Mantra

Chapter 42
Cantonese cuisine originated in Guangdong, started in the Ming Dynasty, prospered in the Qing Dynasty and flourished in the Republic of China. It is famous for its exquisite and diverse materials and complicated workmanship. It is known as the "delicacy of food" among Chinese cuisines.

Moreover, it is the most influential group of Chinese cuisines overseas. How big is it?It is said that in most overseas countries, as long as Chinese food Guanzi is mentioned, it almost refers to Cantonese cuisine.As a result, foreigners only have "Cantonese" but not "Chinese".

Therefore, for hundreds of years, Cantonese cuisine has dominated Lingnan with its own advantages and characteristics, and has taken root overseas and risen rapidly.It has become the latest to rise among the four classical cuisines in China, but the fastest-growing cuisine, none of them!

Because Wuling is the iconic mountains and rivers in Guangdong, Cantonese chefs with background inheritance will take the pride of Lingnan people, "taking the mountain as a temple", and claiming to burn incense in "Wuling Temple"!
But in China, especially in the north, the situation of Wuling Temple is not so good.

Domestically speaking, Cantonese cuisine rises a little later because of its strong regionalism, which limits its expansion, and its sphere of influence is basically controlled in the Guangdong, Guangxi and Taiwan regions south of Wuling.Except for restaurants in major cities across the country that specialize in Cantonese cuisine, few of them can penetrate the homes of ordinary people like Sichuan and Shandong cuisines.

But what I never expected was that in this seemingly casual and ordinary "high-speed service station restaurant", I could actually meet the "abbot" of Wuling Temple.

This trip to Lunan was really a series of adventures.

Because of this, when I heard this white-headed old man ask me, "Is it an eagle or a tiger, why are you strolling?" I was a little stage frightened and didn't answer for a while.

After all, this is the first time I have encountered such a scene of a dozen cooks confronting me.

Also because of my "stage fright", the white-bearded old man and I stared at each other for a long time without speaking.

The old man didn't understand what I meant, so after looking at me for a while, he asked the middle-aged boss next to him bitterly, "Wangcai! Didn't you say that this person is from Wuzang Temple and can speak Huogong language?" ? Why doesn't he speak?"

I go!So this middle-aged boss is called Wangcai?Why did the parents give someone a dog name?Not your own? !
Hearing this, Hongye and I couldn't hold back, and burst out laughing.It made the middle-aged boss very uncomfortable.

Hongye was even more interesting. She actually waved her hands to the old man and Wangcai and said, "I'm sorry! There are too many divergent thoughts! You continue..."

With this short episode, I suddenly relieved from the atmosphere of stage fright just now.

What's more, this old man just opened a black shop and slaughtered customers, so there's nothing to be afraid of.

So, I adjusted my mentality and responded to the old man with a smile: "Old abbot! We are not eagles or tigers, we are just passers-by, wandering south."

What I said made the white-haired old man smile comfortably.

The so-called eagle refers to the patrol police passing by, and the so-called tiger refers to the local quarantine officer.I answered him that we were sparrows, and told him that we were not a threat, just ordinary people.

But even if he is an ordinary person, he can't sell us food from a black shop, can he? More than 500 fried noodles, I feel itchy when I think about it.

The old man saw that we were not police officers, so he immediately said to me, "Little brother doesn't know the plate, why bother scaring the hozen!"

When I heard his words, my face fell down, and the excitement of meeting my colleagues before disappeared.

This old thing is really not a good person!
The so-called unknown plate means that we don’t have eyesight and don’t read the price clearly, because in the past, the menu prices were all placed on the food plate and given to diners.

Therefore, in Huogong language, the meaning of unknown plate means that the price was given but the plate was not read, and the customer blamed the customer for checking.

And the sentence "Why scare the hozen" is a threat that the old man has nothing to fear.

The reason why they compare themselves with the hozen is not because of modesty, but because they say that they have the same temperament as the hozen and are not easy to mess with.

What is the nature of the hozen?It’s actually quite scary to say it. In the wild, if people dare to scare monkeys, they may drive the monkeys up a tree for the first time, but they must never scare the monkeys for the second time.

Because monkeys are smart, if you dare to scare him a second time, monkeys will see through the nature of people not climbing trees. To fight back, that is a full-fledged hooligan character!

