The lid of the big casserole was opened, and the chicken pieces, potatoes, green peppers, and red peppers were covered with sauce and lay quietly in the casserole! Although this kind of “big pot stew”-like dish was not exquisite, it had an inexplicable “rough” flavor of fireworks because of the tempting rich sauce flavor!

This “roughness” reminded Xun Zhou of the Hu people’s roasted lamb legs across the market today. Compared with the exquisiteness of the meals that were usually exquisite, the opposite roughness could actually arouse people’s strong appetites.

The full of ingredients in the casserole was obviously not for one person but for him and Liu Yuan. Xun Zhou looked at Liu Yuan, who sat down opposite him without him saying anything and was ready to eat. His heart tightened, and an inexplicable instinct arose. He quickly sat down and reached out to open the next layer of the food box to get the rice.

But when the bottom layer of the food box was opened and two empty bowls were seen inside, Xun Zhou was stunned: “Did Sister Mingtang forget to pack the rice?”

Liu Yuan glanced at him, took out the empty bowl, and gave one to each person, then pointed to another casserole wrapped in thick cloth and said: “No rice today, let’s eat vegetables first!”

After that, he raised his chopsticks and hurriedly picked up the casserole: the first chopstick was of course the chicken! The rich sauce flavor had completely penetrated the chicken. Compared with the tender and smooth chicken made by Wen Mingtang before, the chicken in this casserole was slightly firmer, but not dry at all. The same chicken tasted completely different. The salty and slightly spicy rich sauce flavor firmly wrapped the chicken itself, making people unable to stop. After tasting a piece of chicken, he spits out a small piece of chicken bone. When Xun Zhou opposite him just took the first chopstick, Liu Yuan immediately raised his chopsticks to pick up one of the potatoes.

Grabbing dishes together, no, eating dishes, if it was an ordinary restaurant, he would probably pick the delicious ones, such as the chicken pieces, but Master Wen’s dishes had different flavors for each ingredient, just like the most unexpected and irresistible thing in the crab pot was the rice cake.

The potatoes in this seemingly bold “dapan Ji” must also be tasted. Just picking up a piece of potato, watching the chopsticks “forced” into the potato, Liu Yuan’s tongue, which had been trained to be a bit “habitual”, instinctively produced saliva.

The potato could be broken apart with a little force, and you could guess that it must have been stewed very soft and glutinous. The moment he took a bite, Liu Yuan immediately showed an expression of “as expected”: although it had been stewed soft and glutinous, the crunchy taste of the potato itself couldn’t be ignored. Its own glutinous fragrance was mixed with the rich sauce fragrance wrapped outside, and the taste was really wonderful!

Probably to cater to the tastes of most people, the green and red peppers that Master Wen selected were not spicy. These green and red peppers were crisp and sweet when eaten raw. After being added to the dish, the green and red peppers covered with sauce were also fragrant and sweet, which relieved the greasy taste of meat dishes, just right!

If Liu Yuan were to describe the whole dish, there would be only one word: fragrant!

After picking up each ingredient, Liu Yuan continued to hold up his chopsticks and continued the “cycle” of chicken, potatoes, and green and red peppers.

He didn’t know if it was because the dish was originally fragrant and people couldn’t stop eating or because the two people were fighting for food. The two of them took chopsticks one after another, but in the blink of an eye, most of it was picked up, and the rich sauce was all that was remaining in the casserole.

Xun Zhou saw Liu Yuan across from him stop eating a piece of potato, so he also stopped in tacit understanding and said, “It’s a pity to waste this sauce. If it is mixed with something else…”

Before he finished speaking, he saw Liu Yuan across from him reaching into the food box, tearing open the casserole wrapped in thick cloth, and lifting the lid. He saw noodles as thick as two fingers lying in the casserole. Perhaps they had been specially processed. After such a long time, there was no sticking of noodles at all!

Liu Yuan poured all the pulled noodles in the casserole into the hot sauce and then stretched out his chopsticks to stir it. While stirring, he said, “Fortunately, you and I eat fast, and the soup is still hot. Stir the pulled noodles quickly, and then eat with the sauce!”

This way of eating really shocked Xun Zhou on the opposite side. While subconsciously “obeying orders” and raising chopsticks to help stir it together, he asked: “This is…”

“Lā tiáo zi!” Without waiting for Xun Zhou on the opposite side to finish his words, Liu Yuan said, with a “not surprised” look, “Master Wen’s yóu pō miàn are made of lā tiáo zi!”

What was yóu pō miàn? Xun Zhou only thought that he had been studying with his teacher, and he also claimed to be knowledgeable, but now facing Liu Yuan, he just felt like a “country bumpkin” who didn’t know anything.

“It’s the breakfast that Master Wen made before, it’s delicious!” Liu Yuan said casually, “It’s normal that you haven’t eaten it, and you are not familiar with Master Wen!”

He was not familiar with Sister Mingtang? He was obviously… uh, it seemed that he was not as familiar with Sister Mingtang as the Dali officer in front of him!

Xun Zhou fell silent, and then Liu Yuan said, “Today, Master Mu Shiwen said that it is called Dapanji, a dish from the Hu people, but it has not been introduced to our Darong yet!”

It turned out to be a dish from the Hu people. No wonder it had the same “rough” taste that attracts people’s greed, just like grilled lamb skewers!

While he was silent, Liu Yuan on the other side had already picked up a lā tiáo zi covered with soup from the casserole. He took the bowl to take it, so as not to waste the soup on the “food table”. After that, Liu Yuan couldn’t wait to lower his head and eat the lā tiáo zi.

Because of the special nature of this noodle, it was naturally not as smooth as ordinary noodles. It could not be eaten in one bite. Instead, it had to be chewed while chewing. The texture of the lā tiáo zi was very tough. After chewing, the aroma of the noodle skin mixed with the rich taste of the sauce was really irresistible!

The essence of this Dapanji was indeed hidden at the end. The skin of this lā tiáo zi was to Dapanji like rice cake to crab pot. It was the real soul.

Liu Yuan couldn’t stop eating. In the blink of an eye, two lā tiáo zi were already in his stomach. When he went to pick up the third one, Xun Zhou, who was opposite him, woke up from his dream and hurriedly picked up his chopsticks to pick up the lā tiáo zi, humming: “Teacher will live in Chang’an for a while, I will always get to eat it in the future!”

“Whatever you want!” Liu Yuan bit the pulled noodles and hummed. He didn’t have the habit of eating alone. He only reminded Xun Zhou of one thing, “You can eat as much as you want in the public kitchen while you are helping the Dali Temple. But when this case is settled, don’t forget to pay for your meals!”

Even the people in the Dali Temple could only eat one portion each, and they had to pay if they ate more. Xun Zhou was no exception!

Thinking of the money deducted for eating too much this month, Liu Yuan felt a pang of heartache! Who would have thought that one day Liu Yuan’s pocket money would be all spent on eating!

(End of this chapter)

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