Siheyuan starts from a better life

Chapter 885 Banquet

The house was renovated in a very wonderful way. Unlike the previous restoration, it not only perfectly restored the old style, but also looked like a new house. It was still painted in black oil, which looked simple and elegant.

The most wonderful part is the wall carving "Hundred Children Playing" and the hollow flower-carved wall. It turned out that this part was a little peeling off. I don't know what method Lei Laosan used to repair it, but it looks like a new one. The window lattices also use a hollow design, and the door carvings have also been replaced as new, with "plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum" carved on them.

Just the windows and doors in the yard cost Jiang Yan a total of nearly two thousand yuan. You have to know that that was two thousand yuan in the 1980s, but Jiang Yan felt that the money was well spent. Lei Laosan also said that if it weren't for his face, people might not have bought it at that price.

But these are nothing compared to the new attic.

The attic has three eaves and two floors, facing south and north, with no walls around it. It is located in the center of an independent inner courtyard, and is still connected to the five main rooms through a corridor. The entire building is connected by wooden structures and supported by sixteen sturdy wooden pillars at the bottom. The bottom floor is a Bagua roof with four large pillars in the middle that go straight to the top of the attic and connect the entire beam frame. It can be said that the structure is grand and the style is exquisite.

Compared with this attic, the attic that I had previously renovated by the Dazhalan construction team is basically like heaven and earth.

Although there are various kinds of paint now, Jiang Yan still followed Lei Laosan's advice and used the more traditional tung oil. The wood used was naturally good wood, rosewood, which is second only to red sandalwood and huanghuali.

This wood is produced in tropical and subtropical areas, mainly in Southeast Asian countries. The wood color is uneven, the heartwood is orange, light reddish brown to dark brown, and the dark stripes are obvious. The wood is shiny, with a sour or sour aroma, the texture is oblique and staggered, the density is high, it is greasy, hard and wear-resistant. Sometimes it even pretends to be Huanghuali. This wood is the wood that Jiang Yan asked Xu Damao to buy from Monkey. Each piece is hundreds of years old, and this wood is better.
There is not a single painted spot in the entire attic, except for the wood carvings, which have only been "waxed" at most. A house decorated with such wood is truly low-key and luxurious.

The houses in other courtyards were also renovated, but the most effort was put into the design of the garden. According to Jiang Yan's requirements, the garden was divided into two courtyards. One courtyard contained the small Western-style building. Now the building has been repaired, showing its style. As a result, the building was favored by his three precious daughters. Now it is no longer the boudoir of the three sisters.

The other half of the garden has also been renovated, and several pavilions have been added. The largest pavilion is called "Guantang Hall". Many crabapple flowers are planted under this pavilion. When seeing the crabapple flowers, Jiang Yan feels like he sees the master. Now Jiang Yan has framed the crabapple bookmark that the master gave her and placed it in the center of the study, as if the master was looking at her.

"The crabapple blossoms, and the camellia leaves come back."

In the afternoon, He Yuzhu and Shitou came to Jiang Yan's yard with their families. The children were playing in the garden, the women were chatting with the old lady, He Yuzhu went to the kitchen to clean up, and Shitou was wandering around the yard, looking at the newly tidied yard by Jiang Yan.

At 7:30 that evening, when the sun was setting and the last bright red glow appeared on the horizon, the family dinner officially began and the children, who had been playing like mud monkeys for half a day, were finally cleaned up.

Before the meal, the old lady went to the garden with her cane and fetched some pomegranate flowers, claiming that they were "auspicious flowers". She asked all the women and girls in the family to pin them in their hair, saying that this had good meaning.

After a while of excitement, the dinner finally began.

When the courtyard was built, Jiang Yan specifically asked the director about the purpose of the hooks under the eaves of the courtyard. After knowing its purpose, Jiang Yan also kept his eyes on it and directly ordered these big red lanterns. Although it was getting dark, no matter how beautiful the flowers and trees were, they could not be seen clearly. But Jiang Yan turned on the lights in all the rooms in the courtyard. All of a sudden, the whole courtyard was bright and bright. If the banquet was held in the center of the main courtyard, there were two large tables, each of which could seat sixteen people.

The trees in the yard were rustling in the wind. August was the season when sweet osmanthus flowers were in full bloom. Sweet osmanthus flowers had a delicate fragrance, delicate shapes, and brilliant colors. Smelling the fragrance of sweet osmanthus flowers was a special experience. However, there were more than just sweet osmanthus flowers in Jiang Yan's yard. Chrysanthemums, crabapple flowers, lotus flowers, and other flowers were blooming one after another, which made people feel relaxed and happy.

Nowadays, Chef He's reputation is well-known throughout the Flower Growing Family, but that is only one aspect. Many people in the city of Sijiu know Chef He from Food for Heaven, and his cooking skills are unparalleled. If you want to eat his dishes, you probably need to make a reservation, unlike Jiang Yan and the others who can eat whenever they want.

Seafood has now quietly appeared on people's tables, so tonight's banquet will be mainly based on fish and shrimp.

The price of yellow croaker nowadays is not as high as in later generations, especially the wild large yellow croaker, which is a rare commodity. However, it is not valuable nowadays, even the price of prawns is not high, so these two are the protagonists tonight, just like the big mooncake in the center.

However, compared with prawns, Jiang Yan still prefers stir-fried river shrimps, feeling that this is the right dish to go with alcohol.

Because of the hot weather, people often feel anorexia. Therefore, apart from fish and shrimp, the rest of the food should be refreshing. Therefore, in addition to hot dishes, He Yuzhu also made a lot of cold dishes, such as "Emerald Duck", "Crystal Pork Knuckle", "Cold Jellyfish", etc. These cold dishes are refreshing, fresh and not greasy, and are the most suitable foods for midsummer.

My family runs a beverage factory, so there is always a supply of this stuff at home. However, Jiang Yan knows the disadvantages of drinking beverages frequently, so he always controls the children at home. However, today is Mid-Autumn Festival, so Jiang Yan lets them do whatever they want. Unlike the children, the adults still prefer to drink traditional sour plum soup, which they feel is the real holy tool to relieve the summer heat. Especially the sweet-scented osmanthus sour plum soup from Zhengxingzhai, which is their favorite.

"Lotus leaf porridge" is also a special food in Beijing in summer. It is simple to make, but it takes time.

First, wash the rice and cook the porridge normally, add more water, boil the pot, wait for the rice to bloom, then use a large lotus leaf, wash it and cover the porridge, cover the pot with the lid, and turn off the heat. At this time, just wait, and after four or five hours, open the lid and remove the lotus leaf.

The porridge was cooked in the afternoon. It was still warm and delicious. The white rice porridge turned light yellow-green when stirred slightly. The color was very beautiful. Pour a bowl of it and sprinkle a little white sugar on it. It was also refreshing and delicious.

In short, this dinner is both nutritious and delicious, and paired with the two fine wines, "Lotus White" and "Osmanthus Chen", it is truly a lingering fragrance.

After dinner, most of the lights were turned off, and everyone sat on stools in the yard, eating mooncakes, drinking the best jasmine tea and chatting casually. Everything was so leisurely and comfortable. The old lady was surrounded by younger children, who were listening to her telling them stories about the stars in the sky.

(End of this chapter)