Anty and Lesley had a guilty looks on their faces. They had been running around all morning, eating here and there, and they were still half full. But they also wanted to know what good food was in the Summer House today, so the four of them walked shoulder to shoulder towards the Summer House.
When they arrived at the Summer House since the "Summer House" is not actually a building, but a greenhouse enclosed by a transparent magic barrier, Anty could see the crowd inside surrounding a long table, holding strange large pots from a distance.
The ingredients in the pots were still fresh vegetables. She looked around, wondering: "Are we too early? It seems that lunch isn't ready yet."
Lusen was the first to walk over: "Let's go and see, maybe it's a special arrangement by Miss Ina."
As soon as they entered the Summer House, a large wide-mouthed pot and a pair of tongs were stuffed into each of their hands. Someone instructed them, "Pick whatever you want to eat and put it in the pot. After you choose, line up over there to cook."
what this? The group followed the others in a daze to the long table where there were many exquisite baskets filled with various ingredients. What first caught the eye was corn cut into segments, tender cabbage hearts, lettuce, amaranth, oily wheat, freshly sprouted bean sprouts, pumpkin, sweet potato, and potato cut into slices.
Anty could guarantee that at least more than half of the vegetables here were from the land of the Summer House. Not only because these vegetables were still fresh with dew, but also because she saw with her own eyes that a basket of vegetables was emptied, and soon someone ran to the vegetable field nearby, picked a basket, washed them, and brought them over. Freshly picked, of course, they were fresh.
The crowd moved around the table, and Anty also quickly picked some of her favorite vegetables into her pot.
Then came all kinds of mushrooms: oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms. Anty understood that these were produced in the mushroom cultivation room of the restaurant.
Now the area Anty was passing was seafood and balls, shrimp, squid tentacles, shellfish, and kelp, plus a variety of colorful balls. Fish balls and shrimp balls were piled up into a small mountain in the basket, chicken balls, hand-made mushroom balls, radish shreds balls as well as sliced ham and sausages were neatly arranged.
The stall owner stretched out his hand to her, "Come, give me the pot. Can you eat spicy and numbing food?"
Anty was stunned. She could eat a bit of spicy and numbing food, but not too much. The stall owner was used to this kind of reaction. The daily diet of the Rize people rarely contained chili, let alone Sichuan pepper. Many people simply did not know their tolerance for spiciness and numbing sensation, so he immediately changed his way of asking: "You have eaten boiled fish, right? What do you think of the spiciness?"
Of course, the Rize people had eaten boiled fish, it was the first meal that the Saintess had invited them to eat.
Anty nodded her head: "A little less Sichuan pepper than that."
The stall owner immediately stuck a label on Anty's bowl, marking it as [medium spicy, slightly numbing], and asked her to wait aside. Before Anty left, she hurriedly asked, "What is this food called?"
The stall owner answered loudly, "Hot and numbing pot!"
Dusì and the others chose their own tastes, and while they were waiting for the ingredients to be cooked, they inadvertently saw Xavier also in line to submit his ingredients.
Xavier's work at the Dragon Flame restaurant was about to end, and Dusì had repeatedly persuaded him to attend this celebration before leaving. Xavier had been noncommittal at the time. Dusì had thought he wouldn't come, but when Xavier heard the stall owner's question, his calm eyes showed no waves, but he said, "Add more chili and Sichuan pepper."
After speaking, he walked to the waiting area with a proud posture, and his condescending gaze seemed to say, "What's the point of eating a hot and numbing pot if you don't eat spicy and numbing food?"
Finally, it was Anty's turn to collect her meal. She brought back a bowl that was almost as big as her face and sat down at an empty table. Due to the celebration taking place today, the Dragon Flame restaurant was closed again, and nearly all the tables and chairs from several branches were moved to the summer house.
Once everyone was ready, Anty looked down at the bowl of food called "hot and numbing pot" in front of her. To be precise, the hot and numbing pot Anty was eating today should be called bone broth hot and numbing pot. It uses rich bone broth as the soup base, added with flavorful sesame paste for seasoning, and finally added spiciness and numbing sensation based on personal preference.
But Anty didn't know these details. She only saw that the just-cooked hot and numbing pot had a milky white soup base. After adding sesame paste and chili oil among other seasonings, the soup surface showed a joyful bright red color. Adding in the green vegetables, white rice cakes, pale pink shrimp balls, tender yellow corn, and light brown oyster mushrooms, it all mixed into a bowl of rich and tempting dishes.
Eating hot and numbing pot is most convenient with chopsticks. Having worked as a server in the restaurant for so long, Anty had become proficient in using chopsticks. She first stirred the bowl and picked up a piece of rice cake, the slightly thick soup coated the rice cake, and with a bite, the sticky rice cake brought out the umami of the soup and was tinged with a bit of spicy oil. Anty greatly enjoyed the taste.
She had been with Ina for a considerable time, and after a few bites, she understood the benefits of this cooking method. Choosing ingredients with mild and gentle flavors, and seasoning them with bone broth and other condiments allowed the ingredients to retain their original flavors and absorb the rich bone broth, thick sesame paste, aromatic and spicy chili oil, and the numbing sensation that tinged the tip of the tongue to a great extent, creating a rich layered flavor that whetted the appetite.
The temperature in the summer house was originally comfortable, but now that they were eating the hot and numbing pot, they were all sweating. Dusì served everyone some soft drinks she had prepared. Lusen stood up and asked if anyone wanted ice cream, and Anty and Lesley raised their hands in unison.
"You already have some drink," Dusì pointed at Anty's drink with her chin. Anty smiled slyly, finished her drink in one gulp, let out a gentle burp, and sighed a breath of relief.
"Now I don't have !"
Lusen laughed, turning to walk out of the summer house. The ice cream was outside, the winter Extreme Cold Icefield was a natural refrigerator.
Anty and Lesley's crisp voices rang out behind him:
"Brother Lusen, I want two scoops, vanilla, and strawberry flavor!"
"I want a sundae, the kind with blackberry jam!"
Lusen waved his hand to indicate he got it.
Lesley finished the last bite of her hot and numbing pot and drank all the flavorful bone broth, resting her chin on her hand, and said happily, "So this is what a celebration is like. No wonder people in Soma City like to attend celebrations."
Anty said solemnly, "The celebration held by Lady Ina is the best in the entire continent. Those in Soma City can't compare to ours at all."
At the age of twelve, Anty had only been to a small border town called Soma City, apart from the villages of the Rize race. At the age of twenty-two, she had traveled half the continent, been to the most prosperous capital, and participated in the queen's succession ceremony. Yet, she would still say the same thing.
"The celebration held by Lady Ina is the best in the entire continent."