The Cheat Emperor of the Culinary World

”Beating the deer with a stick, scooping fish with a ladle, wild pheasants fly straight into the pot!”

”Back then, when you drew water with a bucket, you could catch fish, and the most you’d get was the bullhead!”

Hearing that the father and daughter returned and ordered the braised bullhead, Zhao Meng felt nostalgic.

”Actually, bullhead is the tastiest! It’s truly a wild fish!”

Zhao Meng’s master was a traveling chef who had seen and experienced much, traversing south and north.

From what he saw and heard, Zhao Meng understood the customs and traditions of different places to some extent.

When mentioning bullhead, he couldn’t help but say a few more words.

”I remember my master saying that in the ’70s, he was walking next to a remote pool in Mi Mountain, and he was startled!”

”He saw a pile of bullhead heads by the pool that looked like a small mountain. Judging by the heads, they must have been over a pound each. When he looked up by the pool, he saw his fishing net. Lifting it barely more than a meter, it was full of big bullheads and common carps.”

Thinking back on his master’s tone when recounting this story, Zhao Meng laughed, ”The old man would mention that fishing in that kind of environment was the real deal! Unfortunately, it’s a thing of the past. Now, anywhere there’s a pool, it’s managed, and you can’t just fish freely!”

Fu Yu listened while taking over the processed bullhead.

The bullhead’s flesh is like garlic cloves, and the most authentic way to eat it is braised in soy sauce.

The sauce is made from local homemade yellow sauce, and the braised bullhead only exudes the aroma of soy and fish with no other peculiar smells.

Put a little cool oil in the pot, heat it, and add fatty meat to stir-fry until oil comes out.

On low heat, add green onion, ginger, garlic, and chili, stir-fry until slightly browned.

Then add the sauce and stir-fry.

When the aroma comes out, add an appropriate amount of water.

While Fu Yu prepared the stir-fry ingredients, Sun Qingning leaned over to watch.

He once said that watching Fu Yu cook was like watching a performance; it was very addictive.

Though this sounded exaggerated, it was truly how he felt.

No matter what you do, when a good-looking person does the same thing, it’s always more pleasing to the eye.

Once the water boils, Fu Yu pours the bullhead into the pot, adds light soy sauce and dark soy sauce, and waits for it to boil again.

After it boils, he adds a generous amount of rice wine.

Sun Qingning quickly handed over the pot lid.

But Fu Yu didn’t take it, casually advising, ”You must not cover the pot at this point; you should let the alcohol evaporate to remove the fishy smell.”

After it boils, skim off the foam.

Only then does Fu Yu take the pot lid and set it in place.

Braise on high heat.

Fu Yu looked at Sun Qingning: ”This fish must be braised on high heat, and you shouldn’t move it, or it’ll fall apart.”

Sun Qingning quickly nodded, carefully remembering it.

Finally, reduce the sauce and dish it out.

There’s no trick to plating this dish; just pile it like a little mountain peak, with some chopped green onions and cilantro on top of the soy-colored fish, and it’s ready to serve.

The waiter took the plate of braised bullhead away.

Sun Qingning instinctively twitched his nostrils, as if the smoky aroma of the braised bullhead lingered at the tip of his nose, constantly tempting his craving for fish.

”This braised fish smells incredible!”

Fu Yu smiled; he was a bit tempted, too.

Unfortunately, although the fish doesn’t look like much, wild ones are quite expensive.

Whenever a knowledgeable customer orders it, they never cancel their order.

All they could do was feast their eyes.

The waiter brought the plate to the dining table.

Immediately, the fragrant aroma of soy sauce fish filled the room.

The middle-aged woman involuntarily twitched her nose, thinking: It smells so delicious!

The elderly man beside her mumbled something abruptly.

If someone could carefully discern, they would hear that he said, ”Braised fish and fried shrimp, rice’s foe.”

The middle-aged woman couldn’t hear clearly. So, with a mix of helplessness and anticipation, she asked, ”Dad, is this what you want to eat?”

The elderly man’s eyes grew brighter, a happy expression on his face, as he reached out for the chopsticks, aiming at the fish on the plate.

This time, there wasn’t any tantrum because of dissatisfaction; instead, he tried to use the chopsticks to pick up the fish, wanting to taste it.

The middle-aged woman saw this and was overjoyed. Her previous annoyance over the elderly man’s disobedience vanished instantly.

She quickly picked up chopsticks, happily assisting the elderly man by moving the plate in front of him, carefully picking out fish bones, and feeding him the fish meat.

When the chopstick-held fish reached his mouth, the elderly man cooperatively opened his mouth, quickly took in the fish meat, chewed it a couple of times, swallowed, and eagerly reached for more with his chopsticks.

The middle-aged woman, beaming with joy, exclaimed, ”Oh my! Dad, you’re finally eating!”

After feeding him a couple more bites of fish, the middle-aged woman remembered something and called the waiter, ”Do you have rice? Get a bowl!”

The rice used at Qianlima is the fragrant long-grain rice from Daoxiang Village, with clear and translucent grains and a fragrant and sweet taste after steaming.

The middle-aged woman carefully picked the fish bones clean, mixing the fish meat with the sauce into the rice, feeding it to the elderly man one bite at a time.

After picking out the bones for a while, the middle-aged woman also noticed that this braised bullhead has one good point: it has few bones!

As long as she picked the meat from the back of the fish, there were no small bones at all.

She picked all the back meat from a few fish and piled it onto the rice. Without much effort, the elderly man happily finished a bowl of rice.

There wasn’t much left of the fish on the plate.

Seeing the bit of leftovers, the middle-aged woman hesitated momentarily but eventually called the waiter, ”Bring another bowl of rice!”

This braised fish truly smells delicious!

Watching the elderly man delighting in his meal, the middle-aged woman finally felt her long-lasting stress easing. She had spent the entire morning coaxing the elderly man and hadn’t had a drop of water herself.

The aroma of the fish, which she’d inhaled for so long, indeed made her a little hungry.

With the elderly man fed and quiet, the middle-aged woman started flipping through the thick, old-fashioned cookbook for him.

When the rice arrived, the middle-aged woman used her chopsticks to pick out a piece of remaining fish meat from the plate, wrapped it in sauce, placed it in the bowl, and, mixed with rice, sent it into her mouth.

The braised bullhead, cooked to a tender and flavorful finish, was so fresh and juicy with each bite, making it the perfect complement to rice.

The middle-aged woman, engrossed in eating fish, couldn’t help but think that she must have been really hungry. Otherwise, how could the fish taste so good and fragrant!

A single bite left a lasting impression, the lingering taste clinging in her mouth.

After finishing a bowl of rice, the middle-aged woman looked at the little bit of sauce left on the plate, somewhat reluctant to leave it behind. At this moment, she felt a sudden understanding of her father’s previous craving.

Putting down her chopsticks, the middle-aged woman turned to the elderly man and softly said, ”Dad, this braised bullhead smells amazing, no wonder you craved it. How about I bring you here again next time?”

Whether the elderly man understood or not, he simply smiled back, murmuring something incoherently from his mouth.