Chapter 32: Why Is It Called Roujiamo and Not Mojiarou?

Xiao Sizi stuffed the last bite of flatbread into her mouth, swallowed it with effort, and corrected him in all seriousness, “It’s cleawly mo-jia-rou! Not rou-jia-mo!”

Su Mu’s knife paused in his hand.

This was a question practically everyone asked the first time they ate roujiamo.

“This is called an ancient grammatical inversion,”

Su Mu made something up on the spot. “People in ancient times spoke with refinement, saying ‘meat sandwiched within flatbread.’ Later, to make it roll off the tongue, they dropped the ‘within,’ and it became roujiamo.”

“Besides, think about it.”

Su Mu pointed the spine of his knife at the deep pot of braising broth.

“The meat is the star of the show, the very soul. The flatbread is just a supporting player. Without the meat, it’s just a dry piece of bread. So the meat has to come first. It’s all about giving it top billing.”

Xiao Sizi was completely lost.

What inversion? What top billing?

She only caught one phrase.

“Rou… jia… mo?”

The little girl curled her tongue, trying hard to pronounce the word clearly.

Yet perhaps because she had eaten too fast just now, her tongue was slightly tangled. On top of missing a few baby teeth, no matter how she tried, the word mo came out sounding thoroughly skewed.

“Rou jia… pat^[1]?”

“Roujiamo,”

Su Mu corrected.

“Rou jia pat!”

Xiao Sizi was utterly convinced. She even held up her two greasy little hands and pressed her palms together. “You just pat the meat inside!”

Li Lizhi laughed so hard she nearly ran out of breath, barely able to hold on to the flatbread in her hand.

“Right, right, right, pat it in,”

Li Lizhi wiped her younger sister’s mouth with a handkerchief. “Let’s pat all that meat right into our tummies.”

Xiao Sizi felt her elder sister was teasing her. She huffed in annoyance and turned to look at Su Mu.

“Big bwother, I want another pat!”

She pointed at the pile of freshly minced meat on the chopping board.

Su Mu shook his head helplessly.

“Fine, fine, I’ll give you another pat.”

He sliced open another piping-hot Baiji mo. This time, he deliberately ladled an extra spoonful of broth over it, stuffing the pocket so full the flatbread could barely close.

“Eat up. When you’re done, you can pat this whole pot of meat for all I care.”

Xiao Sizi beamed. Holding her second roujiamo with both hands, she crouched by the threshold and nibbled away in small bites, swinging her short little legs in sheer bliss.

Li Lizhi finished hers. Though she still craved more, her stomach was already about eighty percent full.

This food was truly substantial.

A single flatbread was enough to count as a full meal.

She watched Su Mu steadily chopping meat, the knife tapping rhythmically against the board. In the bamboo basket beside the chopping block, seven or eight plain white flatbreads remained.

“Um…”

Li Lizhi pointed at the pot of braised meat. “How long does this meat keep?”

“The braising broth only gets more fragrant the longer it simmers. As for the meat, it won’t spoil for three days so long as it stays submerged in the broth.” Su Mu replied without looking back. “Why? Packing food to go again?”

Li Lizhi blushed.

Eating and taking food with every visit really did make her feel like an impoverished relative freeloading on family.

Yet when she thought of Imperial Father sighing over that pile of chicken bones last night, and Imperial Mother frowning at the bitterness after drinking her medicine…

“I’d like to take a few back for Imperial Father and Imperial Mother,”

Li Lizhi confessed honestly. “This whets the appetite without being greasy. Imperial Mother’s appetite has only just started to improve over the past few days, so she should be able to stomach this.”

Su Mu nodded.

“All right.”

He set down his kitchen knife, turned around, and took a stack of oilpaper from the cupboard.

“There’s a proper way to pack this to go.”

Su Mu picked up an uncut flatbread and wrapped it directly in oilpaper.

Then he found a small clay jar, filled it to the brim with minced braised meat and savory broth, and sealed the top with clay.

“The bread and the meat have to be kept separate for now.”

