1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (195 page)

Less daunting preparations include
hom don
, salt-preserved eggs, and
cha ye dan
, tea eggs; both can be prepared with chicken eggs, although duck are much preferred. For salt eggs, the raw eggs are soaked in brine for about a month and then boiled, shelled, and quartered or chopped into dishes like steamed pork with salted egg (see
listing
). The firm saltiness of the whites and the deep red-orange of the yolks are a favorite way to enrich and enliven congee (see
listing
), and the eggs are also baked whole into traditional mooncakes, pastries for celebrating the harvest festival.

Tea eggs are as pretty as they are tasty. While they may be simply flavored and colored with tea alone, they are far more intriguing when spiced. In such a preparation, hard-cooked eggs in their shells are gently crackled and resimmered for close to three hours in water dosed with tea leaves (preferably oolong, see previous entry), star anise, cinnamon, cloves, soy sauce, pinches of brown sugar, and perhaps a few drops of rice wine or vinegar. Drained, chilled, and peeled, they reveal lovely marbled patterns of ivory, pink, and golden brown. A favorite food at China’s night markets and a few Japanese restaurants, they are also often made at home and kept on hand for a quick and flavorful snack.

Where:
In New York
, Amazing66, tel 212-334-0099,
amazing66.com
; Congee Village at two locations,
congeevillagerestaurants.com
.
Mail order:
amazon.com (search cooked salted duck eggs).
Further information and recipes:
The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook
by Gloria Bley Miller (1984);
The Chinese Cookbook
by Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee (1972);
instructables.com
(search century eggs);
silkroadgourmet.com
(search making 1000 year eggs).

This magnificent cure-all will definitely ease a head cold, but it’s not for the faint of heart: Spiked with fresh ginger, scallions, and rice wine, a bowl of the clear, savory elixir has a nose-tingling aroma and packs a powerful punch. The soup is traditional in China’s southern Yunnan province, where it is made in a special steamer—a stout, lidded terra-cotta pot with a hollow chimney at its core (think Bundt pan). Placed atop a
pot of boiling water, the chicken-and-spice-filled steamer slowly sweats a whole chicken in a bit of rich chicken stock, drawing out its savory juices for maximum flavor. Prior to serving, the soup is skimmed and strained. The ginger and scallions are scrapped, and the chicken is set aside to use in a separate dish (although some cooks gently pull off pieces of the meat and float it in the broth).

Any chicken will do, but traditional Chinese cooks favor the Silkie breed—
wu gu ji
, meaning black-boned, which describes its most striking characteristic, along with its dark-gray skin and meat. Hailed for their medicinal and energy-boosting properties since at least the eighth century, and revered for their distinctly gamy flavor, Silkies give the broth a silvery tint and add depth to the flavor. The black birds are hard to come by (you may be able to find them at a live poultry market in Chinatowns), but they are sure to supercharge the intensity—and, perhaps, the curative powers—of this excellent chicken soup.

Where:
In Singapore
, Seng Kee Black Herbal Chicken Soup, tel 65/9001-4000; Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice at three locations,
tiantianchickenrice.com
.
Mail order:
For the traditional Yunnan Steamer, Little e Pottery,
littleepottery.com
(search yunnan).
Further information and recipes:
The Whole World Loves Chicken Soup
by Mimi Sheraton (2000);
cookstr.com
(search yunnan steamed chicken soup);
nytimes.com
(search yunnan steamed chicken soup);
chinasichuanfood.com
(click Archive, then Silkie Chicken Soup).
See also:
Golden Yoich
;
Chawanmushi
.

A salt crust leaves behind crunchy skin and moist meat.

Despite its preparation, this Cantonese specialty emerges from the oven moist and flavorful, not the least bit salty beyond the pleasantly saline undertones of its parchment-crisp, golden skin. To make salt-roasted chicken, a cleaned, plucked bird is hung or laid out on a rack for three or four hours in a cool, airy spot, or in the refrigerator overnight, thus allowing its skin to dry and become taut, similar to the preparation of Peking duck (see
listing
). The roasting vessel is a cast-iron or enameled cast-iron casserole, into which go three to five pounds of coarse salt for a very slow heating on the stove. A quantity of the hot salt is scooped out and set aside to make room for the chicken, then is packed over the bird. The covered casserole is set in a very hot oven for one and a half to two hours; at the end of the cooking time, the salt will be compacted into a solid crust. Once the crust is broken open and the chicken lifted out, excess salt is brushed from its surface and the bird is ready to serve.

A centuries-old Chinese technique, the salt-roasting method is also favored in parts of Europe and has been adopted by some American chefs. The heavy blanket of salt allows for even heating and crispy skin, ensuring moistness without the need to baste or turn the chicken as it roasts. No surprise, then, that salt-roasting does as much for whole fish (a particular specialty of Spain) as for chicken. In the Cantonese tradition, the finished salt-roasted chicken is chopped with a cleaver into small nuggets—succulent meat, crunchy bones, crisp skin and all—to be dipped into ginger-zapped soy sauce.

Where:
In New York
, Congee Village at two locations,
congeevillagerestaurants.com
;
in San Francisco
, Ton Kiang Restaurant, tel 415-752-4440,
tonkiang.net
.
Further information and recipes:
The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook
by Gloria Bley Miller (1984);
foodandwine.com
(search hakka salt baked chicken);
splendidtable.org
(search salt roasted chicken).

