After adding oil, he turned the burner to its highest heat setting.
Finally, when the oil temperature reached about eighty percent hot, Qiu Zhenhua poured the eel segments into a large colander, gave it a couple of shakes to remove excess water, and then carefully scattered them into the oil pan.
The reason for scattering them in rather than dumping them all at once was to prevent the eel segments from sticking together during frying.
The hot oil in the wok boiled vigorously.
Lin Xu took a slight step back, afraid the hot oil might splash onto his face.
When the frying was nearly complete, Qiu Zhenhua used the colander to separate any eel segments that had stuck together, flash-fried them again, and then removed them to drain off the excess oil.
At this point, all the eel segments resembled saddles, curving inwards from the scored cuts, creating a bridge-like shape.
