This dish is characterized by both its unique features and its challenging aspects.
First of all, there are specific requirements for choosing the fish. You should choose a longer, leaner fresh fish before cutting it, and strictly speaking, Yellow River carp is the best.
Southern carp are not suitable; they are too fat and short, making them unsuitable for styling.
In the kitchen, Zhao Lao Er saw Fatty stretch out a fish and offered to help him kill it.
But the fat man stopped him: "I'll handle this fish myself."
"That's something new!" Aunt Pang teased. "Tian Kai, go take a look at the door. Did the sun rise in the west today?"
The fat man laughed and explained, "There might be a competitor coming upstairs, so I have to take charge myself."
Upon hearing that someone had come to cause trouble, everyone took it seriously.
Well, since we opened in the spring of 1981, we've encountered plenty of incidents like this—people causing trouble and challenging us.
However, the fat man easily resolved each situation, which led to Qili Pavilion's growing reputation.
Zhao Lao Er had nothing to do at the moment, so he stood aside and watched the fat man process the fish.
The fat man made a deep cut, removing the gills and the hard bones underneath, especially at the tail, where he almost made a vertical cut close to the fish bone.
After finishing the knife work, Fatty picked up the carp, looked at it with satisfaction, and said to Zhao Lao Er, "That's it."
After saying that, he pointed to Zhao Lao Er and said, "Look at the place where the fish head is connected. The knife should be upright. It must be upright. Otherwise, if it is not handled properly, it will easily break."
Zhao Lao Er looked at it carefully, nodded, and indicated that he had learned another trick.
After cutting the knife, the next step is to coat it with batter, which also requires some skill: "When making this batter, try to make it a bit thicker, otherwise the oil temperature won't be high enough when you first put it in the pan, and the batter will be easy to peel off."
If you had to pinpoint the most difficult part of making sweet and sour carp, it would be the deep-frying step.
Especially for ordinary households, if you want to fry this fish thoroughly, you basically have to pour in a whole pot of oil.
As everyone knows, heating oil can be very risky, so it's not recommended to do this at home.
Even in restaurants, they pour in more than half a pot of oil at once.
Before frying the fish, Aunt Pang shouted at the two apprentices, "What are you all standing there for? Hurry up and go learn!"
The two boys quickly put down what they were doing and ran to the side to stand and watch eagerly.
They were willing to learn, and the fat man was willing to teach; the biggest difference between him and Sha Zhu was that he didn't hold back his skills.
Over the years, he has worked with many people in the kitchen who wanted to learn a skill, and he was willing to teach them.
Like when Lao Wang asked if he could learn to make lion's head meatballs from Fatty; even Aunt Fatty thought Lao Wang had gone too far. As the saying goes, you can give money but not the right way. How can you ask someone for their skills like that?
To everyone's surprise, the fat man agreed without even hesitating.
Not only did they teach, but they also taught every step thoroughly, without holding anything back.
Afterwards, Aunt Pang and Liu Lan couldn't help but question Fatty: "Did you take fake medicine? You're just going to teach me your livelihood!"
The fat man laughed it off, saying, "It's nothing. Everyone makes things differently, no two are exactly alike. Besides, a skill only has meaning if it's widely shared. Otherwise, if you keep your skills to yourself and I keep mine to myself, we'll just have to watch it get lost in the end."
It was then that Aunt Pang realized her nephew possessed such a grand vision. From that moment on, she decided to follow him to the bitter end.
But I digress. Let's get back to frying this fish.
As the fat man worked, he taught the fish: "The oil temperature needs to be around 120 or 130 degrees Celsius. It can't be too low or too high. If it's too low, the fish will need to be coated with batter. If it's too high, it will set right away and be ruined."
Zhao Lao Er and his two apprentices watched as he held the fish by the head and tail, first placing it face down and slowly lowering it into the pot for deep-frying. After a while, he pulled the fish in the oil, and while doing so, he said to his two apprentices, "Did you see that clearly? This step is crucial; you must pull it like this. After pulling it, flip it over like this."
As he spoke, the fat man flipped the fish back over. He arranged it with the head facing the tail, making it higher at the head and lower at the tail, so that it would stand upright when plated later.
During the entire deep-frying process, the fish's mouth should be slowly opened, and the incisions on its belly and body should also be fried until they open.
Once the fish has fully opened up, it's ready. The next step is to make the sauce.
You must not use tomato sauce to color this sauce.
Some might argue that ketchup existed in 1984, right? The answer is yes, Heinz ketchup was already available at that time.
Many restaurants now use this for color matching because it's so simple!
There aren't many people like Fatty who only use sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar for coloring anymore.
The sauce was ready, and it was slowly poured over the carp. While pouring the sauce, the fat man said to his apprentices, "Do you see these edges and corners now? Take a spoon and knock them off like I am. Do you know why we need to knock them off? Otherwise, the dish will look like a hedgehog when it's served, all sticky and unsightly."
Once the fish was cooked, Liu Lan wasn't asked to serve it; instead, Liu Lan personally carried it to the table.
As the food was served, the fat man became even more certain that the old man was in the same profession as him.
Only someone in the same profession would judge a dish by its appearance, just like him.
The old man circled the table, carefully examining the dish from several angles. As he looked at it, he called over a middle-aged man beside him, saying, "You tell us what you think about it."
The middle-aged man first clasped his hands in a fist salute to the fat man, performing a traditional martial arts greeting to reveal his identity, before carefully observing him like the old man.
After a moment, he said, "Master Chen's skills are superb, and I am completely outmatched."
The old man gave him a satisfied look and said, "There are mountains beyond mountains, and people beyond people."
The apprentice bowed to show he had learned something, and then he asked the fat man, "Did you come up with this method yourself, or did someone teach you?"
Could it be that the fat man was taught all these skills by the Stardew Valley system? He could only frankly admit, "I figured them all out myself."
The old man commented affirmatively, "This method is excellent. You should all come and see; the fish's mouth, gills, belly, and the cuts on its body are all open, making for a very successful presentation. Just like us Shandong people, open and straightforward! You should all learn this method when you go back."
Hey, this old man! If Old Wang hadn't brought him, Fatty would have already sent someone to notify Thunder Tiger to bring his men and get armed...
After plagiarizing without any qualms, the old man then proceeded to critique the dish: "It's good, it's good. The presentation is better than most restaurants. Especially the edges and corners, which have been carefully crafted. It shows great attention to detail."
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