novelA Feast of Durian
| ← Ch.796 | Ch.798 → |
Her guess was right. Baili Yu was capable enough. After mentioning to him yesterday that she wanted durian, she woke up to the strong smell that people loved and hated.
She opened her eyes and looked over. Several wicker baskets were in the corner of the room, filled with enormous durians. The smell emitted by the durians were seriously too enticing!
She inhaled the intense to the point of suffocating smell again, then subconsciously glanced to the side. As she had expected, a certain person hadn't been able to take this smell and had already disappeared.
This room was going to be uninhabitable for a while.
Tang Doudou quickly got up, got changed, and after tidying up a little, pinched her nose as she picked out the largest durian in the baskets. Then she left the room with it.
The fresh morning air instantly got rid of that earlier suffocating sensation. Tang Doudou took a deep breath, then sniffed the surface of the durian. A single durian gave off an intense fragrance. This was a smell she loved.
"Phew! It's precisely this smell! So refreshing!" Tang Doudou smacked her lips, then swallowed back her saliva. She couldn't wait anymore, she had to eat one now!
She looked at the durian again, but the split was too small. She had to find a knife.
When Tang Doudou's thoughts reached this point, she headed to the kitchen with the durian. She encountered a lot of people on the way there. She wanted to ask them where Baili Yu was right now, but they ran off before she could get close since the durian stank too much. Tang Doudou was helpless. It seemed she had to peel the durian first, then look for him.
However, he probably hasn't eaten yet, right?
Right. Since there were so many durians, she should just make a big durian feast for him to thank him. So it was decided!
Tang Doudou reached the kitchen while humming a happy little tune. When she saw that Meng Yu wasn't here, she cut the durian herself and happily enjoyed it. Then she looked for some servants to help her carry the durians over to the kitchen.
The servants she called on were crying by the time they got back and refused to help her peel the durians.
Was it that bad?
Tang Doudou glanced with disdain at the servants that looked like they were fleeing, then turn to the durians on the ground. It seemed that she had no choice but to do it herself.
"Durian pastries, durian thousand layer cake, durian mochi cake... And a durian stewed chicken and that should be about enough!" As Tang Doudou peeled the durians, she tried to calculate how many durians it would take to make all of that without wasting anything. To a chowhound chef, wasting any ingredients was disgraceful!
Tang Doudou was working in the kitchen by herself without any helpers and her body was much heavier, so the feast that originally would've been completed in one hour took her over two hours.
She lifted the lid of the pot and had a taste of the stew. It seemed about right, so she extinguished the fire, then headed over to the wok to fry some light tasting vegetable dishes. Durians were delicious, but people who haven't had them before would find the taste too strong. A few small side dishes would help balance it out perfectly.
After she finished, she called for maids to carry the food over.
However, those maids insisted that they would rather die than come in. They had crying expressions on their faces as they beseeched, "Madame, please just let us off! We can go through mountains of blades and seas of flames, but this, this..."
"The smell is just a little intense. It's not that bad, right?"
The maid's lips pressed together."Madame..."
"Alright, then just wait outside. I'll carry it over, then you guys can take it from there. Will that work?" If they kept delaying things, it'd affect the taste of the food. Since she didn't want to trouble these pitiful maids, she decided to turn around and carry the dishes to the door so that the maids could carry it to where Baili Yu was.
When she had started cooking, she had sent someone to notify Baili Yu, so there wasn't any need to worry about whether he was busy.
There was no way they could finish this much food between the two of them, so she also invited Dao Xun and Baili Yiling.
Baili Yiling had been curious about Tang Doudou's culinary skill for a long time, but she was too scared to go after what happened yesterday. When she heard the servant say that Dao Xun had also been invited, her eyes narrowed with an idea and she went to find him.
Originally Dao Xun hadn't wanted to go, but he wasn't able to hold up to Baili Yiling's persuasion and ended up going with her to the dining room.
The three of them waited there for an entire hour before Tang Doudou's carefully prepared durian feast arrived.
The dishes were arranged in a refined manner and a pleasant aroma filled the air. Even Dao Xun's eyes lit up even though he wasn't very passionate about food. He asked Baili Yu, "Did that girl really make all of this?"
When Baili Yu saw that Dao Xun was interested in the food Tang Doudou made even though Dao Xun had never had much interest in food, he felt proud. However, he didn't show it and just replied calmly, "Doudou likes to cook and has some skill with culinary techniques. These are all common household dishes. They're not worth mentioning..."
When Tang Doudou, who had just arrived with the maids, heard this, she almost tripped. Then she puffed up her cheeks angrily. What did he mean by them being household dishes and not worth mentioning?
Setting aside how hard it was to get these durians for now, she dared to claim that there was no one else in this ancient era that knew how to cook these durians!
People in the ancient era never had the habit of eating fruits in the first place, so it wouldn't occur to them to cook fruit either.
These dishes had probably appeared for the first time in this world, but Baili Yu was calling them household dishes? This was intolerable! Humph, she'll let him be smug for a little while. Later she'll tell him how these were made and see if he could still laugh then!
After calming herself down, she waited by the side of the door until the maids carried all the dishes over before walking in.
