Motionless, it lay quietly on the cutting board.

As if waiting for the final judgment of fate.

Oh my gosh~

This is all solid experience!

If Xu Hao and the other two did it, they could manage it too.

But!

They couldn’t do it so effortlessly.

The control, they couldn’t or wouldn’t dare to make so delicate.

Not to mention doing it blindfolded!

Without pausing for a moment, Huang Tao began to scale the fish.

His left hand accurately grasped the tail, while the edge of the knife in his right hand pressed directly against the fish skin, slowly pushing forward from the tail.

Wherever it went, the scales flew off the fish one after another.

It looked almost dreamlike, making everything feel somewhat unreal.

Xu Hao and the other two assistants asked themselves if they could achieve such perfection at this step.

The answer was naturally no!

They all felt they couldn’t reach this level.

If too light, they would tear the fish skin; if too heavy, they would cut into the meat.

However, the boss’s technique was just right; the blade left the scales scraped cleanly, not a single one left.

The fish skin wasn’t harmed at all!

And to think, this was done blindfolded!

The skill in his hands...

Simply extraordinary!

All three assistants had an expression of complete admiration!

Without much effort, Huang Tao scrapped the mandarin fish’s scales clean, not sparing the stubborn spots around the belly, behind the head, or around the scales.

This flawless and fluid technique made the three assistants both admire and feel embarrassed.

Even without blindfolds, they couldn’t reach this level in such a short time...

Truly incomparable!

Truly far from it!

Immersed in the task of cleaning the fish, Huang Tao paid no mind to the admiration around him, moving on to gut the mandarin fish.

He positioned the fish head towards himself, the belly to the right.

Pressing down on the fish with his left hand, he used his right to grasp the knife, cutting from the ventral fin, which is the tail end of the fish belly, and slowly slicing forward until he reached the pectoral fin, stopping there.

In preparing Squirrel Mandarin Fish, that’s where you stop, because the pectoral fin close to the fish head is used for squirrel head shaping; cutting it would make it look very unappealing.

After all, you don’t eat the fish head, it lacks meat and isn’t aesthetically pleasing.

He set the knife down, removing the entrails from the fish with his hands.

During this step, care had to be taken not to break the gallbladder, or else the entire fish would be ruined.

Picking up the knife again, he placed the now-empty fish on the board, locating the pectoral fins, then sliced diagonally forward from behind them to the junction of the head and spine.

Next.

He flipped the fish, slicing diagonally according to method.

Connecting the two pectoral fins with the fish head.

However, because of the diagonal cut forward, most of the fish meat remained intact.

At this point.

The fish cleaning process was complete.

Xu Hao praised, "Boss, your fish-cleaning skills are incredible! Even blindfolded, you’re better than me with my eyes open! Your movements are so deft."

"It’s nothing much; you guys can do it too with practice."

Huang Tao smiled, untied the towel, and washed his hands.

What he said was the honest truth.

This skill isn’t highly technical, with enough practice and experience, it can be achieved.

However, although this "blindfold fish-cleaning" skill is nice, it’s seldom used.

He’s not going to personally handle every fish, right!

So, most of the time, this skill remains unused.

He washed the fish and began filleting.

He began cutting flat from the front of the fish, with the knife edge against the backbone, slicing towards the tail, and then stopping.

At this step, don’t cut the head; the tail needs to stay connected.

Once at the tail, he stopped, flipped the fish, and cut the other side to the tail in the same way.

Then.

He chopped through the tail section of the spine, casting it aside.

Flipping the fish again, he removed the ribs, setting them aside as well.

Thus!

He got two pieces of completely boneless fish fillet.

Reaching this point, the fish fillets were ready for the next step of transforming them into the squirrel body shape.

This is also a challenging and crucial step in making Squirrel Mandarin Fish.

It’s this step that decides if the final product will be Squirrel Mandarin Fish or a failed attempt...

Indeed.

The success or failure lies in the filleting.

He placed half the mandarin fish fillet skin-side-down on the board, laying it flat.

This way, when cutting, the skin wouldn’t be damaged.

If there were wrinkles underneath, it could easily end in disaster.

After wiping the slicing knife with a damp towel, he began the squirrel pattern slicing.

Pressing down on the fish meat with his left hand, he angled the knife at a forty-five-degree angle from the very front of the fish.

The angle wasn’t severe, roughly sixty to seventy degrees!

This was to ensure the patterns, once fried, spread uniformly backwards rather than curling forwards or in other directions.