This is the fried fish I make for the July 15th ancestor worship ceremony.
I know a lot of people, like me, find preparing food for these ceremonies a bit challenging—so much of it ends up as leftovers.

Here’s what I do:
🌹On the day:
Make a big pot of your favorite chicken soup.
Marinate chicken drumsticks ahead of time, then pan-sear them until the skin is crispy and the inside is half-cooked.
Marinate the fish in advance and fry it on the day, along with any other favorite fried foods.
Use a small oven to bake some sausage or salted pork.
Steam some of Mom’s favorite snacks, like pearl meatballs, in a rice cooker.
Stir-fry just enough vegetables to eat that day.
🌹A couple of days before:
Prepare some cold dishes.
Drunken shrimp.
Tea eggs.
Braised beef tripe and tendon.
☘️With a little arranging and slicing, you’ve got a full table.

The dishes that need to be eaten right away are all my and my mom’s favorites: hot chicken soup, dim sum, fried foods, and veggies—so there’s no pressure to finish everything.
After the ceremony, the fish, chicken drumsticks, sausage, and salted pork go straight into the freezer for later.
The rest are cold dishes that can be kept in the fridge and enjoyed slowly.

I think the ceremony is about the intention.
I don’t want to buy a bunch of ready-made dishes from the market just to throw them away later.
I also don’t want to wake up super early to make eight complicated dishes, only for just me and my mom to sit at a big table, both wishing the rest of the family were there. That really ruins the mood and appetite.
So for the past couple of years, my mom and I have agreed to keep it simple like this.