The next day, Zhenzhen and Feng Xian arrived at Yibei Lou punctually to demonstrate their culinary skills alongside the other eight qualifying women. The rear courtyard of Yibei Lou had already prepared various ingredients – mountain treasures, seafood, poultry, fruits and vegetables in dazzling array, along with some medicinal herbs commonly used in cooking. Though the varieties were numerous, the quantities of some main ingredients were limited. The women first drew lots according to the rules to determine order, then went to the courtyard to select the two main ingredients they needed to take to the kitchen and prepare two dishes. If rare ingredients desired by someone were taken by women with earlier numbers, they could negotiate exchanges with them, but if the other party refused, they could only choose from the remaining ingredients.
Zhenzhen drew a relatively early number, so she selected dried scallops and mandarin fish from the main ingredients – she was quite skilled with seafood-based dishes. After her, two more women chose dried scallops, and this ingredient was quickly exhausted. Another girl behind them also seemed to want dried scallops, but when her turn came, only an empty plate remained. She sighed repeatedly and had to choose sea prawns instead, then turned to catch two turtle doves from the poultry cages opposite.
Perhaps sensing their impending doom, the two turtle doves struggled and cooed several times, sounding quite mournful. Zhenzhen, who was walking toward the kitchen, couldn’t help but stop and look back at the doves and the woman who had chosen them.
Zhenzhen’s tray held dried scallops and mandarin fish. The girl carrying the turtle doves saw Zhenzhen looking at her and studied Zhenzhen in return, her gaze soon drawn to and lingering on the dried scallops.
Zhenzhen then walked over to her and directly proposed: “Could I exchange my dried scallops for your turtle doves?”
The girl was delighted and nodded repeatedly: “Yes, yes!”
After obtaining the dried scallops, the girl handed both turtle doves to Zhenzhen. Zhenzhen untied the ropes from the doves’ feet, brought them to the center of the courtyard, held them one by one in her palms, lifted them upward, then spread her fingers to let the doves spread their wings to the wind.
The turtle doves flapped their wings a few times, then took flight from Zhenzhen’s palms, circled once above the courtyard, and flew toward the distant forest. Zhenzhen watched them with a smile until they disappeared beneath the cloud traces on the horizon, then withdrew her gaze and prepared to enter the kitchen. Upon turning around, she discovered Food Service Officer Qin, who was inspecting the courtyard, staring at her intently with bright eyes.
“Why did you release the turtle doves?” Food Service Officer Qin asked coldly.
Zhenzhen curtsied to her and answered: “Bai Letian once said: ‘I urge you not to strike the birds on the branches, for their young in the nest await their mother’s return.’ Spring is the season when birds hatch and nurture their chicks. These spring birds especially must not be killed, for harming one might starve an entire nest of young to death. So I took the liberty of releasing the turtle doves… I don’t know if this violated today’s rules.”
“The rules aren’t exactly violated,” Food Service Officer Qin said slowly. “Since you’ve chosen your main ingredients, whether you use them is up to you. But you only have one chance to choose main ingredients. Now you only have mandarin fish as your protein main ingredient, yet you must prepare two dishes. How you’ll do this, you must consider carefully.”
Zhenzhen nodded to show she was willing to bear the consequences, thanked Food Service Officer Qin, picked up her ingredient tray and continued toward the kitchen. The girl who had exchanged ingredients with her witnessed this exchange from the side, quietly followed, and picked four sea prawns from her own plate to put in Zhenzhen’s. Zhenzhen gratefully expressed her thanks, but didn’t forget to look back at Food Service Officer Qin, who was still observing her. Seeing Food Service Officer Qin nod slightly, she felt relieved to accept the prawns.
Feng Xian’s lottery draw was unfortunate – she was ranked second to last. Few poultry remained, none still living. What was left were several quail and one black-boned chicken, all already plucked and cleaned. She took the black-boned chicken first. In the seafood section, only two types of fish remained: ordinary crucian carp and extraordinarily delicious but highly poisonous pufferfish.
