Shortly after the Winter Solstice came the Laba Festival. At that time, there wasn’t yet the nationwide tradition of eating porridge as in later generations – only temples and nunneries would cook “medicinal food” to distribute to their faithful followers.
At Guangming Temple, several disciples were distributing medicinal food to believers at the main hall entrance, while other disciples were specifically assigned to deliver it to the noble households they had connections with.
Due to Shen Shaoguang’s connection with Guangming Temple, Jingqing specifically got off her cart before leaving the ward to leave her a bowl. Shen Shaoguang accepted it with a smile and exchanged pleasantries. Seeing Jingqing was in a hurry, knowing she had many more deliveries to make, she took out some money and put it in the basket carrying the porridge containers, then personally saw her out.
Jingqing became embarrassed, “You shouldn’t be so polite with us. We’ve given you so many good things before, this time we just want you to taste our medicinal food.”
Shen Shaoguang smiled and said, “We’ve also cooked some Eight Treasures porridge, similar to your medicinal food. I’ll send some to the temple later, you can try it when you return and see how it compares to your medicinal food.”
Jingqing smiled, “I need to try that.”
The two bid farewell at the door and Shen Shaoguang watched as Jingqing got on her cart and departed.
True to her word, Shen Shaoguang personally delivered a pot of Eight Treasures porridge to the temple.
This Eight Treasures porridge was naturally made according to later generations’ customs. In her previous life, like most young people, Shen Shaoguang hadn’t paid much attention to these traditional festivals, but now, being alone in a strange land, she found herself particularly nostalgic for them.
It was just like her former classmate who suffered from jet lag – back in China, she had been as Western-oriented as possible, but once she went abroad, she drove from New York to Washington D.C. singing patriotic songs the whole way.
When talking about this over video chat with Shen Shaoguang, she had teased her friend, “Do you even have that many songs in your playlist? Weren’t you just playing the same song on repeat?”
That classmate had giggled and said, “The key is expressing my love for the motherland, okay?”
Shen Shaoguang was now filled with love for her old timeline, and being her mistress, she celebrated every festival according to the old ways.
Although the fruits and vegetables of this time weren’t as varied as in later generations, most grains were already available. Rice, millet, glutinous millet, Job’s tears, and red beans were all necessary, while the porridge garnishes like lotus seeds, hazelnut kernels, pine nuts, walnuts, and chestnuts couldn’t be missed either – and most importantly, the red dates.
It was said that the most sophisticated way to cook the red dates was to peel and pit them, adding them only after the porridge was cooked, and not discarding the date skins but using them to make a broth, then using that broth to cook the porridge, to capture their fragrance.
Shen Shaoguang had never drunk such meticulously prepared Laba porridge. In the porridge she had drunk, whole dates were simply thrown in to cook, so while drinking, she would occasionally have to spit out date pits, and sometimes date skin would stick to the roof of her mouth.
Now cooking for herself, Shen Shaoguang figured out a method: soak the dates, remove the pits, then grind them in a small mill, and filter out the skins with a fine sieve. It might be a bit crude, but it solved the problems of both skins and pits.
This Eight Treasures porridge earned high praise from Venerable Master Yuanjue.
The settled skin of the porridge was beautifully decorated with small piles of various fragrant garnishes like pine nut kernels and hazelnut meats. Stirring it with a spoon and taking a sip, the rice was soft while the fruits remained crisp, satisfying both tongue and teeth – quite different from the usual pursuit of complete mushiness in porridge.
Venerable Master Yuanjue smiled and said, “Next year we should make our medicinal food like this too.”
Shen Shaoguang felt the absurd sense of being a “grandchild going back in time to teach their grandfather” – Laba porridge had probably evolved from this era’s medicinal food, yet now it was going to replace it. However, it was just one temple, just one type of food – no need to overthink it.
Besides sending this Laba porridge to neighbors and Guangming Temple, she also distributed it to regular customers. Among them was someone who claimed his madam particularly loved porridge and wanted to buy a pot. Though previously unfamiliar, she now knew this person was from Assistant Magistrate Lin’s household. Shen Shaoguang gave him a pot just as she had done for Guangming Temple.
Who would have thought that this pot of porridge would allow Shen Shaoguang to visit her “former residence.”
Though there wasn’t yet the saying “after Laba comes the New Year,” in reality, for thousands of years, people had lived their lives this way. After Laba, the pace of New Year preparations quickened, and the atmosphere of the New Year grew stronger.
The shop had stored plenty of preserved meats, grains, wine, and vegetables that could keep well, like radishes and Chinese cabbage, in preparation for the meat shops and grain shops closing for the New Year. Without waiting until the twenty-third day of the twelfth month to clean house, the shop and back residence had already begun their year-end thorough cleaning.
New Year’s clothes for Shen Shaoguang herself and Ayuan and others had already been commissioned for sewing. Shen Shaoguang’s needlework was only average, and Ayuan couldn’t handle a needle at all, so they had to rely on professionals to make clothes.
Perhaps the officials were busy with year-end performance summary reports, and merchants were busy taking inventory and collecting or avoiding debts. Fewer people were coming to the tavern for casual drinks, so Shen Shaoguang could leisurely prepare for the New Year with Yu San, Ayuan, and Achang, occasionally also taking orders for steamed pastries.
Since their Qixi Festival flower cakes had become famous, people would come to buy them for gifts or sacrificial offerings during festivals. They had made some during the recent Winter Solstice, earning Shen Shaoguang a small profit.
