Steamed Chinese Fish

Wow, I'm on a roll posting. One pastime I have is to remember or imagine the way different dishes taste. Just a moment ago a dish I cooked about two weeks ago popped into my mouth/mind. I learned this recipe from my friend Greg when I was visiting him in Berkeley this summer. Two weeks ago I remade it with my friend Leah who was just in the city for the day and helped me go Chinatown shopping. Usually when I go Chinatown shopping I am heavily laden with my purchases, but having a partner in the endeavor freed me up to purchase some fish. I've read mixed things about Chinatown fish as far as how healthy they are, so I don't cook too much with them, however they are dirt cheap. For 1$ I got a 1 lb bass, gutted and fins removed. When getting fish in Chinatown its pretty important to know what to look for in fish (since some of the fish are kind of old and probably bad). As far as I'm concerned I look at eyes, scales, firmness and proximity to ice. Eyes should not be clouded and should not be too dislodge from the socket; scales should have a nice sheen and still shine --- dull scales means bad fish; firm fish is good fish --- if it is mushy or too yielding then pass on the piece; finally common sense dictates that the fish should have a good amount of ice near it to keep it cool.
Anyway, I used bass this time, but with Greg we used a thinner fish (can't remember what though). The important thing is that the fish is not too thick and that it has a good cavity to be stuffed. Take the fish, when you get it home and wash it off and remove any excess stomach crud. Take a bunch of ginger and scallions and cut both into shoots. These go inside the cavity of the fish formed from removing the stomach. If you can open this up more, so as to butterfly the fish more, do that. Then take the stuffed fish and put it on a ceramic plate. Take a large pan and put an inch of water on the bottom and a medal cap (like the top of an apple sauce container) in the middle of the water. On this cap put the plate with the fish, making through that there is a little room on the sides of the plate. Turn on the heat and cover. The fish will be steamed nicely in anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes depending on the thickness. You can tell that its done by sticking a fork or knife inside and checking it yields easily. Near the end of this cooking heat up some sesame oil and soy sauce to just below smoking (hot). When the fish is done carefully remove the plate (use chopsticks or forks but we careful) and pour this hot oil on the fish skin to give it a little crisp. If the fish is well cooked you should be able to pull the tail through the head out along with most of the bones before eating. Still be aware that most fish will have a number of small bones, so be sure to pick them out as you eat. This is good served with rice. Also, don't feel compelled to eat the stuffing -- it was there to impart its flavor to the fish in a mild way.
When done, you should probably dump your garbage because the fish is gonna start to stink in 5,4,3,2, now.