In this way, one sentence is not difficult to understand. The hozen refers to themselves. "Scaring the hozen" means that I am bluffing at them.

I connected all the words, and naturally knew that this bastard old man was tactfully threatening me.

Most importantly, he is a bit too thick-skinned, right?It's fine to open a black shop without hanging lanterns, but we still beat them up, saying that we don't understand the rules, don't read the signs, and dare to scare them, these "hozens".

It's too arrogant, whether it is tolerable or unbearable!

Seeing the virtue of the old guy, I don't care about the age, men, women, young or old, at least the decline in the "Huogong language" will be recovered by me!

So, I held back my anger, and smiled slightly: "Aren't those who recite scriptures in my Confucius Temple afraid that there will be no lights hanging at the door? Be careful not to leave the water, the house will not be able to hold the fire!"

What I said was to threaten him clearly, he opened a black shop without hanging lanterns, be careful, I burned him with anger in my heart!
The old man smiled faintly, shook his head slightly and said, "The tree is big and its roots are deep, and the soil is moist!"

"Hey?!" I was stunned when I heard this.

The meaning couldn't be more obvious, that is to say, "there are people above", and they made it clear that they are not afraid of us.

When things got to this point, it was no different from meeting an enemy!

Now I completely understand that the nonsense of "friendship in the same temple, and the four temples are connected with each other" is a fucking lie in the face of interests and face!

Since he is not afraid, then I am even less afraid, come on!

While we were talking, he and I completely tore our faces apart. While the two sides were looking at each other, we started a "battle of lips, guns and tongues" between you and me, swords and swords!
The old man said: "I'll share the mutton with your soup. Take it when you see it."

I immediately replied: "There is no sheep in the fish, be careful!"

"Kids don't sell face?"

"Give me your liking!"

"Is it a thin quilt?"

"It's all from the temple, don't pull out the incense head."

"...has a system"

"You treat me like a two-legged sheep!"

"Small glutinous rice balls with thin skin, not too sweet."

"Don't you girls go out?"

The old man chuckled, "I'm in a wheelchair... it's thin-skinned dumplings."

When he said this, I was completely angry!

I slapped the table hard.

After the bang, I got up angrily.

Seeing the posture, Wang Hou immediately took a step forward and stood behind me to support me.

The apprentices and grandchildren behind the old thing also took out the machetes hidden in their cuffs in unison.

The old man is calm in dealing with things, and I am not afraid of danger.

There was a stalemate between the two sides!
Finally, I pointed to the bottom of my feet and said to the old man, "Don't forget! This is... the source of food!"

My last sentence finally hit the white-haired old man's sore spot!

The old man was leaning on the wheelchair, his white beard moved slightly, and he waved to the apprentice behind him and said: "Wangcai, these are our new friends, add two more dishes, open a bottle of wine... I treat you .”

When I heard him change the subject, I immediately burst into joy.

This old guy really gave up.

Afterwards, Wang Hou asked me why this old guy was so fluent in his answers the whole time, and his aura was like a rainbow, but when I said the last sentence, he immediately froze?He also added two dishes to us, which means reconciliation.What does the last sentence of Huogong mean?
I told him that my last sentence was not a Huogong language, but a "reminder". I was reminding him not to forget the home and away games. It would not be of any benefit to him to piss me off in Shandong.

The so-called "source of food" that the bad old man and I talked about refers to Shandong Ludi in the cooking business.

Because Shandong cuisine is the earliest "system" among the four major cuisines in China, and it is closely related to "Zhou Li" and "Doctrine of the Mean", it is easy to call it "the gift of food" and it is also known as the "origin cuisine" of China.

Because of this, cooks respectfully call Shandong cuisine "the origin of food" and Shandong, Shandong Province, "the origin of food".

Knowing these premises, it is not difficult to understand my "reminder".

I'm telling the old man, I'm a Lu cuisine cook, and you're running a restaurant in Ludi, this is my home game, offending me won't do any good.For the rest, he can figure it out by himself.

Actually, what background do I have?I say this purely to scare people with the help of Lu Di's "earth energy".

But I feel that this old and cunning guy should be fooled.Because this kind of old slicker is always very thoughtful about things, he is a typical face of "Ling Xia Ai Shang", he can threaten a cook in the same temple recklessly, but he must not take the risk of offending the entire Confucius Temple, even if it is such a risk , is only hypothetical.

