1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (187 page)

Where:
618 Makhalemele St., Soweto, South Africa, tel 27/11-982-2796,
wandies.co.za
.
Further information and recipes:
funkymunky.co.za/african.html
.

With its burnished, bronze peel and round shape, the Asian pear resembles a cross between an apple and a Bosc pear—hence its nickname, the “apple pear.”
Pyrus pyrifolia
, however, is not a hybrid, but the native pear of China, Japan, and Korea, prized for its mild, gently sweet, and refreshing flavor, snappily crisp flesh, and pleasantly chewy skin. Believed to have originated in China, the fruit was introduced to California by Chinese immigrants during the Gold Rush. Now cultivated all around the world, it grows in more than a thousand varieties; some twenty types are commonly available, mostly the varieties the Japanese call
nashi
or
nijisseiki
(“twentieth century”).

The firm, crackling pears should be enjoyed raw, as cooking ruins their delicate texture and flavor. While they can be sliced or chomped into on their own, they also lend their crunch and mild sweetness to savory salads, relishes, and slaws.

This fruit is somewhat more labor-intensive to grow than European varieties, and must ripen completely on the tree and then be transported with a great deal of care—which is why Asian pears are generally more expensive than their European counterparts. Although they keep for months in the refrigerator, they are ready to eat when bought, and are best during their peak season, from midspring through midsummer.

Mail order:
thefruitcompany.com
(search asian pears).
Further information and recipes:
Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables
by Elizabeth Schneider (2010);
Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges
by Jean-Georges Vongerichten (2007);
saveur.com
(search pickled asian pears);
epicurious.com
(search green tea poached pear);
produceoasis.com
(search asian pears).
Tip:
Select the most fragrant fruit, with no soft spots, and store it for a week at room temperature, or up to three months in the refrigerator.

A deeply traditional dish with a four-hundred-year history.

The creator of Peking duck deserves a place in the history books for his or her seductively delicious invention. Panache and ingenuity were certainly required in dreaming up this tantalizing dish, in which the duck’s skin is cooked to a crisp, golden glassiness, and the meat is moist and sweetly earthy; both are enfolded in hot, paper-thin crêpes or cushiony, snow-white steamed buns. The whole exudes a complex,
almost smoky fragrance that is enhanced by a star anise–scented powder of six other peppery, aromatic spices.

The dish’s preparation is as wondrous as its flavor. First, there is the duck itself, a well-fed, white-feathered, carefully raised bird known as the Imperial Peking duck, the ancestor of the Long Island duck. The first step in preparing the duck is treating the skin so that it will become taut and easily separate from the underlying fat during the slow roasting. To that end, the whole bird is hung in cool, open, circulating air for twenty-four hours; most authentically, air is first pumped into the carcass through a tiny hole punctured between breast and wing. Just before it is roasted, the duck is lacquered with a pungent combination of rice wine vinegar, honey, plummy hoisin sauce, ginger, oil, and perhaps hot chile peppers. Finally, the sauce-varnished bird is hung vertically or slid onto a rack and slowly roasted, its fat dripping off into a pan as it receives frequent additional bastings of sauce.

At table, the skin will usually be presented as a first course, with the meat to follow, always with scallions, cucumbers, a sweet-spicy spread of fruity hoisin sauce, and freshly made, gently warm pancakes or buns. For a final course, the duck carcass, still with juicy bits of meat attached, can be made into a delicate, soothing soup, flavored with shredded cabbage and scallions.

One of the most traditional and intriguing presentations of this celestial dish can be found at the famed Da Dong Roast Duck restaurant in Beijing, where women are given little plates of coarse white sugar crystals to sprinkle onto the duck, because, it is explained, a bygone empress felt that women’s palates were too delicate for strong and peppery flavors. Too bad for men, as the sugar adds a sweet crunch that plays well against the crisp, baconlike skin.

Where:
In Beijing
, Da Dong Roast Duck, tel 86/10-6582-2892;
in New York
, Peking Duck House at two locations,
pekingduckhousenyc.com
;
in Toronto
, Crown Princess Fine Dining, tel 416-923-8784,
crown-princess.ca
.
Further information and recipes:
The Chinese Cookbook
by Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee (1972);
The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook
by Gloria Bley Miller (1984);
chineserecipes.com
(search peking duck);
marthastewart.com
(search martha liao’s peking duck).

A tableside twist on candy apples.

Long before the word
fusion
was permanently borrowed from the world of nuclear physics and grafted onto the food realm, the Chinese were busy adapting their food to suit American tastes. In need of a showy dessert, Chinese
American restaurants took a hint from the candied apple and introduced this sticky-sweet, hot-and-cold treat. Preparation usually takes place tableside, with slim, batter-coated apple slices caramelized in hot oil and sugar, and, while still sizzling hot, plunged into ice water so that the syrup instantly hardens into a candied glaze. The hiss of the hot apples going into the cold water invariably provokes oohs and aahs, not to mention a Pavlovian mouthwatering from diners anticipating the crunchy, sweet treat. Dinner theater indeed.

Surprisingly, the dessert, which was first popularized in Cantonese restaurants in the U.S., has an actual provenance. Known alternatively as spun apples, Peking glazed apples, and Peking drawn-thread glazed apples, the original is a tradition of North China and appears in restaurants in Beijing, usually sprinkled with white or black sesame seeds. During the dire days of the Mao regime, when food shortages were commonplace, this favorite dessert was made with potatoes or yams in place of the more expensive apples. Fortunately, this treat is sometimes found on the menus of America’s more old-timey Chinese restaurants—and of course it is not too difficult to prepare at home.

Further information and recipes:
The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking
by Barbara Tropp (1996);
The Ultimate Chinese & Asian Cookbook
, edited by Linda Doeser (1998);
Chinese Pavilion
by Elisa Vergne (2003);
recipegoldmine.com
(search chinese candied apples);
chinesefood.about.com
(search candied banana fritters, use the apple variation).

A meat-filled trompe l’oeil.

A dim sum favorite that is a specialty of Suzhou, the picturesque, canal-laced city near Shanghai, these spiky meatballs are made from a mix of minced pork, dried mushrooms, pungent ginger, crunchy water chestnuts, scallions, soy sauce, and rice wine—much the same as other Chinese meatballs, but with a unique finishing touch. Once the tiny balls are shaped, they are rolled in short-grain glutinous rice that has been soaked and drained, the rice grains pressed firmly into the meatballs until they look like rough-edged snowballs. Carefully laid out in a single layer on an oiled, heatproof plate, they are placed in a bamboo steamer for about half an hour, until the meat is thoroughly cooked and the rice forms a sturdy, crunchy, crystalline crust. A dip of light soy sauce with rice wine vinegar and a dab of fiery Chinese mustard, mixed to the eater’s taste, is the only enhancement needed.
Some Chinese cooks prefer a larger version of pearl balls, served as part of a main course, much like lion’s heads (see
listing
), but without cabbage.

Where:
In New York
, Joe’s Shanghai at three locations,
joeshanghairestaurants.com
;
in San Francisco
, Yank Sing at multiple locations,
yanksing.com
;
in Daly City, CA
, Koi Palace,
koipalace.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook
by Gloria Bley Miller (1984);
Chinese Gastronomy
by Hsiang Ju Lin and Tsuifeng Lin (1969);
Delicious Dim Sum
by Cooking Penguin (2013);
Cooking Classics: Dim Sum
by Ng Lip Kah (2014).
See also:
Onigiri
;
Köttbullar
.