鱼头泡饼 (Yu Tou Pao Bing), by its name, you will probably not venture it.
Paul and I were searching for lunch. We walked toward the dumpling (饺å: JiaoZi) restaurant, knowing that is really the fail-safe choice. Just 50 meters before arrival, there is this shining newly open one. Hmm, why not? The maitre 'd asked us to wait for few minutes. If more than 5, I am going for JiaoZi. I was thinking that to myself.
I thought of Melanie when we sat down. A bunch of them went out few weeks ago and had a feast on this horrible thing. She picked around the plate for safer bits and was caught. After being dared to take a bite, she found it was actually good. Hey, we Chinese don't fool around with foods. If it is good, no matter how weird to westerners, we eat it.
The plate is intimidating. It is a size of a large pizza (14 inches or more) and relatively deep. A fish head, split into halves, occupies the majority of the space. Thick and yummy looking sauce filled the rest of the plate with lots of garlic, ginger, and green onions. Another waiter came quickly and dumped a small basket of bread onto the plate.
It is not really bread. It is more like Nan in Indian restaurants. You spread dough into a wide thin layer, apply just a bit of oil, roll it up, and roll it out again. After few times, you put it into a dry frying pan and roast it for few minutes till brown. Take it out and cut, or hand-tear, it into small pieces then serve. It is chewy, flaky, and good smelling. We spread them around the plate so that each gets a good soaking.
The meat was tender and smooth. Paul and I each worked on one part. I started from the “neck,” where the fish is more “normal.” I found myself picking up those bread pieces regularly. The cold beer works very well for this slightly spicy dish.
Quickly, I was picking apart the head and devouring delicious morsels — some are not flesh. The head was completely dismantled with our chopsticks after about an hour. None of us thought we could finish this 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) piece when we ordered.