For this blog, the character I’m going to share with you guys is “Squirrel Fish”. Squirrel seems far from fish, not only differing in their appearances but also in their habitats. First time I heard of this special dish, I was confused. I suppose you guys who did not hear about it are confused too. The answer is partly in following pictures.
As you can see, the fish, after carefully sliced and fried, looks like a squirrel. The raising head and tail, as well as the expanded body, enable the dish has a squirrel-like appearance, which in turns entitled the transitional cuisine. Moreover, the last step of Squirrel Fish is to pour the prepared extreme hot sauce on the top of the fried fish, which cause the dish to make squirrel’s squeak sounds.
The famous dish of squirrel fish was invented and perfected in southern China—Suzhou City. It was said that the sophisticated and delicate dish was made for a emperor—Qian Long. Once when emperor Qian wandered at the Suzhou City, he came by a restaurant. Seeing lots of fish swimming in the pool, he asked to chief to cook the fish for him. However, those fish were offerings for god. The restaurant’s chief dare not either to offend god or emperor so that they decided to make the fish squirrel like to avoid the god’s blame. When the fish was delivered to the table, Qian heard some noise like “squeaking”, so he told everyone this dish, from now on, should be called Squirrel Fish. This is another story of being invented by accidents. Now I believe the beauty of coincident.
This dish is not a piece of cake, requiring high-level cutting techniques and mastered sense for heat.
1. Deal with the raw fish, cleaning, drying, etc.
2. Cut the head off and keep it. Some chief prefer to keep it while some do not.
3. According to the direction of fish’s main bone, slice the fish near both side of bone. We got two pieces of fish.
4. Remove the part if the meat is attached to little bones.
5. Cut parallel stripes on fish 45 angles from vertical, but do not cut it through. Then cut another groups of parallel stripes which intersect the former ones. Form rhombus patterns.
6. Add cooking wines and salts to raw fish, and the fish head. Cover them with dry starch.
7. Heat the oil. When oil gets 80% heat, hang the fish on top of the pot, and then pour the oil on the fish by spoon.
8. Fry the head in hot oil. Always use chopsticks to control a special shape of fish head.
9. Arrange meat, head, and tail to make it like a squirrel in a disk.
10. Mix ketchup, bone soup, sugar, vinegar, wine, soy sauce, wet starch, and pour them into heated oil to make sure they mix better.
11. With new heated oil, fry pine nuts, shrimp, garlic, etc.
12. Pour the mixed source to cover the fish, and sprinkle the fried pine nuts, shrimp…..
Okay definitely not something I will be cooking in my apartment! That process exceeds my abilities even as a proclaimed “pretty good cook”. I love the story about how the name of the fish came to be! I always think its funny when names catch on and become widely accepted when in fact it was just one person saying something random about it.
I never knew that a fish could be cooked like a squirrel! This was fun to read, and I liked that you gave the back-story of how the dish was first invented.
I wonder how the emperor that invented the title of this dish came up with the image of a squirrel and not just a fish… I still see a fish. I enjoyed the back story you gave and the pictures that helped me understand what the dish actually looks like!
Another way the story was told to me. The Emperor was on travels and saw a fish being energetic and full of life. So The Emperor demanded it to be catched and served to him as a meal. The chef had prepared other ingredient for the journey and was not the common meal time. So the chef chose to serve it creatively, as uncommon occasion, with the head upward to represent the energy of the fish. The chef used hot oil run down the cut fillet to fry it above the wok in the air like a jumping fish. Rest was from ingredients chef had on him at the time.
And because it was fizzing hot it let out sounds like whistling. The Emperor said it sound like squirrel so the dish got its name.
I really like how you included the history as well as the recipe on how to make the Squirrel Fish. It’s fitting that it makes an odd squirrel noise when it’s cooked.