The Kitchen Wisdom of Cecilia Chiang - Episode 2: The Long Walk

you know how to crack it i'm gonna try let's see wow it's okay either the servant carriers on their back or where in the rickshaw bamboo then you slash this okay my mother always feel very proud i got so many kids they're all quite good looking one of the mandarin signature dishes beggar's chicken she was born almost a hundred years ago in a china that no longer exists her privileged childhood was interrupted when the japanese invaded and she was forced to flee and then flee again when the communist revolution swept over china but cecilia chang is a survivor and in the 1950s she sailed into san francisco though she had never cooked a day in her life she opened the mandarin an acclaimed restaurant that would revolutionize chinese food in america she mentored some of america's greatest chefs the likes of julia james beard and alice waters now in her mid-90s cecilia is mentoring a new generation of san francisco's chefs and sharing her century of kitchen wisdom [Music] this is something we learned since we we were even young we learned how to tolerate you have to tolerate with the situation tolerate with the war torn with the separation with the family because this is heaven all the time in our country [Music] my grandmother was born in a time and place that is unimaginable to most of us today cecilia and her family of 14 lived a peaceful and prosperous life in their sprawling family compound from 1924 until 1939 i remember those days where no matter where we go either the servant carry us on their back or we're in the rig shop in those days a big family is not very unusual all kids will all get along really well my mother always feel very proud i got so many kids they're all quite good looking and always also all dressed very well we had a private tailor at home springtime i remember the whole family we went to a park see all the flowers and have a lunch then my mother used to tell us what is this what is this dish what it is you know this is only time you can get these vegetables you can get that so learn a lot of things from my my mother and my father just just really enjoy and have a little wine with a lunch [Music] it was a good and pampered childhood but in 1937 when my grandmother was in college the japanese invaded and by 1939 they marched into beijing seizing most of the family compound and seizing my grandmother's idyllic life along with it my sister and number five and i will walk from beijing to chongqing disguised as peasants they walked over a thousand miles finally making it to chiang kai-shek's free china in january 1942 we decided to live but actually we never left the family before and we were so young we didn't know anything and never been out of beijing problem with it with all families we didn't have enough food everything on region no rice the rice is only for japanese they call the royal soldier to eat we we cannot get anything so finally my number five sister and i we decided we really should leave we all cried because we don't know when we're going to see them again and also very scared because we didn't know where is chongqing most of the time we walk nighttime and daytime we try to find a place to rest and the japanese airplane was flying really low and shooting all the students all the way very hard to get some decent food because from british to village and we didn't have a map we have to ask the people in the village what is the next village and what is how far it is from here to chongqing each place you go you have a different kind of money so my mother said well if you run out of money what are you going to do so she bought a lot of these one ounce gold pieces and we used to call it a little fish the shape just like a little fish so in my call so i will i wear that in the lining sure enough when we just go through hernan province going to cross the border to free china that time and the japanese soldier saw us and then roberts took all our luggage away we didn't have anything anything not even a toothbrush nothing when we crossed the freezing between occupied china and free china they make a ditch so wide so we have to hire somebody to use a rope to pull us from this side to other side that's really that really hard trip took us from beijing to chongqing five and a half months like my grandmother south african-born lawrence josel traveled a long way to open a restaurant in san francisco we left in johannesburg to come to houston texas in 1978 so quite a long time ago so i like you i arrived in the states when i was nine years old so now they call me an american with good manners nopa is named for its location north of the panhandle with its open kitchen and always packed bar it's a happening restaurant that stays open well after other places have closed for the evening the food is both urban and earthy an approachable style that matches jocel's personality he eschews chef whites for a more casual look and uses just about every form of fire to turn out his rustic and robust food don't have an open fire in the desert and camel dung to cook on that's what i want i want that slavers camel dung had he not turned out to be a natural in the kitchen lawrence may well have ended up doing stand-up comedy but his cooking is nothing to laugh at and he and nainai speak the common language of great food cecilia i i picked up your book and i looked through the book and uh there's one recipe i'm very interested in and it's a it's a classic recipe of yours from the mandarin i've read a lot about it but i'd like you to show me how to do it it's called the beggar's chicken yes the back of