Variety is the spice of life

"The meat of this fish is very tender, and its skin is glutinous. And the larger the fish, the less bones it contains," Xie says. "All the fish are wild, and we sometimes land 4-kilogram examples, which can be preordered by our customers."

At Xu's Creative Dishes, the wild fish dish can be prepared in three ways-one using pepper sauce, another using a homemade sauce and one cooked with shallots.

The fish are airfreighted from Chengdu into the capital live, where Xie feeds them in a large fish tank in the basement of the restaurant. Whatever cooking style diners choose, all the fish are first marinated in ginger, shallots and a homemade soy sauce before being steamed for 15 minutes.