Yes, Chef… Hip to Be Square

CUISINE / WINE / ART LP4 [email protected] Yes, Chef… While roast goose is a traditional dish on Christmas menus around the world, Chiu Chow marinated goose has been the signature dish of Chan Kan Kee since 1948 – and it hasn’t changed since, with a unique recipe that’s a family secret passed down through the generations. Since 2010, Eliza Chan and her elder sister, Rebecca, are part of the third generation to run the restaurant. Here, they unveil some of the secrets of this delicious dish photos by Calvin Ng were a lot of hawker stalls like ours. Chiu Chow Marinated Goose Can you share any of For the lushui (stock) fry them for a bit. After that, add the water, the secrets of your 1.5kg pork belly (if making new lushui) light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. family’s recipe? 19g Sichuan pepper Bring the stock to a boil, then pour it into For one, we use galangal 10 pieces star anise a stock pot. Boil on low heat for 30 minutes to instead of regular Chinese 75g cinnamon/cassia sticks retain its quality; high heat will make the sauce ginger. In addition, Chan 300ml light soy sauce overly concentrated and it will be too salty. Kan Kee’s lushui [stock for 75ml dark soy sauce Add the meat (goose, duck, or pork) that marinating] was started in 300g crystal/rock sugar you’d like to marinate into the stock. If you’re 1948 by my grandfather. 8 slices galangal using a smaller pot at home, chop the goose Over all these 72 years, 150g leeks or duck into smaller pieces (i.e. divide it into the same lushui has been 150g garlic 4 portions). Marinate it for around 1 hour. repeatedly used to marinate 75ml Kaoliang liquor/baijiu During the early stages, lift the goose up from the geese. The lushui has 6L water the sauce from time to time to make sure each been re-boiled every day to part is evenly and completely marinated. maintain the quality of the Preparation Before the marinating is complete, add the sauce. All the flavour of the The whole process takes around 1.5 hours. Kaoliang liquor/baijiu and the crystal/rock sugar geese has been concentrated After cleaning the goose, hang it up to dry. into the stock. in this 72-year-old lushui Wash the pork belly (if you’re making new and that’s what really makes lushui), Sichuan pepper, star anise, Tip: Marinate the pork belly (1.5kg) if you’re Chan Kan Kee marinated cinnamon/cassia sticks, galangal, leeks and starting a brand-new lushui (stock). This way, goose special. garlic. Chop the leeks into small pieces of the fat and meat flavour enriches the stock. approximately 5 inches. Lightly smash the The same lushui can be re-boiled for repeat How do you select the galangal. Heat a little bit of oil in a wok. use – and you don’t need to add water into goose for this dish? Put the aforementioned ingredients in, and the lushui if you reuse it. We use goose from Chiu Chow, namely the flathead goose (平頭鵝). We think the texture of the flathead goose meat is softer and easier to be marinated. Does the goose need to be of a specific size or weight? What’s the story behind this dish? We usually use geese that weigh around 6kg, as Chan Kan Kee’s signature dish, Chiu Chow we find the meat is just right for slicing. It’s not marinated goose, was created in 1948. Back in fat and is very soft. the 1940s, my grandfather was selling marinated goose in a village in Chiu Chow in Guangdong Is it easy to make this dish at home? Province. Our family then migrated to Hong I’ve tried it at home before. However, the pot Kong and continued selling our Chiu Chow was too small for one whole goose, so I cut the marinated goose on “Chiu Chow Lane” – today’s goose into parts. It was nice – but of course, Heung Hing Lane in Sheung Wan – where there whole goose is more delicious. by CDLP Hip to be Square Château Mouton Rothschild collaborates with Chinese artist Xu Bing for the more-than-meets-the-eye label on its 2018 vintage hinese artist Xu Bing has a knack for creating the art of surprise. Witness the artwork for his recent label collaboration Cwith Bordeaux-based winery Château Mouton Rothschild. On first glance, it appears as calligraphic as any finely rendered Chinese characters could be, but closer inspection reveals that the 1. Xu Bing characters are composed of the Latin 2. Château alphabet – in what Xu Bing calls his Mouton “Square Word Calligraphy”. Rothschild As a result of Xu’s lexical dexterity, the 2018 two words “Mouton” and “Rothschild” 3. How to read have been absorbed into the codes of “Mouton traditional Chinese ideography, which Rothschild” means the effect of Mouton Rothschild’s on the label 2018 vintage is much the same on the eye 4. Château as on the palate, whereby aromas and Mouton flavours gradually reveal themselves – or Rothschild 4 await our discovery. 2018 label Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, the vice-chairman of the board of directors for the winery, is doubly pleased by this artistic tour-de-force. “When I discovered Xu Bing, I was captivated by him as an inventor of signs endowed with incredible poetic power,” he says. “Then I said to myself that our labels were also signs, with each work of art referring to a year: the 1973 vintage can also be called the Picasso Mouton, as the 2018 vintage will be called the Xu Bing Mouton.” Art has always been central to the history of Baron Philippe de Rothschild’s family. Every year since 1945, a great 1 artist has illustrated the label. The prestigious list includes Salvador Dali, Art in New York, says his label is inspired Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, by the “reality of our lives”. The artist Gerhard Richter, Hockney, Lee Ufan, Jeff believes that our existing knowledge is Koons and Andy Warhol – and even HRH being challenged, or changed and added to, Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales. Many on a constantly evolving basis – and that of the artists spend time at the château “we are urged to seek a new perspective before creating their work, and many of and pivot our point of view to comprehend their original drawings and conceptions what is going on in the world.” are on display at the estate’s Paintings for Naturally, that concept tallies with the Labels Room. the legacy of Mouton, as behind its name Xu, a graduate of the Central Academy resides layers of rich history waiting to of Fine Arts in Beijing, whose work has be discovered. Surprise your eyes and been exhibited in the British Museum in palate with the already legendary 3 London and the Metropolitan Museum of “Xu Bing Mouton” vintage. by CDLP 2 Images: Courtesy of Xu Bing Studio (1, 3); Photo © Studio Goodday (2); illustrated by Xu Bing (4).

Load more