chicken started is in hong kong near shanghai in the old days in china we have a lot of poor people yes in china chicken very expensive chicken more expensive than meat how do you say chicken in mandarin yeah and sometimes the poor people on the street so they steal a chicken from somebody's yard you know and then they don't have anything to cook with so they just put some must and start a fire cooking that's a started bag of beverage chicken now of course in the restaurant you put some stuff in some sauces you can't see it yeah now i've looked at the recipe and the recipe is uh is at least two hours in the oven right yeah sometimes two and a half hours depending on the size of the chicken how did you do that in the restaurant we have about four of them special for the baker's chicken so you had a big kitchen and we have vacations right yeah and then modernized right all right what about is still a lot of the dish is the presentation at the table right yes so you crack at the table yeah quick on the table right and we have a special tray oh really absolute car right all right and everybody right and also we have a bigger wooden hammer and a cracker right i just always ask for the guests of honor crackers oh they crack themselves yeah yes sure yeah of course it's a show people love it right right i think this is one of the most popular dish in uh mandarin you sold a lot we sold a lot and also like chuck williams a favorite yeah yeah every time we come in i want bigger chicken and also dreams beer james beard as well yeah these are guys with very good palettes huh yeah yeah well let's let's make the chicken together is that okay okay okay in china we use everything for stock everything [Music] do we need the the nose [Music] you know keep the notes because you know why otherwise all the water come out okay and also a lot of people love that that nose yeah my dad yeah my father no all right i'm gonna get all the ingredients to make the marinade okay all right do you remember the recipe i don't remember the recipe i guess remember i have to tell you i have never used a recipe in my life so first thing is one teaspoon of five spice oh so you're being straight huh two teaspoons of sesame oil two teaspoons of oyster sauce if you put the sesame oil first it comes right out right yeah it's a good shake two teaspoons of sugar will you hold that for me mm-hmm now you're cooking in your house you use teaspoons oh you just usually just use my hand yeah me too pinch your hair pinch it sorry a lot of pinching going on yeah and we're gonna do one tablespoon of soy big big spoon a little bit more to make it saltier and we do the mushroom soy yeah i like this stuff two tablespoons of this right yeah okay this actually don't have the taste it's just you want to add anything taste it not salting now that's why very hard to judge with this so we doubled it up agreed okay let's marinate the chicken okay and just rub inside nice yellow hands you can rub also inside that's what i do i put back in the bowl yup and then back into the chicken you put in this so you get the flavor right we cook right away or we marinate this for a little bit of time usually you melt it ahead of them one hour a little bit of time okay all right so now you think we're ready to make the stuffing yeah all right i'll put this on the side okay [Music] it's a bamboo then you'll slash this okay and again on the other side that's right and corner as well yeah one more this is very hard very hard yeah and then we can feel it i've never used fresh bamboo shoots before i've seen them um eaten by panda bears not that deep enough you'll need another slash eye slash yeah expensive 5.95 a pound 5.95 a pound yeah [Applause] yeah but it's great texture and it smells really good it's very fresh can you you can peel keep peeling keep peeling like an artichoke where do these grow it's all important in china from the southern part and in the northern part of china they don't grow because the weather too cold right it's a rose actually that's a neat ingredient waste a lot yeah i know then you'll trim this so just trim a little bit that's right the bottom is still a little wood huh yeah but you don't use the bottom part okay now i see another split this part is too hard too hard you want to cut that off cut it off okay it's about there huh yeah okay now you can cut like slice and then you like you section that i think that's probably enough that's enough safe put it in your purse so we make the stuffing with this yeah so this stuffing is very easy [Music] these are the shitake let's see no okay we saved it for later yep back in the purse you got it water chestnuts i don't think you need to cut done yeah easy okay and then ham so we make this ham you make this you want to try it yeah that's so what are your lovely music it's salty and sweet and i get it from the pig from the the leg and i brine it one week and then smoke it on this maybe maybe keep a little more for him yeah all right so there's much and then i said there's a small framework that's good green onion just plain and then smash a little ginger that's enough and smack like this [Music] it's okay all right we have the stuffing and now we put inside chicken i put inside now what i noticed when we used a lot of stuffing it keeps the shape of the chicken otherwise they shrink yeah yeah this way it doesn't look like little old man anymore get those the sauce get the sauce inside as well you got it you can mix with the sauce i think you're right get the flavor right all right [Music] this is very satisfying just a perfect i think the amount perfect amount yeah this is going