Chapter 74: State Banquet (2)

At eight o’clock in the evening, the banquet living room of the palace was finally full of people. The visitors of the Federation walked into the banquet living room with His Majesty at the moment. 

After both parties were seated, they began to perform rituals and music in accordance with the rules, and then served meals one after another, but the visitors of the Federation directly waved their hands and refused.

“Your Majesty, we don’t need so many gifts. I’m sure it’s the same for you. I think it’s more realistic to serve it quickly. My Great Federation has long admired the Chinese dishes of the Empire, but I don’t know if Your Majesty has invited Mr. Ye, who has been famous for a long time (for this banquet).”

The speaker was the next heir of the Federation, a sturdy man with high eyebrows and deep eyes and blond hair. This visit to the Empire was actually his proposal. 

It is said that His Majesty of the Federation was not in good health. The next person to take the top position was this person. In order to add to his political achievements, he proposed this visit.

Brown who finished speaking did not notice the diplomat who was sitting next to him and accompanying him to visit, suddenly changed his demeanor and abruptly turned to stare at His Imperial Majesty who was seated at the top of the table with tremendous anticipation.

His Majesty, who was seated at the top of the table, looked at Brown with a look of expectation. Observing the “heir” and the diplomat who was sitting next to him in charge of the previous negotiations, he suddenly understood why the Federation sent someone to visit amicably after the friction with the Empire.

This Brown is obviously a not very smart man; he was probably sent here to die. As for the identity of the heir, it seems that it is also a cover, but I don’t know what else the Federation has done in private.

Your Majesty smiled good-naturedly and said, “Well, Your Excellency Chais is truly unpretentious.” After calling the palace valet, who was standing aside to say a few words, he said, “Then please wait a moment for Your Excellency Chais. I will order someone to pass the dishes.”

At the same time as His Majesty’s voice fell, someone also came up to take down the various musical instruments and players in the hall. While the officers and  nobles who were sitting next to him looked at Brown in disdain as though he were brainless.

The viewers in the live broadcast room were discussing this while being rendered speechless by the apparent mockery in Chais’ eyes.

    [What kind of heir is this? Isn’t he a bit too arrogant? Even if the Empire agreed to invite Ye Jin to make the dinner party, he just didn’t follow the process at all. He didn’t respect the etiquette and culture of the empire at all. It is too unflattering.】

   [That’s right, I feel like he doesn’t respect us at all. Those musicians have already been on stage. Shouldn’t he have said this a long time ago? Even if the visitor is a guest, isn’t there a saying that you can’t do whatever you want? He’s really rude, but thankfully our majesty has a good temper.】

    [If the heir to the Federation is this one, it is estimated that the reign of the Federation is over. At first glance, this one is all talk, no action. Unless you want the diplomatic relations between the two countries to end, he ought to pay attention to his words. *Impatient face* What do you think?】

   [Stop talking, stop talking! I don’t want to look at him at all. The face of the person sitting next to him has changed, and I don’t know what the Federation thinks about sending such a person.】

    [I don’t want to see him +1, I want to see Xiao Jin in the kitchen, I don’t know how busy he is now, after all, he has advanced the dining process.】

The official live broadcast room of the Empire was covered by many barrage screens. In addition to the speeches of the netizens of the Empire, even the netizens of the Federation were watching and felt ashamed to see the actions of their heir.

Even though Netizens said they wanted to see the kitchen, they didn’t respond to the request and instead continued showing the scene in the banquet hall. 

After a brief pause, a line of courtesans in tuxedos entered the banquet hall, one after the other, holding trays. The trays are all covered with opaque covers so that people can’t see what dishes are inside.

On the kitchen side, Ye Jin was preparing the dishes for the banquet in an orderly manner. According to the order that Ye Jin learned from a master chef in the twenty-first century, he prepared the more difficult and time-consuming dishes in the morning, just in time for them to be used in the evening.

However, because the banquet occurred unexpectedly and there was no time to prepare, Ye Jin was forced to remove the time-consuming cold dishes and meat and consult with old man Ye about what they should replace the new dishes with. 

He was busy until 6 o’clock in the afternoon. Ye Jin and the others had time to get some food to cushion their stomachs, but old man Ye, who was relatively old, couldn’t stand the intensity of making this dish. In the end, he only pointed out the mistakes and instructed the apprentices. He could only take a sigh of relief after summoning the Ye family’s juniors for assistance.

It’s just that the moment Ye Jin was able to relax for a short period, word came from the banquet hall that the serving time was ahead of schedule—a full hour in advance—which caused Ye Jin, who had just taken a breather, to become immediately busy.

Ye Jin quickly divided the cold dishes on the plate into sixteen small portions and put them on the tray to cover them, and then said to Yu Nian and Yan Li, who had been watching the fire and cutting the vegetables, “You don’t need to watch the fire of the Buddha jumping over the wall right now.”

“The time to serve is ahead of schedule. You first go and set up all the cold dishes you want to use. According to the arrangement I taught you before, there are a total of eight cold dishes, divided into sixteen small portions. Remember that.”

After speaking, he didn’t bother to give careful instructions and turned around to prepare several main dishes. There will be no ugly or competing dishes in order to save face for the state banquet.

There should not be too many in China in the 21st century. Although it is impossible to serve all 108 dishes, half of them can still be done. Of course, as there are many dishes that have not been found for the time being, Ye Jin can only avoid or change the ingredients on his own.

Ye Jin began to prepare the first appetizing soup after finishing all the cold dishes, but due to a lack of ingredients, he could only think of a way on his own. Originally, it was a soup made with fragrant snails, but Ye Jin could only make a seafood soup with shrimp.