The New Year naturally couldn’t compare to the Winter Solstice. After the tenth day of the twelfth month, many people began preparing New Year’s gifts, and those who knew of Shen’s flower cakes would include a couple of boxes to mark the occasion.
That afternoon, as Shen Shaoguang was decorating cloud cakes, a servant from Assistant Magistrate Lin’s household came by, smiling apologetically at Shen Shaoguang, “I have an unreasonable request to trouble the young lady with.”
Shen Shaoguang asked him to continue.
“The other day, our madam tasted your shop’s porridge and found it excellent. Today she remembered it and asked the kitchen to try recreating it, but they just couldn’t achieve that flavor. I wonder if your shop could cook a bowl for us? We’ll certainly pay whatever it costs.”
Cooking Eight Treasures porridge was time-consuming, and Shen Shaoguang was about to explain this when the servant lowered his voice and explained, “Today at lunch, our madam hardly ate anything.”
So they wanted it right now?
Shen Shaoguang thought for a moment, “That lotus seed Eight Treasures porridge would take too long to prepare, but there is a sweet porridge that could be made a bit faster, tastes quite good, and would be more suitable for ladies of a certain age.” Shen Shaoguang was referring to walnut milk.
Whether it was the jade-tip noodles, pastries, hot pot, or meat dishes and vegetables from Shen’s shop, they all suited the madam’s taste. The servant trusted Shen Shaoguang quite well and had no other options. “Then I’ll trouble the young lady. When should I come to collect it?”
Though it would take less time than cooking Eight Treasures porridge, it was still time-consuming. However, considering it was for an elderly person, and keeping in mind Assistant Magistrate Lin’s previous tips, Shen Shaoguang accepted this private chef assignment.
Hearing the servant’s words, she suddenly had another thought, “The time is hard to estimate, but it won’t be later than the evening meal. No need for someone to collect it – we’ll deliver it ourselves.”
The servant naturally agreed, saying with a smile, “Then we’ll rely entirely on the young lady.”
After the servant left, Shen Shaoguang handed the cloud cake decorating work to Yu San, while she began peeling walnuts, removing date pits, and grinding rice paste to prepare the walnut milk.
Yu San was somewhat puzzled about why Shen Shaoguang would accept a request to cook just one bowl of porridge, but then thought that such a bowl might sell for the price of a whole pot of pastries – no wonder the young lady wouldn’t refuse.
But Shen Shaoguang was thinking about her old residence. Since coming to this ward, she hadn’t been inside; that “home” existed only in her memories and dreams.
Although Shen Shaoguang couldn’t say for certain whether that counted as her home, just as she couldn’t say for certain whether Mr. and Mrs. Shen and the youth Shen Zhiwen (whose childhood name was Azhang) counted as her parents and elder brother, she still wanted to go back and look, especially after Ayuan had returned and told her what she’d seen in that residence.
While thinking about old matters, Shen Shaoguang threw the peeled walnut kernels into boiling water to blanch them. After blanching, it would be very easy to remove the bitter outer membrane. Heating them in a microwave would work just as well, but there were no microwaves at this time.
If this were an era with such kitchen appliances, making walnut milk would be extremely easy, but now it could only be done “by hand.”
Making Eight Treasures porridge required peeling and pitting red dates to get the flesh, and so did making walnut milk. But now Shen Shaoguang didn’t have pre-soaked dates, and she was only making a small bowl, so she didn’t use that crude method, instead carefully peeling the date skins with a small knife.
The shop was quiet. Yu San finished with the cloud cakes and turned to see Shen Shaoguang wearing an apron, sitting cross-legged at the food preparation table, carefully extracting date flesh. Ayuan was picking beans not far away, and through the open kitchen door behind them, Achang was nodding off while watching the stove. Yu San smiled and went to check the fire on the stove without waking Achang.
With the walnuts peeled and the dates prepared, they were ground into a paste along with the soaked rice in a small mill and then put on the stove to cook.
Soon, the sweet fragrance of dates and rice wafted around the stove.
Ayuan came over and sniffed, “It smells so good.”
Shen Shaoguang smiled, impressed that she could smell this subtle porridge fragrance amid the shop’s aromas of rice cakes and meat.
Seeing the cooking was almost done, Shen Shaoguang added a little sugar to adjust the taste, then poured it into a white porcelain pot, covered it, wrapped it in a small white cloth pad, and placed it in a food box.
“Let me go deliver it,” Ayuan asked.
Shen Shaoguang pointed to an extra bowl, “Share this with Achang.”
Ayuan agreed with a smile.
Yu San glanced at her, “You just keep indulging them.”
Shen Shaoguang winked, aren’t children meant to be indulged a bit?
Ignoring Princess Yu San, Shen Shaoguang picked up the food box and left the shop.
It seemed the servant had already spoken with the gatekeeper, as Shen Shaoguang was allowed in as soon as she mentioned her purpose.
Shen Shaoguang was led by the Lin household’s servants, passing through the ceremonial gate, out through the entrance hall, along corridors, around the front courtyard, and into the back residence.
Along the way, Shen Shaoguang compared what she saw with her memories. Most things matched up, though there were some differences.
The bamboo was much thicker than she remembered, the crabapple trees had grown, but the floral carvings on the corridor were still the same as before.
Shen Shaoguang looked up and happened to see Assistant Magistrate Lin at the end of the corridor, wearing a white scholar’s robe, as pure as a clear breeze and bright moon.
Author’s Note: The Laba Festival details from the Tang Dynasty are partly based on historical references and partly made up – please don’t fact-check too strictly.
The walnut milk section references Mr. Liang Shiqiu’s article.