Thursday, January 31, 2008

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


44 comments:

  1. Kiew Kai again?!! :-) Hahaha, no Brazilian wax, I see! :-O Your yam dish is so saliva tingly far away!!!

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  2. ahhh, my favorite cny item (taste best in claypot rice) is now a hairless gigolo... :P

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  3. We kiu ngap! Kiu ngap!

    Kakaka... your translation skill veli good ;)

    Actually this kind of ngap, not very healthy, hor? I've not eaten them for a few years liao.. love to have it with lap cheong too... (wooo.. ngap and lap cheong... mind wandering liao... kakaka)

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  4. LB,
    hehehe.... kiew yarp ah!

    I'm surprised there are many Chinese who don't know what a waxed duck is. They, like other nationalities thought the duck's feathers were removed through waxing. lol....

    Want to come to my house for Reunion Dinner?

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  5. xinyun,
    Oh, your favourite too ah.

    hehehe.... doesn't it make you drool more when you think of it as a hairless gigolo!?

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  6. My angel,
    The name itself causes one's mind to wander and create colourful images......

    Waxed duck is not healthy, has high cholesterol and high calorie content. Lucky we eat it only during CNY!

    ngap and lup cheong..... your mind wandering again! hahaha.....

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  7. Thanks so much for telling me this was up -- and for the culture lesson!! Sounds and looks delicious!

    I'd love to some day tour all the places I visit in bloggyland in real life! Hey, maybe we'll have to do a home exchange so you could experience snow and I could taste waxed duck. For your sake, we could keep it short -- like a week -- so you wouldn't freeze solid!!

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  8. henry,
    I have lots of Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese friends who can give me advice and in-depth info on our Chinese culture, history and traditions. As I learn more, I can impart my knowledge to the younger generation too.

    Can I visit the CNY chingay floats and take photos first?

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  9. Hi Valleygirl,
    The home exchange sounds fun! I remember watching this TV program called Trading Places. That would be awesome!

    One week sound good enough for me, but it might not be enough for you. You probably wouldn't want to go home after experiencing life in Lion City! hehe.....

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  10. I like Waxed Meat Claypot Rice. The ones in Kamboat are quite nice :P~~~

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  11. tigerfish,
    Kamboat in Orchard Road serves authentic Cantonese cuisine. I love their dishes. I'm not surprised their Waxed Meat Claypot Rice is good. ^-^

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  12. looks good! When I first saw "waxed" I really wondered :)

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  13. Beth,
    hehe... many people wondered wth is that!? The duck is waxed!?

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  14. Hehehe!! lucky you ..!! Jaymes.. can send some sample or not..??

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  15. mamabok,
    Can send waxed meats to Canada anot? I send you some.

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  16. OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG!!!

    New year food!!!!!!!!

    Next week, Next week, Next week, Next week, Next week, Next week, Next week, Next week!!!!!

    Gimmie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  17. Mike,
    Oooo.... Chinese New Year delicacies... so good eh. Do you give ang-pows too?

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  18. I have only had the wax duck once. Very salty. May be it was factory processed. I prefer peking duck. Hehehe

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  19. I have my red envelops ready to go, the dimsum and duck are just waiting for me to eat them and the tea is waiting to be brewed (real tea of course, not teabags).
    New Year is the greatest time of the year. What could be better than great food and great family, except a red envelope stuffed with lucky money??
    BTW, waxed duck is pretty good, but you have to get rid of the wax first. If not, you are just eating a duck flavored candle. I found out the hard way HA

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  20. Princess Doreen,
    I prefer the Peking Duck too! The waxed duck is not so healthy. It's hard to get a naturally dried duck these days. Most of factory produced.

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  21. Mike,
    Oh... looks like you are already half a Chinese, keeping to our traditional customs of giving red envelopes and eating waxed dick!

    Oooo... you need to give the waxed duck a good wash to remove the dirt and dust. If it's too oily, trim off the fats and let it boil in hot water to remove it.

    You have to eat with rice due to its saltiness.

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  22. Oh my goodness. I cannot stand the thought of this :S

    It totally grosses me out (no offense), but I'm sooo fussy with meat. :P

    One day when I come to Singapore, you can cook it for me, and I will taste it ;) But please, just don't tell me its waxed meat :P

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  23. Dizzy Dee,
    hehehe.... I will not tell you what my dish consists of until you have finished it. Look at how yummy it looks after cooking.

    Don't think too much when it comes to food. I wonder how you would find the King of fruits, the durian. ^-^

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  24. Very informative post! I always wonder, why there is no wax chicken. Care to share your thought on this?

    Go Jaymes go! That dish looks quite doable .. ha ha ha. I will stay tuned!

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  25. I have also not seen waxed chicken but my China friend said there is waxed chicken, waxed dog(!?! OMG!) meat and waxed egg!

    I must ask her to bring me to take pictures and show me how they do them. These are not mass produced and only available in the villages.

    The claypot dish is simple, you or Cynthia can do it too. ^-^

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  26. eastcoastlife,
    You're funny lah. Hairless gigolo! hahahaha!

    Wah, Jaymes can really cook hor? Now you really can kiao kah liao. Sit back, give angpao only. kekeke.

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  27. Oh yea, I never tried this "hairless gigolo" before. Wonder how it tastes like. *akhem* :P

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  28. Kok,
    When I casually mentioned giving a 'waxed duck' to a friend, she thought it was a gigolo who had a Brazilian Waxing. hahaha.....

    She has not tried waxed duck, the edible and inedible ones! hahaha.....

    Jaymes is learning lots of wonderful cooking techniques and skills from his culinary school. I'm learning from him now. This simple claypot dish is a piece of cake!

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  29. Interesting. The dish looks delicious.

    The term you use for chicken and duck is very amusing. :)

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  30. Wah, I miss that duck. Very expensive here and they only sell it when it is near CNY. Never mind lah, I go on diet. :(

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  31. I don't really like waxed meat, especially lap cheong... duno why leh... hehe.

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  32. eastcoast,come get an award I have for you on my blog: Work of the Poet :)

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  33. eastcoast, happy feasting ! Wishing you a prosperous CNY!

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  34. I never know how to eat those wax stuff except lap cheong. Good also cos by looking at the wax kai and ngap also geli liao.

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  35. Oh gosh Loook so delicious oh can i have some ya? pleas..please..

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  36. Hi ECL,

    I asked one of the in Charge, he replied when you want to take the photos, is it at our (sub station) workshop, or PA or the place of performance Cityhall.

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  37. Thanks, what an informative post! I asked my Mom and she knows this one..LOL

    Please do send photos on how your chinese new year will go there as it is already late for me to go there...LOL

    Next time I'm in Singapore...I'll let you know!

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  38. Though I've always seen it back home but I've never really tried buying it (and eating it). I mean... the ducks looked like it has been run over by a truck... lol

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  39. Hehehe!! donch think so lor.. :) yer too kind lah.. :) they prolly would stop it in custom.. :(
    But i really miss bak kwa alot leh.. :( *sob*

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  40. Hi ECL great post! My favourite is wax duck! Blessed New Year to you and family! those from China taste better!

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  41. Keep forgetting that Chinese New Year is coming up soon! So your son is definitely dealing with the food for you. You are so lucky!

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  42. if the gwailos see all those waxed ducks hanging there I think they'd feel queasy in the stomach! lol!

    I like lap cheong better than waxed duck, especially in rice... mmmmm...

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