Chapter 644 - Impossible Deboning (2/2)

“It seems that Chef Yuan prepares to cook the Japanese grenadier anchovies, one of four most famous fishes from the Yangtze River.” Tengyuan neither sounded contemptuous nor appeared expectant.

“Jiayuan, what does that mean?” Dashi Xiujie had a way with words, thus he began to ask.

“The fish is also known as coilia ectenes Jordan or Coilia nasus. The shape is rather flat and is as long and narrow as a knife, thus it’s named so. The fish tastes fresh and delicious, but has lots of tiny fish bones. There’re fish bones in almost every piece of the meat. And I don’t like the fish with lots of tiny fish bones,” said Tengyuan smilingly.

When he said he didn’t like the fish, he didn’t try to conceal his attitude. He was quite frank and he didn’t look forward to what Yuan Zhou was cooking, either.

“Well, that’s terrible. This fish isn’t an eel where all the fish bones can be removed. Even if it’s the eel, one has to practice for at least 8 years if he wants to remove all the fish bones at a time successfully,” Dashi Xiujie said that in a loud voice, not knowing whether it was intentionally or unintentionally.

Nonetheless, Yuan Zhou just turned a deaf ear to that. He opened the aquarium and picked up a small scoop net before scooping the two fish out neatly and quickly.

After a sound of “Dong Dong”, the fish lost consciousness due to Yuan Zhou’s skills. Then, he put them on the chopping board.

“The fish are really small and exquisite,” Dashi Xiujie couldn’t help muttering.

“Dashi, the coilia ectenes are normally 18cm to 25cm long and weigh about 10g to 20g. Yet, these two fish in total weigh about 350g. They are not small.” Tengyuan corrected Dashi Xiujie this time.

“You really have sharp eyes,” When Yuan Zhou washed his hands, he suddenly said to Tengyuan in a complimentary tone.

“Ho Ho. That’s for sure. This old man has nothing but sharp eyes. I just haven’t figured out how you are going to process the fishbones,” Tengyuan almost laughed out due to the compliments from a young man. He immediately pointed at the fish and asked with a fake smile.

“Just wait to eat it.” Yuan Zhou’s confident and affirmative voice came clearly from the face mask.

“Okay. I’ll wait and see.” Tengyuan didn’t believe that Yuan Zhou could remove the fishbones at all.

Moreover, steaming was the cooking method that could best retain the freshness of the fish because due to the characteristics of the Japanese grenadier anchovy. Any other cooking method would give people a feeling of having the order reversed.

In this regard, almost all chefs would know about that as long as their craftsmanship wasn’t too bad. Therefore, Tengyuan was quite sure that Yuan Zhou didn’t have the method to remove all the fish bones, yet keep the fish intact before steaming it.

After Yuan Zhou washed his hands, he took out the steaming pot and began to prepare.

“As expected, he is prepared to steam the fish.” Tengyuan appeared quite positive.

Having placed the steaming pot on the gas furnace, Yuan Zhou started to process the fish on the chopping board. At that time, the Japanese grenadier anchovies also regained consciousness.

“Shua”, Yuan Zhou took out a sharp knife, which was long and narrow, glittering with a dazzling cold light. The blade looked quite sharp.

Yuan Zhou took the knife in his right hand and picked up the head of a fish with two fingers of his left hand. He made the fish stand up right in front of the water tap.

“Chi”. Yuan Zhou rubbed the fish belly gently with the knife. Then, it was opened like the lotus flowers blossoming. After a slight movement with the knife edge, the internal organs were removed from the fish belly and the fish was cleaned.

“The actions are quite fancy.” Looking at Yuan Zhou’s knife techniques, Tengyuan wasn’t really surprised.

The next moment, however, he was so surprised that his eyes opened wide.

Because Yuan Zhou directly put the knifepoint into the fish flesh. It was what one would usually do when one prepared to take out the entire fish bone.

“How is that possibly? The fish weighs no more than 150 grams. The fish flesh is too thin to be deboned, not to mention for those soft fish bones,” Tengyuan said in disbelief instantly.

Just because Tengyuan knew culinary skills too well, he thought that Yuan Zhou was absolutely unable to take out the entire fish bone successfully.

The fish was small.

The fish bone was soft.

And there were many tiny fish bones.

There was definitely no way for him to succeed.