The behavior of the old slicker next was exactly as I had imagined.

After the old cunning disciples and grandchildren left completely, the old thing stayed alone.

He suddenly changed his face, smiled and said politely to me, "Little brother! I don't know each other, just now my apprentice was present, so I couldn't help taking care of some face-saving issues... What an offense!~"

Although the old man is not right-minded, he is in good spirits and speaks very mellowly. I see that people are getting down the steps, so I am not tense.

Of course, I was bluffing him.

So, I also returned the courtesy and said: "What's the matter! You are a stranger when you go out, and I expect you to follow suit, old man!"

The old man's face turned black quickly, and quickly turned pale, and he nodded at me to express his understanding.

Afterwards, the middle-aged boss named Wangcai took a bottle of Erguotou first, respectfully gave each of us a small drink, and watched with resentment.

That way, it really looks like a "shiba dog skewer"!

After we were all drunk, the old man picked up the wine glass, pointed at Wangcai beside him, and said with a chuckle: "My surname is Lei and the name is Ren. Ren is benevolence and righteousness. This is my nephew Lei Wangcai. Everyone misunderstood Once, after drinking this glass of wine, we will be brothers from now on, and the fellow disciples in the Wu Zang Temple still have to help each other!"

When I heard the names of these uncles and nephews, I was dumbfounded.

One is called Leiren, the other is called Wangcai, the names given by my parents are really good.Regardless of whether others feel thunder or not, I feel quite thunder anyway.

But even though I thought so in my heart, I couldn't say anything in person, so I suppressed a smile, clinked glasses with Lei Ren and Wangcai, and introduced Wang Hou Hongye and the others.Even if the two parties know each other.

After we drank it down, Lei Ren put down the wine glass in his hand, and with a white beard, he pretended to be very natural and asked me: "I don't know where my little brother is from? What is the purpose of going out this time?"

Lei Ren's words were obviously trying to sound out my tone, but I have nothing to be afraid of.

After all, I am an authentic student of the Confucius Temple. Although I have not performed the master-apprentice ceremony with the old squad leader, it is still a professional class.

If you have the confidence, are you afraid that he, the Wuling Temple, will fail in the interrogation?

At that time, I smiled and replied to him: "It's easy to say, my master is also the 'abbot' of Lunan, it's a coincidence, we came out this time, and we are going to visit my old man in 'Shirengu' of Lunan... Where is Master?"

"What?" Lei Ren's expression changed suddenly when he heard the words Shi Rengu.

After listening to my words, Lei Ren, an old man, suddenly had two golden lights in his eyes!

"Lu Nan! Shiren Gu..." Lei Ren opened his eyes wide as he spoke, and suddenly grabbed my arm.

He asked me urgently again: "Is your master... surnamed Zhao?"

Lei Ren's words put me in the dark at the time, but my old squad leader is indeed Zhao!Although I didn't understand, I still nodded and said: "My master...surnamed Zhao! Surnamed Zhao!"

"Oh! It turns out to be the descendant of the aristocratic family!"

Lei Ren suddenly became very excited, and his attitude towards me even made a 180-degree turn.Looking straight at me, I feel unnatural.

At that time, I even felt... It couldn't be that my old squad leader had something to do with this old thing, right? !
Otherwise... what does he mean by holding on to my hand?Are you afraid that I will run away?

But when I was thinking wildly, this old Lei Renlei did something that made us even more horrified!

He actually made a "teng" sound!Stand up from the wheelchair.

At that time, my calves were so weak.

How much quarrel did my old squad leader have with him to make a man with a disabled leg so angry again?
But when I was thinking wildly, the old man Lei explained the truth to me "unyieldingly".

He told me: "Shirengu Zhaojialou! I know it too well! It was a must in the South of Shandong during the Republic of China! I think that Mr. Zhao Qingshan won glory for the country and fought with Japanese devils in Wuweiju, Jinan Prefecture. The story of "Niu Tou Summons the Soul" is a legend that everyone in the Temple of the Five Viscera knows, everyone knows!"

What Lei Ren said completely stunned me at the time.

The key question is...how come I have never heard of the old squad leader telling me about "Pi Ling Dou Cai" and "Niu Tou Calls the Soul"? He won't be mistaken, right?
Moreover, how did Lei Ren of Wuling Temple know the old stories and inheritances in these Confucius Temples?

(End of this chapter)