After Zhou Shuling left the kitchen, Liu Chang'an had no choice but to do it himself, carefully washing the mortar and pestle clean.
Mortars were more commonly found around the border regions of Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hubei, and Jiangxi. Strangely enough, they really were used more often in the areas where those provinces met, while they were relatively less common elsewhere.
They looked almost exactly the same as the garlic mortars commonly used in the north and the mortars and pestles found in traditional medicine shops, and their functions were entirely similar. But calling them exactly the same thing still seemed a little off.
For example, the pestle for a mortar was generally longer than the garlic pounder used with a garlic mortar... though that certainly was not implying that the ones used by southerners were longer than those used by northerners.
The fried peppers, preserved eggs, and minced garlic were mixed with light soy sauce, black vinegar, a little salt, and steamed eggplant, then pounded into a fragrant, spicy, non-greasy dish of pounded chili preserved eggs that was especially appetizing with rice.
Half-health Zhou Dongdong rushed into the kitchen with Lu Si'en, licking her lips as she stared at the chopped spiced duck on the plate.
She had already been beaten up today, so her health bar was no longer full. That meant she could eat lots of spiced duck instead of merely licking the duck bones everyone else had left behind.
"Brother Chang'an, look, has my health bar gone down a little?" Zhou Dongdong opened her mouth wide as soon as she finished speaking, because Brother Chang'an stuffed the leftover preserved egg white from making the pounded chili preserved eggs into it.
"Mm, it's gone down a little. Just like how you only need to be seventy