Sharing the Meat Love



Jing Do Zha Jiang Mian ie Chinese equivalent to Spag Bol!

I love any culture that encourages sharing food. Most Asian cultures involve sharing food in large groups with everything plonked on the middle of the table and everyone helping themselves to a little bit of everything. That's how I was brought up. That's how I like to share with my friends and family when I cook at home. The Italians do it well - gathering large groups of people of all ages to talk loudly over each other, eating a continuous flow of fabulous food, over many hours! That is how meals should be and it is so much fun.

The Chinese think it's rather strange that foreigners order individual dishes just for themselves for every course. They always make dishes to share, so everyone gets a little taste of everything. They also don't pile on every type of food that's on the table, onto one plate, mixing up all the flavours at the same time and eating that as a huge individual portion - I hate that too! On the otherhand, I'm also sure that no one likes to be forced to finish a large plate of food, especially if it is not tasty, just to be polite.

At home, I was brought up to always try some of the appetisers and the veg first. Only then was I allowed to help myself to a bit of any meat or fish dishes on offer and you were only expected to eat till you were full  [However this is in theory - I know I always managed to overeat! My mum's food was and still is - amazing!]. Eating together and helping yourself to many different dishes was the main idea and eating how ever much you wanted.

The ceremony of food and the order in which we eat varies from city to city and culture to culture. As an adult, I am used to having a starter, then a main and then maybe a pudding and then finally perhaps some cheese. In elaborate meals there may even be a fish course after the starter and before the meat main. Here in HK some meals end with a refreshing soup! The concept of 3 courses is lost in many places. Things can arrive one at a time when they are ready or as you finish each dish! Sometimes everything appears at the same time! Vegetables are also a bit of an after thought. They are for colour or texture in the presentation or a side order but never the main event. In a group situation, especially for a special occasion, Meat and Fish/Seafood are the stars of the show.

I love the 'special occasion' dishes in Chinese cuisine, not just for the care taken over appearance and presentation but I am very impressed with the amount of love they give their meat. They marinade with huge numbers of ingredients. They massage meat in such precise stages and for such a long time that it's no wonder that the taste and textures are so incredible.

Over the last few weeks I have been learning Regional Chinese Cuisine e.g Cantonese, Fugian, Sichuan etc. The dishes that I really want to adapt and create for my friends and family are the sharing dishes for special occasions found on the Banquet or Feasting Menus.

1. BEGGARS CHICKEN [also known as Fortune Chicken] - It's known as that because the beggars would steal chickens and have no means of cooking them other than wrapping the chicken in clay and putting them into a makeshift oven into the ground [much like a Tandoor]:

Joints released and bones cracked without breaking skin

Massaged with marinade inside out and cavity filled with 2 types of stuffing and skewered shut!

wrapped in lotus leaves

Covered in dough and baked for 3 hours!

Incredible flavours!

1 Chicken to share with the whole family

So this bad boy has been massaged, marinaded, wrapped in lotus leaves and then a layer of dough followed by a layer of foil and finally popped in the oven for 3 hours. So it cooks in all the marinade, stuffing and its own juices in an oven within an oven within an oven and so on! WoW! I thought I made a mean Sunday Roast. I have never given any chicken this much love and attention. Well. Things are about to change! There is also a real sense of ceremony involved in bringing such a dish to the table and cracking it open in front of your guests then unwrapping and serving it! Sunday lunch will never be the same again!

2. CANTONESE DUCK: This is different from Peking Duck which is served straight from the oven to keep the skin crispy. [nb - The Chinese i.e. according to my cooking instructor - find it hilarious that we have crispy duck in the UK which is essentially just deep fried - not baked/roasted in the oven - and not like anything found here!]





Duck marinaded and massaged inside and cavity stuffed with a filling and skewered shut

Hung in front of a fan and under the air con for 6 hours!

This duck was massaged with a marinade, then stuffed with a filling, then painted with a sugar syrup, dried for 6 hours before being roasted for 45min & finally rested for an hour! Can you imagine how flavoursome and tender the meat was? OMG !  By the way, to serve,  it gets carved up into small pieces so as to ensure that every one gets to have a little bite, as this duck would be made to serve and share with the whole extended family. I generally do not mind bone in meat and will sometimes chew through some, but I must admit that this way of serving means that you get bits of bone in every bite and it is quite fiddly to eat around the bone and sometimes too hard to chew through it. I think Dentists here would have lots of cases of cracked teeth/fillings and worn down surfaces, with all the bone chewing that goes on! 

The other thing I found tedious about these hundred year old recipes was that they expected you to follow them to the letter e.g the duck had to be washed with hot water exactly 3 times, the back had to be painted with a sugar syrup exactly 6 times and so on. Okay - so there maybe some method to the madness, to give that exact reddish brown effect on the skin but I must say I find all the rules at school stiffling! I cannot wait to get back to my kitchen in England, break all the rules and create healthier versions of all the dishes. I am taking on board all the meat love and all the new techniques and leaving behind tradition and the deep fat frying! Hands up! - Who wants to come round for dinner?