The people in the banquet hall who were waiting for the dishes to be served showed a look of expectation when they saw the trays held by the courtesans. Even the audience in the live broadcast room, who were looking forward to and excitedly waiting for the dishes to be served, had the same expression.

The federal people, who were full of expectations, opened their eyes wide and admired the dishes after the palace staff opened up the exquisite and gorgeous cold dishes. For a moment, they didn’t know how to start.

On the small porcelain plate before them, there was a fiery red flower in full bloom, with a green leaf as a support next to it. The whole flower looked lifelike, as if it were real.

Even His Majesty the Emperor, who was sitting at the top of the table, looked at the exquisite and gorgeous dishes on the plate in front of him and didn’t know where to start.

Only after the palace staff standing aside whispered to him to eat something, did he pick up the tableware on the side and start eating.

The moment they saw the dishes open, the audience in the live broadcast room put shocked exclamation marks on the barrage one after another. Until the camera swept to His Majesty the Emperor beginning to eat, then someone sent a barrage.

    [I can’t believe that this is really a dish instead of a flower. This is too realistic. It looks no different from a real flower!】

    [If I hadn’t seen Your Majesty start eating, I wouldn’t have believed this was a dish at all. People who hadn’t seen it were still staring at the dishes on the plate.】

    [Oh, oh, I really want to taste the taste of this dish too! I don’t know what it tastes like, it should be delicious if it looks so good.】

While the audience in the live broadcast room was lamenting the beauty of the dishes, everyone in the hall, including His Majesty, who had already started to eat, was amazed by the taste of the dishes. If it weren’t for the sake of maintaining their demeanor, the bigshots here couldn’t wait to pick up the plates and put them in their mouths.

On the other hand, Federal Envoy Brown, who sat in the lower right corner, was unconcerned about his appearance. He ate all the petals and green leaves on the plate and even picked up the plate and delivered it to his mouth. He did what most people wanted to but couldn’t do. 

After putting it down, the plate was wiped clean—not even vegetable leaves were left. The diplomat who was sitting with him twitched his mouth. Even the emperor, who just thought Chais was not very smart, couldn’t help but smile when he looked at his actions. On the contrary, he believed that this attitude of doing whatever he thought was quite straightforward.

Even the audience in the live broadcast room laughed out loud when they saw Chais’ actions, but after laughing, they wanted to taste the delicious dishes even more.

When Chais put down the plate, he looked at the table where no new dishes had been served, and then at the other people’s plates that had only moved half of the petals. He asked anxiously: “Your Majesty, why haven’t the remaining dishes come up yet? This speed is too slow. Please hurry and send someone to urge.”

His Majesty looked at Chais, who had become a little anxious, then glanced at his own plate with some amusement. He then asked someone to urge the kitchen, because he was also curious about what the next dish would be like. 

The first dish was so delicious that he was now curious about the kind of delicacy the next dish would be.

The seafood soup was placed in a small soup cup on the tray, which was quickly brought out one by one by the palace staff, who urged the dishes. After that, Ye Jin made a lobster dish alongside shrimp. In order to make it easy for everyone to eat, Ye Jin also separated the shrimp meat from the shrimp shell and then asked the apprentices to start setting the dish on a huge plate.

Ye Jin was busy cooking here, but someone kept urging him from time to time in the banquet hall, which made him a little upset. 

When he finally started to serve the big dishes, Ye Jin first served boiled cabbage. He used chicken, duck, and ribs to scald the cabbage heart and remove it. He then used chicken puree and pork puree to cook the stock to taste, and finally poured the soup into the dish. After the cabbage is boiled, the boiled cabbage is like a lotus flower.

Ye Jin handed the squirrel fish dish to Yu Nian to cook. He had learned this dish a long time ago, and now he can make it very skilfully, and the taste is nearly comparable to what Ye Jin made.

After Ye Jin’s boiled cabbage was made, Old Man Ye, who had been standing aside to guide Yu Nian and the others, showed a look of amazement and ecstasy on his face after seeing the boiled cabbage.

“Xiao Jin’er, you really made this dish! I wasn’t expecting it. Unexpectedly, the successful boiled cabbage really seemed to have been boiled with boiling water. I can’t tell at all that the stock and meat were used. Xiao Jin’er, can you teach Grandpa this dish? If I can learn it, this old man will die without regrets!” As he said, he laughed loudly with ruddy cheeks, as if there were a big happy event.

The other people who were busy preparing dishes, especially the members of the Ye family, heard the movement and looked at Ye Jin one after another, their eyes full of excitement. If it weren’t for the busy work where their hands couldn’t rest, they would have surrounded Ye Jin. 

Ye Jin looked at Old Man Ye, who was smiling happily and full of energy, and nodded with a smile: “No problem, Grandpa, I will teach you when the banquet is over. This is actually a bit cumbersome. It’s not very difficult for kitchen veterans. The difficulty lies in the ingredients and operation. Wait for me to go back and write a recipe for you to study.”

After listening to it, Old Man Ye happily said three good things, and other people who had been paying attention to this side also asked one after another, wanting to follow suit. 

After Ye Jin agreed, everyone continued to work with joy and vigor, even the feeling of backache all day today seemed to be gone, as if there were no more back pain. Everyone in the kitchen was in high spirits, even at the end of the workday.

Meanwhile, in the banquet hall, everyone fell silent after seeing the small portion of boiled cabbage on the table. Even the audience in the live broadcast room looked at the bowl silently as if the boiling water had just washed the cabbage into shape.

The author has something to say:

The story is almost over, we are near the end of the main story.

Flo's notes:

In case you forgot about how boiled cabbage looked: Youtube if you wanna watch how it's made.