The Waterside Eatery That Has the Whole Town Drooling

[Canal Town Slice of Life] [Slow-Paced Business] [Meticulous Food Illustrations] [Healing Little One] [Absolutely No Hopeless Romance]

Modern food blogger Jiang Xiaoman transmigrates overnight and becomes the eldest daughter of a riverside family in a Jiangnan water town.

Her father is a taciturn boatman who rows with a sculling oar, her mother is a nimble-fingered but tongue-tied embroiderer, and in her arms is a four-and-a-half-year-old little tagalong, Tuantuan, who spends all day drooling.

The shabby house leaks when it rains, and the rice jar is nearly empty? No worries. Just watch her roll up her sleeves and cook.

Thin rice sheets chilled over a light layer of ice, wrapped in chili oil and garlic sauce; crisp river shrimp sizzling in the wok, filling the whole lane with a fragrant, smoky aroma.

A handful of finely chopped scallions goes into the milky crucian carp soup just before the heat is turned off. Four kinds of chilled rice cake have people scrambling for them aboard the pleasure boats...

No household intrigue, no outrageous princes, just the morning market hawkers along the bluestone streets and the sound of laundry being washed on the stone steps by the river landing.

From glutinous rice cakes that cost three copper coins apiece to a grand three-courtyard restaurant right on the riverbank.

As dusk settles, three dishes and a soup are set beneath the grape trellis. The family gathers around the oil lamp, leisurely counting a basket full of copper coins.

The warmth of everyday life is what soothes the hearts of ordinary people.