to be a good chicken the next part of this i'm very excited about because we're going to use a lotus leaf then are you going to close this i'm going to tie the leg you can use a toothpick oh really silk yourself so this way and the stuffing won't come out all right you want me to get a toothpick yeah that's right all right like that let me get a toothpick i'll be back in an hour all right so we're gonna toothpick it here pick up the skin and just go through like a baby this is a very fresh chicken yeah but very quick yeah this is from a farm we use a river dog yeah just get more of that beautiful juice caesar yeah perfect now we're going to put the lotus on then you'll put the lotus seed okay we'll do that next cecelia look at this lotus wow beautiful so this i soaked in hot water but it shouldn't be hot water right yeah i think the best thing you'll still keep the flavor yeah and the texture looks warm lukewarm let's find two good pieces oh that's good that's good that's good so we put lotus down and uh like the umbrella is on the outside huh yeah that's right okay i put chicken here little s m and now we wrap tell me if i'm doing it right okay like this turn sideways yeah okay oh that makes sense okay okay now we have to put this in the clay so i'm a cook not a potter right yeah but i found this clay this is quite a piece of clay this is five pounds or you'll get it i went to three different uh pottery stores and i finally found this one and they're going out of business so i bought 100 pounds we can make beggars everything you want to make a beggar's pig yeah i got the clay all right so i do this [Music] give it a little head start like dough right daniel you can get a lot of aggression out like this i feel good you're having a hard day okay i'm just gonna roll it so it takes a little bit of time at the mandarin did you pre-do this you did this before uh we buy a loose one and mix you make the clay oh you bought the powder the pot yeah and then we make our own i'm saying that's about that's about right yeah okay oh i'm tired good exercise it is good exercise all right it's loose it's ready i'll put the chicken on so the chicken would go breast side down right because that's the part to cook now this is the wings here i can feel it this is the leg and this is the the nose right and now this is what i do so we wrap it up so same like the lotus right that's right this [Music] it's a big chicken but what's important is to keep it uh airtight huh this is the fun part honestly yeah make it close to the close to the chicken this way it conceals [Music] okay that seems pretty tight to me better time now yeah so now i'm going to flip it onto a sheet press side up [Music] wow [Music] so can i open this for you sure we'll try it and then you know how to crack it do you i'm gonna try let's see all right first uh right yeah and we're getting this wow okay that looks like the clear perfect one and then the lotus leaf is so all cooked wow see the heat it's very hot yeah it smells delicious like an earthquake wow perfect smells good so i'm going to cut a little bit around and put on the plate because now i'm already hungry i use chinese scissors that's right i noticed that made in china everything's made in china everyone's invading china including you i'm mainly in china right okay this is good i'm gonna take this as well oh yeah legs are falling apart right now this is the hard part it's hot hot everything is safe you yourself now so we're going to cut it we're going to separate the legs off the knife first like this one side one side yeah just open it up straight down the middle that's right then you're open now okay oh perfect look at that yeah that is hot yeah [Music] you're the winner just today your lucky one you want some sauce yeah you can just cook or do they do that in china yeah wishbone yeah [Music] actually the inside of something is nice flavored only for the white meat very good really good thank you chef so this is really really good thank you can we try it all right do you want a fork very hard [Music] it's good wow very tender do you even taste the flavor of the lotus sleeve yeah you can yeah it gives a different flavor huh yeah totally different this is so good all right now i think i will make it again what's your favorite bird you like the dark meat or the light meat i used to use a duck meat that's your side okay this reminds me pretty much like a old mandarina really good thank you very much very good well i just followed a very good recipe so many other people try to do this i think you're the best that is a great thing to hear really it's a great thing to hear [Music] we moved from shanghai to beijing when i was a little girl right about four years old oh okay yeah and we live in a big house my mother was a very good cook were your taste memories when you when you get that feeling of like this is i'm a little girl again eating what region do you connect to most beijing yeah still is my home [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Hungry

Views: 1,583

Keywords: food, cooking, chefs, wine, drink, chef, cook, cecilia chiang, san francisco, the kitchen wisdom of cecilia chiang, kitchen wisdom, cecilia chiang cause of death, cecilia chiang recipes, kitchen wisdom of cecilia chiang, kitchen wisdom of cecilia chiang recipes, kitchen table wisdom, cecilia chiang kitchen wisdom, chinese food, best chinese food, chinese food recipes, chinese food eating, how to cook, how to cook rice, how to cook chinese food, food china, weird food china, kitchen

Id: GiZVtpfTDL4

Length: 26min 17sec (1577 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021