When the Qianlong Emperor went down to Jiangnan, he once ate a famous dish in Suzhou, "Squirrel Cinnamon Fish", and when he returned to the palace, he never forgot it, felt endlessly reminiscent, and thought about eating that dish every day. However, although the imperial chefs in the palace were very skilled in cooking, and what kind of cuisines were also made, no one in Suzhou could make this "squirrel cinnamon fish", so anxious that the Qianlong Emperor stomped his feet and scolded the imperial cooks one by one.
One day, the Qianlong Emperor especially wanted to eat squirrel cinnamon fish, but no one in the imperial dining room could do it, what to do? He thought about it and finally thought of a way: the chefs in the palace will not do it, which does not mean that no one in the whole capital will do it, and I can post the imperial list in the capital to find a chef who can be a "squirrel cinnamon fish". So he asked people to post the imperial list at the city gate, looking for a chef in the whole capital who can make "squirrel cinnamon fish", as long as he can make a chef with Suzhou taste "squirrel cinnamon fish" bounty of 100 taels, and promote him to the royal chef.
Soon after the imperial list was posted, many chefs from all over the country came with the mentality of getting rich overnight, and a chef from Sichuan unveiled the imperial list and entered the palace to make a "spicy cinnamon fish", so angry that the Qianlong Emperor asked loudly: "Are you a squirrel cinnamon fish?" Where did the squirrel go? "I didn't even taste it and put the cook in jail." Two days later, another Cantonese chef from Guangdong unveiled the imperial list, cut the cinnamon fish into slices, added sauerkraut, peppers and other materials, and made a "sauerkraut fish" and brought it to the Qianlong Emperor, who was dumbfounded, and scolded again: "You divided the squirrels into corpses?" All in one piece? What squirrel cinnamon fish? Where is the appearance of squirrel cinnamon fish? After scolding, people directly hit the Cantonese chef fifty big board and blasted out of the Forbidden City. After a few days, a Jin cuisine master came from Shanxi, and brought a few salted cinnamon fish with him, he first made several cuts on the salted cinnamon fish, and then put the salted cinnamon fish into a boiling hot oil pot and fried it golden brown, fished out and poured with hot sauce, which looked a bit like squirrel cinnamon fish. When the Master of Jin Cuisine delivered the fried salted cinnamon fish to the Qianlong Emperor's bedchamber, the Qianlong Emperor said to the eunuch next to him: "It looks a bit like squirrel cinnamon fish, I don't know how it tastes?" He used chopsticks to clip a piece and tasted it, and this salty and spicy fried salted cinnamon fish salted the Qianlong Emperor enough, and scolded sharply: "You liars, roll me!" ......。 Later, several chefs came one after another, but none of them made the taste of Suzhou's "squirrel cinnamon fish", all of them were punished, and slowly no one dared to enter the palace to make "squirrel cinnamon fish" for the Qianlong Emperor.
More than two months passed in the blink of an eye, and suddenly one day came a ragged teenager, about fifteen or sixteen years old, tall and thin, looking like a lord who had been hungry for several days, and did not look like a cook at all. When he saw that there were many people talking about the imperial list at the city gate, he walked over unhurriedly and was about to unveil the imperial list, but was stopped by the officials guarding there, and shouted at the young man: "You poor boy is afraid that he is hungry and dizzy!" The royal list is also something you can touch? This is not a joke, get a bad life to take, young people don't mess around here, play it! The teenager was anxious and shouted: "You don't look down on people, I came from Suzhou on purpose, how difficult is it to be a "squirrel cinnamon fish"? As long as we can cook there, basically everyone will cook that dish. The head of the imperial dining room standing next to him heard the teenager say that he was from Suzhou, so he quickly greeted him and asked the teenager, "Are you really from Suzhou?" Are you sure you can do squirrel cinnamon fish? The teenager skimmed his lips and said, "This is not a difficult dish, a piece of cake, believe me!" The general manager of the imperial dining room listened to the words of the teenager and thought: The imperial list has been posted for many months, and no one will do it anyway, and the emperor is pressing tightly, so let him try it! So he took the boy into the imperial dining room.
The teenager entered the imperial dining room and first asked someone to prepare a good cinnamon fish, mixed the cinnamon fish with cooking wine and fine salt, dipped in dry starch; then mixed with tomato sauce, pork soup, cotton sugar, balsamic vinegar, cooking wine, wet starch, and refined salt into juice; then rolled up the two-petal fish fillet of the cinnamon fish, cocked the fish tail into a squirrel shape, lifted the fish tail into a frying pan, fried for 20 seconds to set the shape, the whole fish was fried in the oil pot until it was light yellow, put into the plate to form a squirrel shape; then heated with cooked lard, put the shrimp fried and then fished out of the drainage oil, put in the white section of the green onion and fried until the shallots are yellow and fragrant , minced garlic, diced bamboo shoots, diced mushrooms, green peas stir-fried, stir well with flavor juice, add cooked lard, sesame oil and stir well on the fish, sprinkle with cooked shrimp, a delicious "squirrel cinnamon fish" is ready. When the teenager brought the "squirrel cinnamon fish" to the Qianlong Emperor, the oil juice was still churning on the fish, making a squeaking sound, like a squirrel calling. The Qianlong Emperor's eyes lit up, and he couldn't wait to pick up a piece of fish meat and put it in his mouth, and he immediately felt his eyes light up. "That's the taste! That's the taste! ......！ The Qianlong Emperor was full of praise. Since eating the squirrel cinnamon fish made by the teenager, the Qianlong Emperor could no longer do without the teenager, let people reward him with one hundred and two gold, and promoted him to a special imperial cook, and brought him with him every time he went out for private visits.