Great Tang Idyll

er and followed Zhang Xiao’bao’s instruction.

 

After he finished kneading this one time, he changed the water and continued to knead.
After kneading a few times, the water stopped changing color and he stopped too.

 

Zhang Xiao’bao continued to instruct Shi’liu to pour that water into another basin and to place it somewhere where no one can touch it.
Then, they started to work with the remnants of dough that didn’t dissolve in the water.
The dough remnants were placed into a wok and steamed.  Once it was taken after steaming, Wang Juan spoke first, “This is gluten, I see.
How about the mian’pi? You washed it all away when kneading the dough.”

 

“It's all in that water, now it can be dried to make starch, which can be used to make vermicelli.
I don’t know the specific steps to that though, so let’s stick with making mian’pi.
We will talk about it tomorrow morning.”

 

One night passed, and the next morning, Shi’liu came over.
She poured out the top portion of the basin which was just water and kept the bottom layer.
Then she took out a thin iron basin with a flat bottom, and poured a thin layer of sticky substance into it.
The basin was heated in the wok for a short while and then it was briefly plunged into cold water.
A sheet of liang’pi was obtained by carefully peeling the layer off of the basin.
.

 

Shi’liu continued to work and her speed was extremely quick.
After a stack of liang’pi was made, Er’niu has already brought over the chili oil— 20 catties worth. 

 

“Er’niue, don’t leave yet, let's eat together.
You have never eaten this thing before.” Zhang Xiao’bao invited Er’niu, who wanted to leave.
Zhang Xiao’bao taught Shi’liu how to toss the liang’pi together with black vinegar, salt, garlic, chili oil and this was about it.
Actually, zhang Xiao’pi enjoyed eating the type with cold soup the most. 

 

“Add some sugar to minne, I don't like to eat too sour.
I also have some coriander, cucumber– never mind, there are none now.” Wang Juan customized the taste of her bowl.

 

In less than 15 minutes, four portions of liang’pi were ready.
Er’niu’s portion was the largest while Zhang Xiao’bao and Wang Juan had the least.
Zhang Xiao’bao also added some sesame sauce to Shi’liu’s bowl since she always liked eating it.
.

 

Four people with four different tastes.
They started to eat, and after just a few bites, Er’niu  was the first to say, “It's delicious, the things that Young Mastermakes are truly different.
It's really spicy.”

 

“Who told you to put so much chili oil, you deserve it.” Shi’liu was still fixated on how Er’niu had used so much chili oil just now.

 

“If there were cucumber shreds, and cold soup made from cooking fruit and if it was then chilled, then it won’t matter if it was very spicy.
If it was too spicy, then the soup can be drunk.
Well, the soup is spicy too, but it’s chilled so it’s hard to feel the burn.
The more spicy is it, the more you would want to eat, and the more you eat, the more it burns from spiciness.”

posted on dramantics.blogspot.com

 

Zhang Xiao’bao had a deep understanding of this.
Wang Juan was chewing half of a strand of mian’pi in her while she nodded her head in agreement.

 

“Young Master, these mian’pi doesn’t need that much chili oil.” Shi’liu helped remind him.

 

“Who said this? At night, call both Xiao’hong and Ying’tao over.
The three of will make 300 catties of mian’pi.
When you’re done, send it over to the savory crepe sellers.
One portion will be sold for three coins and the sellers can keep half a coin for themselves while the remaining money will go to us.
Also, get them to allow people to exchange white flour for mian’pi.”

 

Zhang Xiao’bao stopped eating and stuck out his tongue because he felt the burn from the spiciness.
Then he spoke to Shi’liu. 

 

On the third morning, all of the mian’pi were prepared, and Zhang Xiao’bao also cooked some cold noodle soup.
In order to improve the flavor, he poured a small bowl of rice wine into each large basin of cold noodle soup and sent it to San’shui County by carriage.

 

“What is your purpose for doing this?” Wang Juan still couldn’t figure out what Zhang Xiao’bao was planning to do.

 

“It's of course a new way of making money.
Weren’t they really capable of buying? Will they also buy all of the white flour? If they do, then I’ll make blanched seafood with rice.
Will they also buy all the rice?” Zhang Xiao’bao explained to Wang Juan.

 

He didn’t have to say more as Wang Juan understood already.
Those people dared to buy all the soybeans at a time like this, but they wouldn’t dare to buy out all of the white flour and rice.
People don’t have to eat soybeans, but rice and white flour and also millet and sorghum are all staple foods.
If those people bought all of those during the time of a drought, then the consequences….

 

“Let’s do it like this first.
If they don’t buy it out, then I have another plan to reduce the price of all the soybeans in their hands.
Unless they’re willing to hold onto the money and try to endure through it, the money they hold onto won’t be the same as the currency in circulation.
We will watch the results.”

 

Zhang Xiao’bao touched his face with his finger again.

 

posted on dramantics.blogspot.com

 

In the afternoon in Sanshui County, a new kind of food appeared on the stalls that once sold savory crepes— liangpi.
It could be bought with money or can be exchanged for charcoal or white flour.

 

This time there were still people willing to try it.
For three coins, they received a serving of liang’pi.
At the first bite, the feeling of it was cool and refreshing, next it was hot and spicy.
While they blew out air from their mouths, they ate voraciously.
Liang’pi has set off a new buying frenzy.

 

Translator's Notes

1.
China's Leader of Flowers 中国霸王花

 

This is a reference to the Chinese movie called “Chinese Armed Policewomen” or “Zhong Guo Ba Wang Hua” and was released in 1990.
The movie follows a young female that underwent strict training to join the armed police force and later, she went on to solve a major robbery crime.

This was rather hard to translate and I decided to go with the literal translation of the phrase instead of going for the movie name since it made more sense given the context.
“Flower” is a common metaphor for woman.
Basically, Zhang Xiao'bao is complimenting Wang Juan for being a good role model policewoman.

 

2.
Bullied us already 欺负到我们头上了

The literal translation of what Wang Juan said was “they have bullied to the top of our heads”.
Although the imagery of the original phrase is a bit more imaginative and funny, it doesn't make much sense in English.

 

3.
“Shoot two condors with one arrow” 一箭双雕

This idiom is equivalent to “hit two birds with one stone”.

 

4.
mian' pi, liang pi 面皮，凉皮

As mentioned by Zhang Xiao'bao, these two names refer to the same type of noodles.
The literal translation of mian'pi is “flour/dough skin”, hence, Zhang Xiao'bao's comment on saying that calling it mian'pi will be easy for people to guess that it's made from flour.
The literal translation of liang'pi is “cool skin”, probably because this noodle dish is eaten cold and usually enjoyed on hot summer days.

 

(For those that are curious, Zhang Xiao'bao's instructions on making the dish is rather accurate, and it's one of my favorite dish to make and eat! It's really delicious, so for those who haven't tried it before, please do~)