Night 50: Dusk, West Lake Scalebass (Carp) in Vinegar Gravy
The Late Night Diner is a part of Rhodes Island's canteen. That goes without saying – to whom had anyone ever heard of a diner in the boiler room?
As the name implies, it opens around midnight. There are only a handful of customers at a time.
Operators off their night shift could take an order and bring back to their quarters. Night owls could sit dining-in while leeching off the Diner's wi-fi. The Doctor would come for instant noodles from time to time.
Drinks are in the cooler. Anyone burdened by their own thoughts could take one and chug it down, anytime.
Menu? No such thing exists. What the Chef prepares is what you get. It all depends on his mood of the day.
Welcome to the Rhodes Island Late Night Diner. In here, you might even meet a familiar face or two.
"Miss Dusk, the fresh scalebass your ordered." The Chef said, knocking on her door. "Miss Dusk?"
There was no response coming out behind the door. The Chef knocked harder with increased intensity. Then the door slid open. A scent of bamboo instantly came out from the opened aperture. In front of the Chef's eyes came a forest of bamboo swaying in the wind. The gentle breeze coursed through the bamboo stalks, along with the pleasant sound of birds chirping and the flowing streams. The Chef with the still jumping scalebass in hand walked along a small pathway in the middle of the forest. The path grew narrower and steeper, and before he knew it, he came out suddenly into a mountain top clearing. Within his sights, the thin, silken veiled clouds surrounded the mountain tops before his eyes. It was as if he had stepped into a realm only the immortals of Yan's legends would inhabitant.
Dust was sitting cross-legged in a small pavilion not far from where the Chef stood. Currently she was busying herself with a computer terminal. There was a clay stove outside the pavilion, with all the cooking utensils one would need placed on the side. The Chef was not surprised. He simply walked to the prepared stove and started slaughtering the scalebasses. Dusk, being the artistic type, would decorate her dwelling with something fitting. It's a natural thing for her to do. If what he saw was the typical dorm set up as the rest of the Rhodes Island, the Chef would instead started suspecting the mental health of miss Dusk.
Though he thought that this one must be really dedicated that she would spend a small fortune for a meal alone. Fresh, live river scalebass from Kou-wu region of Yan, transported by air to Rhodes Island, and she also asked specifically for the Chef to prepare the meal. There are many on-board the land ship who even hadn't a taste of scalebass at all, the Chef thought. Yet he obliged all the same. Currently he busied himself with cleaning the scalebasses, ridding them the innards as well as the scales. He started a wok of water, then put them through the water when it started to boil so the skin would shrink in the heat and making it easier to clean the slime on the skin afterwards. This way there would be no stink from the meat in the final dish.
The Chef cut off the fins of the scalebasses, then cut them into halves in the middle. He then marinated them wi salt, scallion and ginger as well as yellow wine for the base flavour. After it was done, he started another wok of hot water. Before the water boiled, he looked towards Dusk and the terminal she had been working on.
"Miss Dusk, still working at this hour?"
"The less you bother me the better." Dusk mumbled with an electronic pen in her mouth. "I'm working on a commission. Not that I like it that much."
"Quite rare for you to do so, that taking on commissions of all things." The Chef said. The water had brought to a slight boil. With some more salt and yellow wind added, the Chef put in the scalebasses with scallion and ginger to cook thoroughly. "Can I ask you what you are working on?"
"It's for a game Closure and others had been developing." Dust moved the monitor around to show to the Chef. The interface of the game was quite simple. A few cards were shown on the display as the triggering events, and swiping them left or right would cause a change in the data value thus start a new event. He had to say that Dusk's illustrations had given the game quite some more vibrancy. "I got nothing to do anyways, so why not doing some work for her."
"Ah, the works of miss Dusk are truly something to behold." The Chef slowly pushed the scalebasses in the wok with a ladle. The heat was kept low, so that the texutre of the meat would stay tender as long as possible. "Although...where do you get the electricity for the terminal in a bamboo forest like this?"
"...Do not question me of my work! Just cook the scalebasses." Dust pouted and stomped her feet..
After some twenty minutes of cooking with low heat, the scalebass meat gradually turned from pink to white. The Chef carefully fished out the scalebasses from the wok onto a plate with a colander ladle, then started another wok to prepare for the gravy. A bit of soy sauce and salt, as well as a few large scoops of sugar and Kou-wu fragrant vinegar to make the base flavour, with a few drops of dark soy sauce for the colour – finally the Chef put in a sprinkle of pepper to give the taste more complexity. When the sauce was bubbling in the wok the Chef poured in a half-bowl of starch water for it to thicken. The sweet and sour aroma was tantalising yet not pungent, and the scent of the Kou-wu vinegar flowed in the air, complimenting the jade bamboo forest and layered clouds. Just like their places in the scene, the scent of vinegar was never meant to overwhelm the base taste of the food, yet never-the-less was an irreplaceable element for the whole dish.
The Chef placed the plated scalebasses before Dusk with the saucer filled with vinegar gravy. Dusk raised her head from her work, and glanced at the plain boiled scalebasses in the plate. "You call this ready?" She asked.
"Well, usually one would pour the vinegar gravy upon the scalebasses, then sprinkle some minced ginger and it'd be done." The Chef pointed to the saucer. "Although it'd look better if madam Dusk poured the gravy herself with her own method, no?"
"Humph, how very glib of you." Dusk huffed. A brush pen materialised out of thin air and into her hand. "If I don't give it some fixes, then how could this ugly thing be named as an artistic beauty?"
In mere moments, the snowy white scalebass meat were cut into the shape of blossoming flowers with a few strokes of her brush pen. When each blossom was placed nicley on the plate, Dusk poured the thick, fragrant vinegar gravy a top of them. Then she sprinkled golden ginger minces in-between the flesh pedals, like fresh pollen beautifully dotted the pedal of the delicate blossoms.
Dusk glanced at the dish, mumbled with half pride and half dissatisfaction. "Not bad...not bad at all. Just the colour looked rather monotone."
"With the miraculous works of madam Dusk, the dish surely looks much vibrant now." The Chef commended. "By the way, what was the name of the game you are helping Closure develop?"
"Not really sure myself. It's not written in a common language. I think it's called 'Arkswipe' or something. Can't understand it at all." Dusk picked up a piece of scalebass meat with her chopsticks.
The taste was fantastic. Tender flesh melted slowly in her mouth, with a taste of vinegar and a hint of ginger. It was fragrant yet not overwhelmingly so, and was sweet and sour to the taste.
Note: Arkswipe was a real fan game that is currently under development, where the author of this series is involved in writing text for it. The site was unavailable at the moment, though when it would be once again I will link it here.