Border Cook

Chapter 9 Even Pigs Don't Eat It
"Thank you, sister. Thank you, sister." The little girl bowed many times to express her gratitude to Xia Mingyue.

"You sell things, I buy things, we both agree to a fair trade, no need to be so polite." Xia Mingyue said with a smile, "But you sold such a large basket of black vegetables at once, do you have a lot of black vegetables at home?"

"There are a lot." The little girl nodded hurriedly. "My family doesn't have much land. When we're not doing farm work, we go outside to pick up some unwanted vegetables for daily consumption. These mustard sprouts are basically unwanted by everyone, so my mother and I pick them all up, squeeze them, dry them, and make black mustard for eating. We made a lot of black mustard last year, so I wondered if I could exchange them for some money."

"Sister, are you asking about this? Do you want to buy more black vegetables?" the little girl asked tentatively.

"There should be more in the future, but it will take about ten days." Xia Mingyue said, "After ten days, bring a basket of black vegetables to find me on the street. If I'm not on the street, you can come directly to my house. My last name is Xia."

"Okay!" The little girl nodded heavily. "My last name is Jiang, and my name is Jiang Zhuguo. If I can't come to the county town by then, I'll ask someone to bring me here to Sister Xia."

"it is good."

The matter was settled, and Jiang Zhuguo left with an empty bamboo basket on his back.

Mrs. Lu looked at the large bowl full of black vegetables and asked in surprise, "Sister-in-law, can this black vegetable be used to make delicious food?"

She had witnessed Xia Mingyue's cooking skills many times, and there was absolutely no doubt about it. Ordinary things could be made into delicious food in her hands.

But this black vegetable...

She really couldn't figure out how to make this black vegetable delicious.

In order to save some money on vegetables, she was reluctant to throw away the mustard tassels she bought, and followed others to squeeze them into black mustard. But whether she cooked it with noodles or stir-fried it, the taste of the black mustard was hard to describe.

So much so that the mustard tassels were picked and fed to the chickens raised in the yard.

"You can make dumplings and meat patties." Xia Mingyue replied with a smile.

Make dumplings and meat patties?
Mrs. Lu was stunned again, and even worried that the buns and meat patties made with black vegetables would become unpalatable.

But the next day, when she was making meat patties with Xia Mingyue, all the worries in Lu's mind disappeared completely.

The dried vegetable meat patties are made by re-soaking, chopping and mixing with meat fillings. The unique flavor of the dried vegetables and the aroma of the meat blend and penetrate each other. When you take a bite, you can smell the aroma of the vegetables and the meat even more. The more you chew the dried vegetables, the more fragrant they are, and the more delicious the meat is...

After eating a black vegetable meat pie, Mrs. Lu raised her thumb to the sky, "Sister-in-law, this black vegetable meat pie is really delicious. It tastes different from the previous scallion meat pie."

"Then let's take out this black vegetable meat patties and try to sell them today to see how they perform." Xia Mingyue said with a smile.

"Absolutely no problem!"

Lu's words were very confident.

The subsequent sales of the meat patties also confirmed Lu's guess.

The black vegetable meat pie has a rich flavor, and because of the support of black vegetables, the meat filling of the meat pie appears to be more abundant, fuller, and more popular.

Most of the thirty black vegetable meat patties that I had just tried to make were sold out within half an hour.

Two scholars who were studying at the county school each bought two black vegetable meat patties and ate them while walking.

"This black vegetable meat pie is really delicious, but I don't know what this black vegetable is."

"My mother used to like to dry vegetables. I know this black vegetable is made from boiled and dried mustard leaves."

"Mustard...leaves? Aren't they for feeding chickens?"

"To be able to make the food for chickens taste so good, it can only be said that you have some skills."

"That's what you say, but since these are vegetable leaves that no one eats, they must be very cheap. Selling them at the same price as scallion meat patties, isn't that a bit too much money?"

"Then let me ask you, is this delicious meat pie worth eight cents?" "Yes."

"Will you buy it next time?"

"purchase."

"That's fine. If you like it and want to buy it, then the price is very appropriate. The secret recipe that makes the black vegetable meat pie so delicious is worth a fortune."

"That's absolutely right!"

"..."

The scholar was sensible, but some people's faces almost wrinkled into buns when they heard that the dried vegetables in the meat patties, which were so fragrant and delicious as they ate, turned out to be black vegetables.

Mustard greens are eaten by chickens, sheep and pigs, and now he is eating them too. Why does he feel so uncomfortable?

"You can't say that." Xia Mingyue smiled, "Take this fruit for example, in the wild most of them are eaten by birds. If you are more extravagant, pigs can also eat sweet potatoes and white flour, and sheep can also eat cabbage and radishes. You can't say that people can't eat these things."

"Besides, people didn't like to eat this black vegetable in the past, probably because it was cooked in a wrong way. Just like the pig offal that we don't like to eat on a normal day, some people specially find it and cook it like a treasure. Even a hero doesn't ask where it comes from, let alone when it comes to food, the most important thing is that it tastes good."

What you said... makes some sense!
This makes me feel at ease when I eat it.

Without any psychological reservations, everyone was in a good mood, and the black vegetable meat patties in their hands seemed to taste even more delicious.

Some people chose to buy another black vegetable meat pie to eat, while others, after weighing their wallets, decided to wait until tomorrow to satisfy their cravings.

Business returned to normal as before. All the black vegetable meat patties were sold out, and there were only a few scallion meat patties left. Meanwhile, the wallet went from being empty to being full.

Another fruitful day.

Xia Mingyue and Lu narrowed their eyes and smiled.

"Some people are doing business without any conscience. In order to make more money, they put black vegetables that even pigs won't eat into the food. It's obvious that they are just trying to fool people. Why do you still buy it? Are you crazy?"

The voice was shrill and mixed with sneers, and it sounded very harsh.

Xia Mingyue looked up and saw a thin middle-aged woman with high cheekbones.

It was the sturdy man who said he bought nine meat patties the day before yesterday that he was the one who sent me here.

This guy is quite free?

Xia Mingyue frowned slightly and asked in a low voice, "Does my sister-in-law know this man?"

"This woman's surname is Zhang. She lives in Dahuaishu Hutong. Her husband is also in the army. He used to be a squadron leader like Youcai. She brags outside all day about how her husband has been appreciated by the captain and will soon be promoted to a battalion leader or something like that."

Mrs. Lu said, "In the end, the captain was punished for corruption, and there was no news about her husband being promoted to the head of the brigade. Later, Youcai was promoted to the head of the brigade, and Mrs. Zhang looked at me with disdain every day. Now Qiyan is also the head of the brigade, and I guess she is jealous of my brother and sister-in-law as well."

"She was acting weird when my brother and sister-in-law and I started to set up the stall a few days ago. Today, she saw that our business was getting better and better, and she became more and more upset, so she came to pick a fight with us again."

"So that's it." Xia Mingyue suddenly realized.

Sure enough, there is no shortage of people in this world who hate others out of jealousy.

　Provisional military system (refer to Tang Dynasty): three people form a squad with a squad leader; nine people form a squad with a squad leader; fifty people form a battalion with a battalion leader

　　(End of this chapter)