A whole fish steamed for only a few minutes, drizzled with hot soy sauce, crowned with ginger and scallion shreds, then finished with a splash of sizzling oil that awakens all the aromas in a hiss.

Why this dish? In *Eat Drink Man Woman*, Ang Lee opens with a father-chef preparing a Sunday banquet where the whole fish sits at the center. Fish, yu, is a homophone for 'abundance' in Chinese: it is served whole to wish that prosperity lasts all year. This is cooking as the language of family love, dear to the filmmaker.

My father would have said you judge a cook by his steaming, not by his complicated sauces. The fish must remain whole, head and tail, so that the year remains whole too. Choose it very fresh — the flesh should still tremble. You only have a few minutes: overcooked, it is lost, like a shot held one second too long. The hot oil poured at the end, that little cry in the kitchen, is the moment the whole family waits for.

How it was made : Steaming a whole fish is a pinnacle of Cantonese and Taiwanese festive cooking: it demands impeccable freshness because nothing masks the taste. Serving the fish with the head on, and turning it carefully (never flipping it over in one go, an inauspicious gesture among fishermen) is part of banquet etiquette.

The contemporary twist : Present the fish on a long black slate, scallion shreds arranged like a crest, like a symmetrical film shot.

Ang Lee · Charactorium