Feng Xian pondered for a long while without making a decision. The woman behind her was Xing Junman, Yang Shenglin’s cousin from Yibei Lou. This Xing Junman was seventeen years old, had trained for three years at her relatives’ tavern in Lin’an, and had only returned to Pujiang at the beginning of the year. She was also quite beautiful, and Pujiang people all believed she was most likely to be selected, undoubtedly the greatest rival to Zhenzhen and Feng Xian. Unfortunately, her luck was poor today – drawing the last position, she could only use ingredients left by everyone else. Therefore, she was now watching Feng Xian very nervously, deeply concerned about Feng Xian’s choice.
Feng Xian was still deliberating when she suddenly saw County Magistrate Shen bowing to Food Service Officer Qin: “This humble official has suffered from poor spleen and stomach recently, often eating without tasting. Today’s delicacies and fine dishes presented by the young ladies – this humble official fears he lacks the fortune to enjoy them and must rely entirely on Madam’s evaluation and selection.”
Feng Xian studied County Magistrate Shen carefully and saw he was about forty years old, with sallow complexion and emaciated appearance – indeed showing signs of weak spleen and stomach qi.
Feng Xian immediately made her decision and chose the crucian carp. When she used a small fishing net to scoop the crucian carp from the water tank, she clearly felt Xing Junman behind her breathe a long sigh of relief.
Xing Junman was determined to win this competition. For a young woman like her, easily obtainable crucian carp naturally couldn’t demonstrate her astonishing culinary skills as well as rare ingredients like pufferfish could. Feng Xian didn’t look back at her, carrying her crucian carp into the kitchen herself, leaving a faint, almost imperceptible smile in the space Xing Junman hadn’t bothered to notice.
Yibei Lou’s kitchen was fully equipped, with each of the ten girls having their own cutting board and stove. Besides the main ingredients, side ingredients were primarily vegetables, including various seasonings and grains, plus some meat scraps like skin and bones – all in sufficient supply for free use. Zhenzhen chose bamboo shoots, bracken ferns, mung bean flour, rice, salt, ginger, pepper and other seasonings. Feng Xian selected fresh rehmannia root, malt sugar, aged tangerine peel, fresh ginger, scallion whites, and some sheep bones.
Seeing everyone was ready, Food Service Officer Qin signaled to the eunuch beside her. The eunuch gave an order, and all the women took their ingredients and began working busily.
Zhenzhen took an appropriate amount of mung bean flour and mixed it with clear water to make a slurry. Mung bean flour came from soaking, grinding, filtering, and precipitating mung beans – pure white and fine, the prepared slurry was milky white in color.
Zhenzhen heated water in a cauldron on her stove. When the water boiled, she poured the mung bean slurry into a shallow, thin copper plate, holding the plate with both hands and rotating it up, down, and around to spread the slurry evenly across the bottom, then placed the copper plate on the boiling water to float on the surface.
Shortly after, the slurry solidified into white wrapper skins. Zhenzhen carefully pressed the copper plate into the water with chopsticks. Boiling water flowed into the plate as it gradually sank. When the mung bean wrapper was thoroughly cooked, Zhenzhen removed the copper plate from the cauldron and immediately placed it in a basin of cold water prepared nearby. After the copper plate cooled, she drained the water and gently peeled the mung bean wrapper from the bottom of the plate.
The finished wrapper was thin and transparent like ice silk. Zhenzhen cut it into four even portions for later use.
Next, Zhenzhen took out the mandarin fish, removed scales and innards, cut off head and tail, set the fish body aside for later use, then carefully removed bones and spines from the tail portion, diced this fish meat, and also diced sea prawn meat, bamboo shoots, and bracken ferns. She blanched all these in boiling water, added cooked oil, sauce, salt and pepper to mix evenly, then took a piece of prepared wrapper skin, spread it in a round silver cup, scooped an appropriate amount of the mixed fish, prawn, shoots and fern dice into the cup, then gathered the four corners of the wrapper toward the center, using chopsticks dipped in mung bean slurry to seal the opening. After wrapping, she inverted the silver cup onto a silver plate, lifted the cup, and a round dumpling that faintly revealed the fresh colors of its filling appeared on the plate.