Su Mu handed the items to Li Lizhi. “If you stuff the meat into the flatbread now, by the time you reach Lizheng Hall, the juices will have soaked through and made it soggy. It’ll lose that crisp bite.”

“Once you get back, light the charcoal brazier in your food box to toast the flatbreads until they’re hot to the touch.”

“Heat up the jar of meat as well.”

“Then stuff the meat in fresh right before eating.”

Su Mu pointed at Xiao Sizi. “Let her teach you how to do it. The little girl is quite the seasoned pro by now.”

Xiao Sizi was busy tackling the last bit of crust on her flatbread. Hearing big bwother praise her, she immediately looked up, nodding eagerly with her mouth glistening with grease.

“Uh-huh! I know how! I’m the best at groping^[2]!”

Li Lizhi could not help chuckling at her little sister’s comical look.

She took the heavy jar of meat and the stack of flatbreads, placing them into the food box.

“Su Mu.”

Li Lizhi closed the lid of the food box. After a moment’s hesitation, she asked, “With your skill… you would be peerless even outside the palace. Why…”

Why be content staying holed up in a woodshed of the Imperial Kitchen, working as a mere firewood-splitting laborer?

Even if he went to the Bureau of Culinary Service to be a palace culinary steward, these few dishes alone would be more than enough to have those imperial chefs kowtowing to beg for his apprenticeship.

Su Mu picked up a rag and wiped his cleaver unhurriedly.

“Outside the palace?”

He chuckled softly, his gaze settling on the old locust tree in the courtyard.

“Where outside the palace could I find such peace and quiet?”

“Here, I’m my own master. I cook when I feel like it, and sleep when I don’t.”

“If I went out front, one imperial consort would demand bird’s nest today, another noble consort would want shark’s fin tomorrow, and I’d have to serve them all on my knees.”

Su Mu stuck the cleaver firmly into the chopping board.

Thud.

“My knees are too stiff. I can’t kneel.”

“Besides…”

He glanced at Xiao Sizi, who was crouching on the ground counting ants, and then at the eldest princess standing there lost in thought.

“What’s the point of serving people who can’t even tell good food from bad anyway?”

“Cooking is meant for people who truly appreciate good food. That’s real satisfaction.”

Li Lizhi was stunned.

She looked at the man before her, dressed in coarse hemp clothing.

The fading rays of the setting sun washed over him, lining his figure in gold.

He was clearly a servant, yet his aura of free-spirited nonchalance surpassed even the ministers in purple robes and jade belts^[3] at court.

People who truly appreciate good food…

Li Lizhi looked down at the food box in her hands.

It turned out that in his eyes, even the Emperor and Empress of the Great Tang, along with princesses like them, were nothing more than a few “diners.”

“I understand.”

Li Lizhi broke into a bright smile and curtsied slightly to Su Mu.

This bow was not from a princess to a servant, but to a master.

“Thank you for your hospitality.”

She lifted the food box and took Xiao Sizi, who was still licking her fingers, by the other hand.

“Time to go. Back to the palace to ‘grope’ some meat.”

Hearing that they were leaving, Xiao Sizi looked back at the large vat with reluctant longing.

“Goodbye, big bwother!”

The little girl waved her hand. “Make that running meat again tomorrow, okay!”

“Hurry up and go, and close the door behind you.”

Su Mu waved his hand as if shooing away flies.

Once their figures disappeared outside the door, the courtyard fell quiet once more.

Only the cicadas were still buzzing.

Su Mu stretched, walked over to the vat, and placed the lid on top.

“Meat stuffed in a grope…”

He rolled the phrase over on his tongue and could not help chuckling aloud.

The name really did sound a bit improper.

Still, who cared?

As long as it was delicious.

He lay back on the lounge chair, closed his eyes, and listened to the faint sound of the palace gates locking in the distance.

As for tonight’s meal, hopefully the Son of Heaven of the Great Tang wouldn’t bite his tongue^[4]!

This glorious age of the Great Tang was steadily growing richer in flavor, one bite of food at a time.