Chương 3: Saury Flowers
Fang Meixian was dumbfounded when she heard the dial tone on the phone. "What does your sister mean by this?" she asked Li Weixin blankly.
"I think...she agreed," Li Weixin was also unsure.
Did Li Weiyin agree?
Of course, not!
Because, unbeknownst to the Li Family, she already had a boyfriend. If she had yet to meet someone she liked, the Xu Family would have been a good choice.
But, even though her parents were biased, they had never blamed and scolded her, nor did she lack any food and clothes; she still had a wealthy upbringing.
Since she was a grateful person with a conscience, she was definitely going to repay them.
300 million? Her boyfriend could afford that too!
But, Mrs. Xu had been honest with Young Master Xu's condition, so she had to see her personally and express her standpoint. As a woman that Li Weiyin admired, she expected Mrs. Xu to be understanding. Besides, her pride would never allow her to seize someone by force.
Even if she suited Mrs. Xu's choice, Hua Country was big—there was bound to be another suitable person.
Li Weiyin called her friend. Her friend's father was the most famous surgeon in Jin City and he had a vast network, so it didn't take long before she found out her father's condition.
After discovering that her father was no longer in danger, Li Weiyin calmed down, placed the fluffy fish mince into a bowl and let it sit for a while.
She then pulled out another bowl, cracked two eggs, and whisked it smoothly.
Grabbing the bowl of fish mince, she added some water, salt, cooking wine, and ginger juice, and started pounding the meat. As she did so, she slowly added the whisked eggs until the mixture turned into a fish paste.
On the other side, she removed the outer layer of some pig lard, smashed it with the back of her knife, added some minced ham, and mixed it well to make a pork filling.
She then coated 12 small wine cups with pork lard, filled the cups halfway with the fish paste, placed a gingko-sized dollop of ham filling, and covered the top with a smooth layer of fish paste.
After that, she placed some coriander leaves and minced ham on the surface to form a flower pattern and placed the cups in a steamer on high heat. To prevent the fish paste from sinking and forming an ugly cavity, she also carefully left a small slit in the bamboo steamer.
7 minutes later, she removed the fish from the cups while they were still hot and placed them into a bowl with the flower pattern facing up.
Finally she poured a salty meat broth into the bowl and drizzled a shallow layer of chicken oil on top.
Alas, the long lost dish of, 'Saury Flowers', was completed.
The white tender fish paired with the green coriander and bright red ham looked like a blooming flower. Meanwhile, the chicken oil not only made the dish glisten like crystals, it also brought out the fragrance of the ingredients.
"Smells good," a naturally lazy male voice said.
Li Weiyin turned her head and saw Lou Yucheng leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. How long had he been standing there?
"When did you return? Why didn't you make a sound?" Li Weiyin complained as she beckoned him over with her hand. "Hurry and wash your hands. Come try the dish that I specially prepared for you. I put a lot of effort into this."
It took more than three months of hard labor in a remote village to coax the old master to pass this dish to her.
Moreover, River Saury was difficult to buy. She had been searching for an entire month before she found a fish of the right quality.
"How much effort did you put in this time?" Lou Yucheng asked casually as he washed his hands.
Li Weiyin laid the other dishes on the dining table and replied, "River Saury is only tasty when it is migrating back up the river. They migrate from the sea, up the river, to Jiang City. Only when they reach halfway in Chengjiang, is the salt content in their body completely gone and their meat is the best."
The fish had just reached Chengjiang; the best location.
Unfortunately, the fishermen started too early. Forget about waiting for them to arrive in Chengjiang, even at the mouth of the river, they were all captured.
Only today was she fortunate enough to come across one that escaped capture.
Given such a rare opportunity, it was only right for her to make the best dish in order to do the ingredient justice.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
Yunyi
Yunyi Phew! What a difficult chapter to translate. The dish described in this chapter actually exists in real life but isn't very common. In fact, I've never heard of it before and I couldn't even find a proper English name for it so I called it 'Saury Flowers' based on the description. It is usually made with Yangtze Saury, one of the most expensive fish in the world. After reading this chapter, I feel like eating it, don't you?
-- Nhận quà