Waxed duck!? Hairless Gigolo?

Waxed meat stall in Chinatown

Waxed duck and waxed meat are imported from China. I can only buy them a month before Chinese New Year. You don't see them at any other time.

Long long ago, in China, there was no refrigerator to store meats, so the clever Chinese thought of ways to preserve their meat for a longer time. Besides air-drying, they can also be smoked. The methods of preserving meat without refrigeration have passed down for a few thousand years. Besides duck and pork, they preserved chicken and fish too and the internal organs of the fowls. The meats are marinated with salt and/or wine, spices for a night and left to air-dry in the dry winds during winter in December, when the sun is up, for days. As the 12th month in Chinese Lunar calendar is called la yue (腊月) , so the waxed meats are called la rou (腊肉).

According to a Chinese friend, from autumn to winter in many villages, we can see meats hanging on poles on every available space - in the garden, at the back yard, in fields, next to ponds and even on roof tops! The whole village would be filled with the aromatic smell of preserved meat.

Marinated meats left to air-dry in a village

No preservative is used, and definitely no wax is used on the meat! I don't know about factory processed waxed meats nowadays, they look glossy and taste very salty.

To cook the waxed meats, you have to wash it thoroughly to remove the dust and dirt on the surface. Soak them in water to remove excess salt. After that, trim off all the fats.

The easiest way to enjoy the waxed meat is to throw it into your rice cooker while cooking rice. When you open the lid of the rice cooker, there will be a lovely aroma. Add some sesame oil, fried scallions and chopped spring onions. mmm........

Steamed waxed duck

I normally reserve the neck, bones, wing tips and feet of the waxed duck to boil soup. Add in dried, preserved vegetables. You can drink it on its own or you can use it to cook porridge. The soup is very flavourful!

You can also cooked the meats with yam. I have collected many recipes to cook these Lunar New Year delicacies. It would take up a lot of space to list them. ^-^

The favourite dish of my family -

Waxed Meats Claypot Rice

Jaymes would be responsible for the cooking this year! *I shake legs*

note - The Chinese refers to a hooker as 'Chicken' and a gigolo, 'Duck'. lol