This was the “Mountain and Sea Pouch” that Lin Hong had made for Zhenzhen before. Zhenzhen modified some details, moving the steaming to the final step after wrapping. Four Mountain and Sea Pouches were placed in steamers to cook. Zhenzhen also prepared seasoned vinegar, soy sauce, and eight-spice sauce. When tasting began, she presented everything to Food Service Officer Qin.
Hearing this dish was called “Mountain and Sea Pouch,” Food Service Officer Qin asked Zhenzhen about the meaning of the name. Zhenzhen said: “The Mountain and Sea Pouch contains fish, prawns, shoots and ferns, representing mountain treasures and sea delicacies gathered in one place. Mountains and seas are separated by central provinces, their distance vast and long. The meeting of fish, prawns, shoots and ferns is originally a rare encounter. When they match and blend with each other, they often create unique umami flavors. It’s like two people of different origins, separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, who meet by chance – they easily attract each other, achieve each other, and form a good relationship.”
Food Service Officer Qin couldn’t help but smile faintly: “Similar dishes have been made by people in the palace, but they were named Fish, Prawn, Shoot and Fern Pouch – the artistic conception is inferior to Mountain and Sea Pouch. Moreover, they cut the wrapper into strips and mixed them with the diced fish, prawns, shoots and ferns, eating them with vinegar drops. The form is inferior to your Mountain and Sea Pouch, and they didn’t prepare several dipping sauces for selection like you did.”
Zhenzhen said: “I discovered that people have different tastes – some like sour, some love salty, some prefer light flavors, some particularly enjoy oils, salts and spices. So rather than decide for them, I prepare several dipping sauces and give the seasoning choice to the diners.”
“For someone so young, you think quite comprehensively.” Food Service Officer Qin signaled for a nearby palace woman to bring a Mountain and Sea Pouch. Without adding any dipping sauce, she tasted it lightly herself. She didn’t express how it tasted yet, but her facial expression was gentle.
“What is your other dish?” Food Service Officer Qin asked. She remembered Zhenzhen’s main ingredients were mandarin fish and sea prawns, which seemed to be used entirely in the Mountain and Sea Pouch, and wondered what the other dish would use.
Zhenzhen said: “It’s mandarin fish congee. It’s still on the stove and should be just finished cooking.”
Food Service Officer Qin ordered a nearby young eunuch to bring the congee. Soon the young eunuch carried the entire cooking pot to the main table. Still rising steam carried the fragrant fish aroma from the pot, wafting toward them. Strangely, four silk threads extended from the pot’s edges, each with a copper coin tied at the bottom end, hanging on four sides outside the copper pot.
Food Service Officer Qin observed the copper threads beneath the pot with interest, then ordered Zhenzhen to remove the lid. Zhenzhen obeyed, removing the lid and placing it to one side. Food Service Officer Qin saw that the other ends of the four silk threads were submerged in the congee, not knowing their purpose, so she watched Zhenzhen with questioning eyes.
Zhenzhen smiled slightly, picked up the copper coins one by one, held all four in her hand, then gently pulled the threads up and down in the congee a few times. Feeling the timing was right, she exerted force and pulled upward.
A complete fish skeleton, except for head and tail, gradually emerged from the congee surface following her upward motion.
It turned out the four silk threads were threaded through the mandarin fish’s spine. The raw fish with head, tail and skin removed was submerged in water to cook with the rice. When the congee was done, the fish meat had dissolved into the congee. Since mandarin fish has no small bones, what remained was this skeleton. By pulling the thin threads, the fish bones emerged from the congee intact.