"Of course, coming to the seaside naturally ans learning a few authentic local dishes."
First, he made eel rice, beginning by chopping the eel into chunks, removing the bones and the dorsal fin, then scoring it. This prevented the skin from curling during frying. He then marinated it with minced ginger, minced garlic, cooking wine, and black pepper.
While letting it sit, he also prepared the at needed for the tempura, skinning it as only the flesh was needed, similarly deboning and finning it. He then cut the at into strips and used salt to cure it.
While doing that, he also mixed the sauce for the eel rice, primarily using oyster sauce, soy sauce, honey, black pepper, water, and a bit of starch until it was smooth.
Next, he prepared the batter for frying the tempura. The batter for tempura was similar to what one might use at ho for frying mushrooms or at buns, but since the yacht had a special flour for frying, Lin Yang didn’t bother to mix his own.
It must be said that although the yacht wasn’t very big, it was well-equipped with a variety of seasonings and common tools. It seed Boss Chen really knew how to enjoy life.
At this mont, Lin Yang couldn’t help but think that when he had the money, he would definitely buy an even larger and more luxurious yacht and then set sail once more.
Though he thought so, his hands didn’t stop moving.
He prepared the flour in a 1:1.6 ratio and with that, all the prep work was done. It was now ti for him to truly showcase his skills.
The first dish Lin Yang made was stead sea eel, which is actually quite simple to make, similar to other stead seafood. He used green onions, ginger, and cooking wine to remove the fishy sll and began to steam.
Once stead, he discarded the green onions, ginger, cooking wine, and the liquid from the steaming, laid fresh green onion strips on the fish, drizzled hot oil over it, and circled it with stead fish soy sauce, making it very convenient.
The only difficulty with steaming is that the size of the fish and the heat are closely related, which can be tricky to control. Sotis the fish might be overcooked, sotis undercooked, but generally, with regular practice, it’s quite easy to master.
The second dish, the eel rice, was also easy. He had scored the sea eel chunks earlier, heated the pan with oil, and fried them. Once both sides were cooked and changed color, he added the sauce he had mixed earlier, stir-fried it briefly, and then the reduced sauce and eel chunks were ready to be placed on top of the rice in a clay pot.
He then heated the rice over the fire a bit more so that the eel sauce seeped in, enhancing the flavor. Oh, apologies, it’s not eel, it’s sea eel, there is a difference between sea eel and eel, and distinguishing them is quite complex....
The last dish, tempura, was even simpler: just coat it with the prepared batter and once the oil was hot enough, fry it individually to avoid clumping. Lin Yang preferred his extra crispy, so he fried it twice.
By the ti the tempura was ready, the stead sea eel and eel rice were also finished.
When Lin Yang had finished preparing the two dishes and one rice, Li Xiaopeng and Yue’er were already eager to start serving. While Lin Yang was making these three dishes, they had already prepared everything else, just waiting for his dishes so they could start the al.
"Alright, let’s eat."
The three of them didn’t need to be formal. Seeing how eager they were made Lin Yang feel a sense of accomplishnt.
He also picked up his chopsticks and first tried the tempura he had just fried.
The at of the sea eel, how to describe it, was even tenderer than he had imagined.
He had been wondering if the sea eel’s flesh would be as tough as snake at, considering it preys on other animals in the sea. As a general rule, carnivorous creatures tend to have harder flesh, like wolves, tigers, certainly tougher than sheep and pig at.
But when Lin Yang took a bite of the tempura, he was amazed. Of course, this was just a matter of contrast; the sea eel’s at wasn’t especially delicious, but it was surprisingly tender, complented by the perfectly crispy tempura batter.
Dipped into so Thai sweet chili sauce with a touch of lemon juice to cut through the fattiness, the dish was indeed scrumptious. Eating with a crunch, it was as fun as playing, very interesting.
However, compared to his preference for fried tempura, Li Xiaopeng clearly favored the eel rice more, while Yue’er seed particularly fond of the stead sea eel.
Lin Yang also tasted the stead version. The stead sea eel retained its natural flavors, with tender flesh and a high collagen content in the skin. He had thought the skin would be tough, as he felt the resistance when cutting through it.
However, eating it dispelled that notion; the skin was akin to tender braised pork hock without the greasiness, truly delicious.
Finally, the eel rice - Lin Yang was also quite eager seeing how much Li Xiaopeng was enjoying it.
He served himself a bowl, brought it to his nose and his eyes lit up, as the aroma alone was tantalizing. Then he picked up a chunk of sea eel, drenched in sauce, and couldn’t help but swallow his saliva once more.
He slowly placed the fish in his mouth, gently bit down, and felt the full sensation of the collagen in the skin and the tenderness of the flesh, combined with the smoky flavor from frying and the taste of the sauce, it was heady. Eating just the eel could be slightly rich, but paired with a mouthful of rice, it was incredibly satisfying.
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