Chapter 31: Roujiamo!

In the afternoon, aside from the cicadas tirelessly wailing away, a new sound stirred in the backyard of the Imperial Kitchen.

Thud, thud, thud!

It was not loud, but it had a steady rhythm, like someone beating a thick rawhide drum with a wooden mallet, dull yet resilient.

Su Mu stood before the cutting board, the thick-backed cleaver in his hand rising and falling.

On the board lay a slab of pork belly fresh from the pot.

This was not the usual neatly cubed braised pork, but a large, trembling slab of whole pork, skin and meat intact.

The meat was a lustrous red, showing an amber, semi-translucent quality. When Su Mu fished it out of the bubbling deep earthenware jar with an iron hook, thick crimson broth was still dripping from it.

This jar of aged master stock had simmered for three days and three nights.

Inside were not only dozens of herbs and spices, but more importantly, a thick seal of rendered fat.

Lifting the lid released no overpowering aroma; every bit of flavor had been locked into the broth and stewed deep into the meat.

“The heat and timing are spot on.”

Su Mu muttered to himself, his chopping never pausing.

The slab of pork belly, weighing a full two Jin, quickly broke apart under his knife.

But there was an art to the way he chopped it.

It could not be minced into a paste, which was meant for dumpling filling, nor could it be cut into chunks, which would not absorb flavor well.

It had to be chopped into shreds where the skin clung to the tendon, the tendon clung to the meat, fat and lean mingled together, finely chopped yet not pureed to mush.

Thud, thud, thud!

Every few chops, Su Mu would scoop a ladle of scalding braising broth from the nearby pot and drizzle it over the meat.

As the braising broth seeped into the chopped pork, the already tender meat fibers instantly soaked up the juices, glistening with a rich sheen.

“Sounds so nice…”

A little head poked through the crack in the door.

Today, Xiao Sizi had changed into a clean, goose-yellow ruqun. Her hair was neatly combed, and her two little buns were tied with red ribbons.

Perhaps having learned her lesson from playing in the mud yesterday, she stepped inside with utmost care this time, tiptoeing as if afraid of stepping into a pit.

Li Lizhi followed behind her, still carrying that large food box in her hand.

“What sounds nice?” Su Mu asked without pausing his rhythmic chopping.

“This sound.”

Xiao Sizi ran over to the stove, not minding the heat at all. She rested her chin on the wooden block beside Su Mu’s leg, her big eyes following the cleaver’s rise and fall. “Thud, thud, thud… It sounds just like when my tummy is hungry.”

Su Mu chuckled.

Her imagination was truly something else.

“It’s good that you’re hungry.”

Su Mu swept the chopped meat aside and reached for the item covered with a white cloth in the nearby bamboo basket.

Lifting the white cloth revealed a stack of freshly griddled flatbreads.

The flatbreads looked rather plain.

Pale white and only the size of a palm, they were slightly sunken in the center with a charred golden ring around the edges. In the hand, they felt rock-hard, even rough against the skin.

“Is this today’s meal?”

Li Lizhi set down the food box and looked skeptically at the hard white bread. “Can… can anyone actually bite through this? It looks harder than the stone cakes Imperial Father rewards his ministers with.”

Palace pastries were prized for being soft and airy; something like this, which looked like a lump of unleavened dough, hardly inspired an appetite.

“This is called Baiji mo^[1].”

Su Mu picked up one of the flatbreads.

The dough was semi-fermented and made without oil, dry-griddled directly in a flat-bottomed pan.

It was made according to the standard of an “iron ring, tiger back, and chrysanthemum center^[2],” thin and crispy on the outside, soft and tender within.

He lightly sliced along the edge of the bread with the tip of his knife.

Crack!

A crisp cracking sound rang out.

The seemingly rock-hard crust split open in an instant.

Su Mu did not cut the bread completely through, leaving a sliver attached, and used the flat of the blade to gently prop open the hollow inside.

Steam billowed out from inside, carrying the pure aroma of toasted wheat.

