THE QUIET HOURS

Something you don't see every day is a table spread with curing chicken wings in an alley way. But one of the residents of Chinatown believes that the weather today is good for drying his cured meat. Very home town, and the heck with what the tourist will say. Folks from Ohio and Missippi (this is the correct spelling according to literate people there) don't do stuff like that. Where they live that's probably tantamount to running around in grass skirts and shouting "boogah boogah!"

臘雞翅

Trimmed chicken wings, soy sauce, sugar, rice wine, and the correct amount of Prague Powder. Plus wind, dry air, and reasonable temperatures. It's a type of 臘味 ('laap mei'; preserved meats), and there is no earthly reason why you cannot do this with pieces of fowl. Just pretend you are in Wenchou (溫州 'man jau'; city in Zhejiang) where it's a famous and distinctive food (風味 'fung mei'). Even though you are geographically closer to Ohio and Missippi. Preserved chicken wings (臘雞翅 'laap gai yik')
Probably goes great with grits.

[Prague Powder: Pink curing salt #1 (6.25% sodium nitrite, 93.75% table salt), or Pink curing salt #2 (6.25% sodium nitrite, 4% sodium nitrate, and 89.75% table salt). Number one for a short cure, number two for a longer cure (months). Many European cured meats use number two, as well as saltpetre (potassium nitrate).]

Lunch at a nearby chachanteng contained both preserved meat and fresh chicken. And, because it was in front of me and no one else, chilipaste. I did not photograph it, though it looked exquisite. The slim young Mandarin speaker at the next table photographed hers, though, before tucking in. Some people say grace, some people say a brochah.
Some people probably say "cheese", before eating.

It was relatively full when I got there, the late lunch crowd, but nearly empty when I left. Smoked my pipe for a bit while wandering around, then did some shopping. A steamed charsiu bun and a big Toisan bun each for my landlady downstairs and my apartment mate. The landlady had managed to wreck her foot somehow recently, so she's on the mend and not quite as mobile as she would like. Plus she's admitted that she misses the Chinatown environment. It's less than eight blocks away but in a city of hills that's almost a lifetime.

For myself I purchased a packet of candied water chestnut (糖馬蹄 'tong maa tai'), an old fashioned sweet which I haven't had in a while. They are common at Chinese New Year, but considered rather old school by a lot of people. The younger generation is not particularly fond of them.

Late afternoon: cup of milk tea, egg tart.
Second pipe on the way home.



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