After dinner time over, I come to the stove to check the condition of the salt water cooking pot. What makes surprise when I arrive there is, the firewatcher crew not only 4-5 person like usual but there already a dozen peoples who seem to wait for my arrival. There are some faces that I already knew like Cody, Jarred, Jesper, even Craig the cook and Joe the cart driver also there. And all of them carrying fishing rods in their hand, most of them seem just made it today with wood from clearing sites. They grinning when see I"m coming"h.e.l.lo, guys, why you all here? Don"t you need to rest after working whole days?"
"Master Henry, please teach me the recipe for the dish that master Henry make last night. They said the taste is awesome"
Craig the cook, answering my question with a request.
"But to make that dish we need fish, Craig, and currently we don"t have any"
"That"s why we all bring this, master Henry"
The crews in there raise their hand that carrying fishing rods. Oh well, they seem already prepared this before, if you really into that tempura dish, I shall grant that request, but of course, you must bring your own ingredient to cook.
"Alright, listen to me, guys. Let"s make this more interesting. The one who gets the biggest fish can have the whole fish for himself"
"Is this fishing contest master Henry?"
"Yeah, you can say that. Let"s make this a fishing contest tonight, make time limit one hour after we start fishing. I"m afraid if I don"t set the timer, you all will go fishing until morning and not resting"
"Hurraaayyy"
They all look excited with what I"m saying. Without waiting long, we all go to the old pier, with fishing rod and bucket to place the fish that their catching. After arriving at the pier, they start to spread and find their own spot for fishing. This time I"m not partic.i.p.ating because there already many people fishing here, besides I feel a little bit tired after the diving session. Of course, I also remind them to keep any lobster if they accidentally caught them in their fishing rod. Although I already have some, more lobster I get, the better.
Several minutes are pa.s.sing by. The torches that they bring for lighting make the old pier become lively like a festive is going there. Some people start to get their fishing rod bitten by fish. One by one, their bucket filled with fish that they caught. Oh my, they really spirited with this fishing contest. After one hour contest time is ending. We start to see who get the biggest fish in their bucket. And Jarred proved his skill in fishing again, by catching the biggest fish this night. Seeing his catching is the biggest again, Jarred can"t hold his smile from ear to ear. Of course, I"m ordering them to let go of the fish that not even have size as big as man palm, back to the sea.
"Okay guys, it"s time to cook it. But before that, remove the scales and the gut from the fish, take the guts for lobster feed in the barrel. Cut the fish head and tail, keep the head and tail for the soup, put that on the separate pot, fill with water and keep them on simmering"
They do as I order them and not take a long time before all the fishes already cleaned. After that, I teach Craig how to make the fish fillet and remove the fish bones. With him practicing making the fillet, the work to make fish fillet also can be finished quickly. After fish fillet is done then the next thing is to make coating dough for the fillet and preparing the frying pan. I tell Craig how to make the dough and how to fry this tempura and when the oil was ready to use. Since he"s a cook, Craig can take my lesson quickly, with only 2-3 times trial he can make the dough, coating the fish fillet and fry the fish fillet that already coated into fish tempura. That night, we have fish tempura party again, some of the crew even keep some for the breakfast tomorrow.
I also teach him how to make fish head soup for tomorrow breakfast. It"s seemed tomorrow there will be more crews that will eat delicious food again for the breakfast. Since I already tired, after all the cooking is done, I return to my tent to take a rest and sleep.
Many years later when this area develops into a city, fishing contest become one annual festive that held to celebrate the founding date of the town.