Hisako, being sensible, quickly covered her mouth, no longer daring to speak.
But from her somewhat restless eyes, it was clear that she had absolutely intended to say that just now.
…
"Erina, don't blame her."
"I've developed a new dish these past few days, would you like to try it?"
Looking at the blushing Nagiri Erina, Sosuke suppressed his smile and asked faintly.
"Huh?!"
"You… you really have a new dish?"
Erina quickly looked up, gazing at Sosuke with great anticipation.
"Of course, and just like the first time you came to the Izakaya,"
"I made beef patties from toast, fries from tofu dregs, and chocolate brownies from rice bran. This time, I've created a pasta dish using ingredients you wouldn't expect!"
"Pasta dish?"
Erina's face was full of confusion.
"You could say it's a pasta dish, or not," Sosuke replied.
"Alright, then… then I'll have your new dish!"
Nagiri Erina nodded in agreement without any hesitation.
"OK."
"Please wait a moment."
With that, Sosuke returned to the counter and began to prepare the 'Noodle-less Noodle' dish.
…
First, prepare an egg.
Then, under the watchful eyes of Erina and Hisako, he held the egg upright with three fingers of his left hand.
Next, he made a small hole at the bottom of the egg.
Immediately, Sosuke skillfully shook the egg, allowing the egg white inside to slowly flow into the ceramic bowl below.
The entire motion was without any exaggeration or pretense, only steadiness and fluidity.
To be honest, there are many ways to separate the yolk and egg white, but at this moment, Sosuke used the more difficult 'drilling method' to separate them.
After this step, the next was the preparation of the catfish.
As the saying goes:
Catfish stewed with eggplant, enough to stuff an old man to death.
This famous saying, twenty years ago, directly elevated catfish to a synonym for deliciousness.
But nowadays, at the mention of catfish, most people feel a strange sense of disgust and aversion.
This can be seen from comments such as "I just don't eat catfish," "Catfish are so dirty," and "I heard catfish grow up eating poop."
Actually, this statement is a bit of an overgeneralization.
Because there is indeed a type of catfish that can live in septic tanks, called 'pond catfish' or 'African sharptooth catfish'.
But it's just one type of catfish; many other catfish require extremely high water quality.
For example:
The bigmouth catfish from the southern regions of the Heavenly Dynasty.
If the water body is even slightly polluted, this kind of catfish will immediately turn belly up in the water.
Besides these, there are also the native catfish and yellow-wax catfish from Greater China, all of which demand very high water quality.
And a clean water environment naturally allows for clean fish bodies and delicious meat when stewed with eggplant, which is, of course, very tasty!
…
At this moment, Sosuke took out a large bigmouth catfish.
This catfish was still alive, flopping around on the cutting board.
Sosuke's eyes narrowed, and he immediately pressed down on the catfish with one hand, gripping the chef's knife tightly with the other.
Bang!
A loud thud.
The catfish was stunned by his chef's knife.
Then, he inserted his index finger and thumb into the fish's gills and pinched them off.
Next, he broke the catfish's neck to prevent it from struggling, then used the chef's knife to cut open its belly, remove all internal organs, and rinse it clean with water.
Finally, he cut the clean catfish into thin noodle-like shapes, retaining the head and tail bones.
"Milady Erina."
"He… he cut the catfish meat too finely, didn't he?"
"It doesn't even look like fish meat anymore, but rather like noodles made from catfish."
Cutting catfish into noodle shapes certainly tests a chef's knife skills, but the key question is why cut the catfish into such a shape?
Hisako, with her limited knowledge, couldn't understand this point at all!
"Could it be that the so-called pasta dish is simply cutting catfish directly into noodle shapes to create a unique fish noodle?"
Erina kept pondering.
Gradually, she became even more confused.
It's important to know that even if catfish meat is firm, it definitely cannot achieve the chewy texture of noodles.
And a typical chef certainly wouldn't be so idle as to simply cut catfish into noodle shapes and then try to create a noodle-like texture and taste.
"There must be a method here that I can't imagine."
Finally, Erina's eyes flickered, and she softly murmured to herself.
…
After cutting the catfish meat, Sosuke put these "fish noodles" into a pot to stew.
During the stewing process, he continuously added fish aroma to the pot, adding it once every 10 seconds, for a total of 4 times.
He quickly rehydrated the dried squid with boiling water.
Using a chef's knife, he continued to cut it into even finer noodle shapes—no, rather than noodles, it was more like "pencil lead" shapes!
"He… he's doing…"
Upon seeing this, Erina was so shocked she could barely speak.
Deep down, she vaguely realized something and became even more eager for Sosuke's Noodle-less Noodle dish.
Soon, Sosuke stuffed each "core" made of squid into the catfish noodles.
Next, he simmered the noodles over low heat until they became fluffy.
Finally, he drizzled them with sea bream stewed seafood broth, and thus, a steaming bowl of Noodle-less Noodle was complete.
"Huh?!"
"This kind of dish…"
Seeing that Sosuke could create such a miraculous dish, Erina couldn't help but be astonished!
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