xiaoguo, he kept telling himself to carry on and that he could do it.

“That’s wonderful. That’s it. That’s amazing.”

Seeing that he was managing the cutting quite well, Xiaoguo turned around and worked on what she had to do.

Jiang Danhe heaved a sigh of relief when he saw Xiaoguo leave. It wasn’t that he didn’t like having her by his side. In fact, he really liked having her with him, but he wasn’t used to hearing her compliments and was feeling a little shy about it.

Xiaoguo was cutting carrots and she had no idea what Jiang Danhe was thinking. She praised him because he had really done a good job. Furthermore, she was managing him like she usually did with Zhuang Zhuang. She had always given Zhuang Zhuang lots of encouragement while parenting him.

At this moment, Xiaoguo was applying her positive parenting techniques on Jiang Danhe.

Jiang Danhe was cutting the vegetables clumsily. From time to time, he would receive Xiaoguo’s encouragement. He was really not used to it and felt a little shy. In addition, he was also a little happy.

As Jiang Danhe had said, the visitor has a preference for fish. Hence, Xiaoguo planned to make three dishes from one fish. The fish head would be steamed with diced hot red peppers. The middle part of the fish would be made into West Lake Vinegar Fish. The tail portion of the fish would be cut into thick slices and be made into Crispy Fish with Gravy.

Xiaoguo guessed that the visitor must be someone of high status, so she designed a menu which consisted of ten dishes, one soup and one dessert.

There were three dishes for one fish. One fish was very big, so it was enough to split into three large plates.

Next, there were green pepper shredded pork, sour and spicy shredded potatoes, assorted cold dishes, steamed chicken in spicy sauce, blood curd in sauce, crispy stuffed lotus root and braised meatballs.

The soup would be chicken and radish soup. For dessert, she would be making brown sugar glutinous rice cake.

After all the ingredients were prepared, the next step was to wait for the food to be stir-fried. As it was still early, Xiaoguo did not have to rush.

Jiang Danhe wiped his sweat and put down the knife. Who would have thought that cutting vegetables would be so troublesome? To him, a piece was the same as a strip, and a strip was the same as a shred. Who would distinguish them so distinctly like Xiaoguo?

Seeing him like this, Xiaoguo found it a little funny. Although he was not very good at cutting, he was very thoughtful, and helped her with cleaning up. With his help, Xiaoguo really saved a lot of time and effort.

“Okay, done and dusted.”

Xiaoguo placed all the cut ingredients in a bowl and placed them in the order that they would go into the pot later. This way, things wouldn’t get too messy later.

“By the way, when is that man coming?”

Xiaoguo asked for clarification so that she could estimate the time it would take to cook.

“He’ll be here at dinner time.”

Jiang Danhe didn’t think about it and blurted out. In fact, the guest had wanted to come back with them at noon, but he had rejected him.

Xiaoguo nodded in acknowledgment.