The palliative effects of chicken soup—the famous “Jewish penicillin”—pale beside the powers of this age-old Chinese brew, a culinary superstar that also happens to be one of the world’s best remedies for a head cold. Hot and sour soup began its steamy, curative existence in the Sichuan province of western China. The two most important ingredients, and the source of its name, are pepper (usually white pepper, although chile oil or red pepper flakes are sometimes employed in its stead), which makes it hot, and
shaoxing jiu
, rice wine, which makes it sour. Because fresh vegetables are scarce in the region—then and even now—a couple of dried ingredients are included, such as tree ear mushrooms (see
listing
) and daylily buds, to be revived by the steaming hot broth. To these are added soft, custardy tofu, crisp bamboo shoots, and a gloss of sesame oil. Pork and pork blood make up the classic protein components, although chicken is considered an acceptable, if nontraditional, substitute. The most important thing is that the soup be hot—in both temperature and taste. Not so hot as to scald the throat or the tongue, but enough to heat the mouth as it passes through, and generate lots of steam, which is seen as life-giving in Chinese culture. Almost as important is the texture. Hot and sour soup should be thick and slightly slippery, so that it goes down easily and is richly satisfying, with intermittent soft clumps to chew on. If all goes well, it is sure to cure whatever ails you, whether it’s hunger pangs, sniffles, or your psyche.

Where:
In Shanghai
, Fortune Palace, Jin Jiang Hotel, tel 86/21-3218-9888,
jinjianghotels.com
;
in New York
, Wu Liang Ye, tel 212-398-2308,
wuliangyenyc.com
;
in Chicago
, Lao Sze Chuan, tel 312-326-5040,
tonygourmetgroup.com
;
in San Francisco
, Ton Kiang, tel 415-387-8273,
tonkiang.net
;
in Toronto
, Crown Princess Fine Dining, tel 416-923-8784,
crown-princess.ca
.
Further information and recipes:
The Shun Lee Cookbook
by Michael Tong (2007);
Sichuan Cooking
by Fuchsia Dunlop (2003);
epicurious.com
(search hot and sour soup).

Although the familiar dark and earthy black bean sauce—made from fermented soybeans rather than the black beans common to Mexican cuisine—often adorns fish and crustaceans such as shrimp, lobster, and crab, it is perhaps most mouthwatering when simmered with mollusks: mussels, oysters, long amber-shelled razor clams or their small, sweet counterparts, the tiny sea snails called periwinkles, or some combination thereof. The shells themselves, left on during cooking and serving, catch and hold delectable little mouthfuls of the winey fermented beans, enhanced by soy sauce and thick, rich oyster sauce, sharp bits of ginger, scallions, and garlic, and in the Sichuan version (as opposed to the Cantonese), flecks of hot dried red chile peppers, all sprightly contrasts to the briny, buttery meat within. It’s a good idea to eat the mollusks over small bowls of steamed white rice, so all of the drippings collect and make the rice sweetly saucy.

Serves 4, accompanied by other dishes in a typical Chinese meal

4 tablespoons fermented black beans

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

⅓ cup dry sherry or rice wine

6 tablespoons peanut oil, sesame oil, or a vegetable oil other than olive oil

1 tablespoon finely minced peeled fresh ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 of the following: 3 pounds small clams or razor clams, alive in their shells; 24 oysters, opened just before cooking but left on the half shell without severing the muscle that connects to the shell; 3 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded; or 3 pounds periwinkles, scrubbed, soaked for 24 hours in a bowl of water in the refrigerator, and drained

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions, both green and white portions

Sugar, to taste

Salt, to taste

2 tablespoons cornstarch diluted in ½ cup cold water

Fresh cilantro sprigs, for serving

Unseasoned steamed white rice, for serving

1.
Combine the fermented black beans, lemon juice, and sherry or rice wine in a small bowl and set aside.

2.
Heat a wok or cast-iron skillet over high heat and add the oil, swirling it evenly over the pan. Add the ginger and garlic and cook until they lose their raw smell, 1 to 2 minutes, being careful not to let the garlic turn brown.

3.
Add the shellfish, stirring to coat them with the ginger and garlic. If you are using oysters on the half shell, place them carefully in the wok or skillet, flesh side up, and continue with the other steps gently, trying not to let them flip over.

4.
Pour in the black bean mixture and let simmer for 1 minute before adding the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and scallions. Cover the wok or skillet and let the shellfish cook until they open, or until the oyster flesh is cooked, 3 minutes at most. Season with sugar and salt.

5.
Stir in the dissolved cornstarch and let the sauce simmer, uncovered, until it becomes slightly opaque and thickens to the consistency
of thin cream, about 1 minute.

6.
Serve the shellfish at once, garnished with cilantro sprigs and with lots of steamed white rice alongside.

Where:
In New York
, Oriental Garden, tel 212-619-0085,
orientalgardenny.com
; Congee Village at two locations,
congeevillagerestaurants.com
;
in Washington, DC
, New Big Wong, tel 202-628-0491;
in Richmond, VA
, Peter Chang’s China Café, tel 804-364-16788,
peterchangrva.com
;
in Chicago
, Yan Bang Cai, tel 312-842-7818,
yanbangcaichicago.com
.
Mail order:
For fermented black beans, igourmet, tel 877-446-8763,
igourmet.com
.