“Watch.”

Su Mu gathered the finely chopped, tender meat and scooped it up with the wide flat of his cleaver.

The mound of minced meat was coated in braising broth, quivering softly.

He stuffed it right into the flatbread’s pocket.

Packed to the brim.

The meat juices immediately soaked into the honeycomb pores lining the bread’s interior.

The once-dry white flatbread was like parched earth welcoming long-awaited rain, greedily soaking up the rich, savory oil.

Finally, Su Mu ladled a spoonful of the clear broth topped with shimmering red oil, pouring it straight down through the opening.

He pressed the bread closed.

The pristine white mo now revealed a thick filling of glistening, reddish meat along its edge, with juices teetering on the brink of dripping.

“Hold this.”

Su Mu wrapped the bottom half in oil paper and handed it to Xiao Sizi.

“Careful, it’s hot. Don’t swallow your tongue.”

Xiao Sizi cradled the “giant burger,” which was thicker than her little palms, with both hands. She felt the piping-hot warmth against her skin as the rich, savory aroma drifted straight into her nose.

This aroma was not sweet and heavy like braised pork, nor was it delicate and subtle like beggar’s chicken.

It was a solid, honest meatiness mingled with the toasted fragrance of fire-baked dough: rustic, rich, and deeply comforting.

“Ahm!”

The little girl opened her mouth wide, only to find the flatbread far too thick to wrap her teeth around in one bite.

Tilting her head, she attacked it from the side.

Crunch!

First came the sound of her teeth biting through the crispy crust.

Immediately followed by:

Squish!

That was the sound of her teeth pressing into the meat filling, sending juices bursting across her mouth.

Xiao Sizi froze completely.

It was not tough to chew at all, unlike what she had imagined.

The seemingly hard outer crust shattered with a single bite, and even the falling crumbs were fragrant.

The soft interior, soaked full of savory broth, was as tender as a cloud.

As for the chopped spiced pork, it required hardly any chewing. The fat melted into rich oil, the lean meat shredded effortlessly, and her whole mouth flooded with deeply savory, salty juices.

“Mmm-!”

Xiao Sizi stomped her little foot, her eyes wide and round, with a glistening drop of reddish oil clinging to the corner of her mouth.

“Sho yummy! Dish is so yummy I could die!”

Ignoring the heat, her cheeks puffed out as she chewed at lightning speed. As she chewed, she mumbled indistinctly, “The meat inside can run! One bite and it runs straight down my throat!”

Watching her younger sister look so hopelessly undisciplined before food, Li Lizhi swallowed hard.

She took the second one that Su Mu handed over.

It was scalding to the touch.

The surface of the flatbread was slightly rough, feeling hearty and substantial in hand.

Li Lizhi took a tentative bite.

That contrast of crispy exterior and tender interior, where dry bread and rich moisture blended in harmony, instantly conquered her taste buds.

Normally, when she ate meat in the palace, it was too greasy, making her feel sick of it after just two bites. As for wheaten foods, they were too dry and had to be washed down with soup.

But this thing…

The crisp dryness of the flatbread perfectly balanced the richness of the fatty meat, while the savory meat juice gave the bread its soul. In a single bite, there was bread, meat, and rich broth. The sheer satisfaction was beyond words.

“What is this?”

Li Lizhi swallowed a large mouthful, feeling a cozy warmth in her stomach. “You said it’s called… Baiji mo?”

“That’s the name of the bread.”

Su Mu scooped out another piece of meat onto the cutting board and raised his cleaver once more.

Thud, thud, thud!

The rhythmic sound echoed once again.

“The full name of this dish is roujiamo.”

“Rou… jiamo?”

Xiao Sizi was busy licking the grease off her fingers. Hearing the name, she tilted her head and pondered it for a long moment.

She looked at the flatbread in her hand, then peered at the meat inside.

Clearly, it was two pieces of flatbread locking the meat inside.

“Big bwother is lying!”