Dao Xun was currently talking about something with Baili Yu and hadn't noticed her come in. Baili Yiling's eyeballs were practically about to fall out from how she was ogling those beautiful dishes, so there was no way she'd notice Tang Doudou.
"Oh? They're only household dishes? Then how come I can't figure out how they were made?" asked Dao Xun as he stroked his beard.
Baili Yu glanced at the dishes, then a trace of confusion flashed through his eyes. How had these dishes been made?
It was normal for Master to not know what these dishes were made from, but why was he also unable to figure them out?
He looked over them several times, but wasn't able to identify the ingredients. Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tang Doudou. He looked up and saw that her expression was a little strange.
"Doudou, hurry and come here. Explain to Master what you used to make these dishes?" However, he couldn't be bothered to worry about Tang Doudou's strange expression right now because he really wanted to show off to Dao Xun, so he hastily beckoned Tang Doudou over.
Tang Doudou inwardly curled her lips in disdain, but she obediently went over. However, she didn't answer this question and just told them to sit down first."Let's eat first! These dishes aren't tasty once they get cold!"
Baili Yiling had been waiting for this! When she heard this, she quickly picked up the chopsticks and looked around the table. She didn't know where to start, so she finally went with the durian pastries that were closest to her. She picked a pastry up and looked at it. The surface was baked crispy golden and emitted an enticing fragrance.
Baili Yiling inhaled deeply, then slowly placed the pastry into her mouth. The intense fragrance of the durian accompanied by the crispy sensation of the pastry skin and the smooth stuffing exploded in her mouth. Fireworks seemed to go off in her eyes. Before she even made any remarks, her expression already showed what she was thinking. It was seriously too delicious!
"It's amazing! It's too delicious!" Baili Yiling was so moved that tears were streaming down her cheeks. She had always loved good food, but in a crappy place like Cerulean Mountain, the best tasting food there was were the seafood. However, there were only so many ways to cook them. After she came to Huai City, Long Feng took her out to eat at a couple good places. At that time, she had found them pretty good, but with this in comparison, what she ate in the past was practically grass!
When Tang Doudou saw how stirred up Baili Yiling was, her hurt soul finally felt a little bit comforted."Isn't it good? Then try this one!"
As she spoke, she got a durian mochi for Baili Yiling.
"Thank you, Sister-in-Law!" Baili Yiling barely got out her thanks before she stuffed the mochi into her mouth. Actually, she had wanted to try this earlier but it was a bit far away, which was why she settled for the pastries that were closer.
The durian mochi was Tang Doudou's best dish so there was no way Baili Yiling would be disappointed.
After Baili Yiling ate the mochi, her expression was like she had never known the world. Her hand was trembling even as she grasped the chopsticks."Sister-in-Law, how exactly did you make this? It's serious too too too tasty! Can you teach me?"
"Sure, as long as you're willing to learn!" Tang Doudou had confirmed things now. Baili Yiling was pretty much like Jun Xin, a legit chowhound. Yup, it would really be a shame if those two didn't get together.
As for what Baili Yiling said about learning to cook, Tang Doudou was sure that if she went to the kitchen right now, that desire would instantly be extinguished.
Baili Yiling's expression made Dao Xun and Baili Yu really curious, but they didn't want to reach over like Baili Yiling so they had the servants get the dishes for them.
Their expressions weren't as exaggerated as Baili Yiling's when they started eating, but from how they were rushing the maids to get food for them, it was clear that they were quite satisfied with the feast Tang Doudou had prepared. Dao Xun in particular hadn't expected Tang Doudou's culinary skills to be this good. His impression of Tang Doudou had already changed once due to her knowledge of Daoism, but now she had given him another surprise. It seemed that he really hadn't gifted the jade water orchid hairpin to the wrong person.
Ah Yu truly had fortune to have such a talented wife.
From interacting with them these past few days, Dao Xun could tell that Baili Yu was even more relaxed in front of Tang Doudou than he was in front of him. Baili Yu would smile from the heart in front of her without any guardedness.
Since childhood, this boy had to carry too many burdens. Now that the Heavens have given him a Tang Doudou, it was truly like a compensation. Furthermore, the two now had a child.
When Dao Xun recalled the fact that Tang Doudou was pregnant, he suddenly put down his chopsticks to stroke his beard.
Everyone was currently eating happily, but the most respected person at this banquet had suddenly set down his chopsticks. Although the rest of them still wanted to eat more, they also set down their chopsticks to look towards Dao Xun in confusion.
Could it be that he had eaten a bad durian?
This was Tang Doudou's first thought when she saw the serious expression on Dao Xun's face. It was easy for this situation to occur when cooking with fruit. Although she had carefully selected everything while cooking, there had been a lot of durian so it wouldn't be strange if a bit of bad fruit ended up being overlooked. However, she had checked over them before she started cooking and they were all very fresh. Even if the fruit had gone a little bad, with her culinary skills, it shouldn't affect the taste.
Since it wasn't a problem with the taste, then why did Dao Xun suddenly put down his chopsticks?
Suddenly, another possibility occurred to Tang Doudou. Could it be...
| ← Ch. 796 | Ch. 798 → |