Cooking

I patrolled back and forth in front of the pan. Every fifteen seconds I would check a fried piece of fish to see if the bottom side turned into yellowish, the color indicating that I could change the pieces side. Several sweat drops run down my face. I felt like it's myself that was being fried. The heat of the noon solely was almost unbearable, now it's added with the heat emitted from the gas cooker, yet I had no electrical fan or air conditioner to support me. Yes, the electricity here is cut off 12 hours everyday, from dawn to dusk. My grandmother told me to sit down into a nearby chair. "You don't have to check too often," she said while wavering her paper fan at me. The mildly wind from the fan was like a rain to a dried land, bringing some life back to me.  Still, I was too impatient to check less frequently. I also was afraid the fish would be burned already if I checked too late. Last time I even wanted to change the side of the fish every 5 seconds or so, and ended up breaking the shape of the fish. When the fish is not properly fried yet, it will be easily teased apart when you change its side. And it did take some amount of time for the fish to be fried properly. I certainly knew the time needed better now; however, seems that I hadn't totally grown over the nervousness of a newbie.

Frying fish is actually simple. You first have to marinate the fish through other condiments like salt, sauces, oil, etc. How much of each? I wouldn't say one or two spoonful, but give it your guess, and you can refine the next time. It's what we do in practice. Wait for several minutes for the condiments to penetrate into the fish. Put the pan on the cooker, pouring some oil into it (dun pour too little). Wait until

the oil stop boiling, which will help the fish to not stick to the pan, to put the fish into the pan. When the bottom side of the fish is properly cooked (turning to yellowish), flip or change to other sides. It will take awhile, you don't have to check too frequently. Don't let it fried too much, or its meat will become too dry. After all the sides are fried, you're done. That's it!

However, it doesn't work out so smoothly so far. Last time when I fried fish with my friend, I kept the fire quite high, and the fish got burned very quickly. Ha ha. When there was a faint scene of fish being burned, my friend noticed and immediately adjusted the fire, while saying, "You must keep the fire low. I let the fire bigger just to boil the oil at the beginning.." I admit, "Sorry, I didn't remember. Last time my grandma adjusted it for me, and didn't tell me very why.." She continued, "you must keep the fire small so that even the inner part of the fish get fried at the same time as the outter part. Otherwise the outter part will get burned while the inner part is not cooked yet." I laughed, "Ha ha, had my grandma explained the thing so logically like you did, I'd never forget. He he, sorry, it's the second time I fry fish." She also smiled, "cooking is like studying, need practice." After that incident, I never dare to set the fire very big whenever frying anything. It is indeed easier to remember things when you understand why it is like that.

Finally I finished the dish! It's edible! Ha ha, it isn't actually too bad, if not kinda good. Through the accidents, I learned that cooking is not very difficult (ha ha); you just need to follow some generic steps closely. Even if you mess up some parts, continue like normal, the result would still be something accetably good. However, it is difficult to cook excellent food. Like my friend said, "cooking is easy, but cooking well is a different story."

Later I will ask my dad how the fish I fried like, he he.