Medha Imam: What do you get when you combine
ancient cooking methods with China's most common food?
A delectable Cantonese dish and a Hong Kong favorite
called bo zai fan, or clay-pot rice.
Medha: I wish we cooked rice like this.
Ewa Huang: You can. Medha: Yeah, I know.
Medha: Hey, guys! We're here in the West Village
about to head to Clay Pot NYC,
and I'm here with food blogger Ewa Huang.
Now, we're about to see a classic Hong Kong-style dish
called "clay pot" be made.
Ewa: And clay pot is a perfect dish for a freezing day
like this, as it's traditionally eaten in the fall
and winter in Hong Kong and Guangdong.
It really warms you up, especially on these chilly days.
Medha: So let's go inside and see how it's made.
Medha: That's Alex Yip, the founder of Clay Pot NYC.
And that's Julian Yu, Clay Pot's head chef,
who's been making clay-pot rice for over 10 years.
According to chef Yu, who is from Guangdong,
clay-pot cooking is popular throughout all of China,
especially in southern provinces like Hong Kong.
Archaeologists estimate that people in China
have been cooking in clay pots for 20,000 years.
Even after Toshiba released
the first commercially successful electric rice cooker
in 1956, many people preferred the traditional method.
The reason lies in the vessel itself.
When cooked inside of a clay pot,
the rice gains additional flavor from the earthen pottery.
The clay's porous material allows the rice to breathe
and absorb the flavors from meats and vegetables
included in the pot.
But the best part comes from the bottom of the pot,
where a crispy layer of rice forms.
This is known as fan jiao.
But what makes the dish so special in Hong Kong?
Alex says it comes down to Cantonese culture,
which heavily influenced Hong Kong's modern culture.
In the 1940s, Hong Kong saw a mass wave
of Cantonese immigration after millions of people
fled mainland China during the Communist revolution.
Alex Yip: Cantonese people are very family-oriented.
Nothing brings together a Cantonese family
better than a pot of rice.
And because Hong Kong is actually 90% Cantonese,
I think that's why it's a signature dish.
Ewa: So, in Hong Kong, especially on Temple Street,
you'll find restaurants dedicated to just clay pot,
and they will have 60-plus varieties of toppings.
You can get anything you can imagine essentially on it,
like fish head, liver.
There's endless arrays of toppings
because you get so many different flavors
'cause each meat is so different
and flavors the rice differently.
But in Hong Kong, it's usually cooked over a charcoal fire,
and you'll sit at a crowded table
with usually other people with you.
You smell the clay pot, you hear the sizzling,
and it's just a very true, authentic Hong Kong experience.
Medha: When opening Clay Pot NYC,
Alex wanted to bring Hong Kong tradition to New York City
with a modern twist.
Alex: I grew up in Chinatown.
My dad and mom came from Hong Kong in 1976 with nothing,
so all we could really do is eat clay pot.
We had no money, so we would walk around Chinatown
and we'd usually go to get a clay pot.
And then I saw them slowly starting to disappear
as Chinatown was being gentrified,
so I wanted to preserve my memory of my childhood.
Medha: It starts with long-grain white rice
that's been rinsed and washed in salt,
and is put in an oiled clay pot.
Chef Yu adds water to the rice
and brings it to a boil over a hot flame,
where temperature control is key.
Alex: This is what can make or break the clay pot.
The fire is so important
because you have to time it perfectly,
and if you don't, you can actually end up burning the rice.
Medha: It's also crucial that the pot sits still
while the rice is cooking.
Otherwise, it will disrupt the fan jiao from forming.
This is where clay-pot cooking relies on the human senses,
particularly sight, hearing, and smell.
First, chef Yu tilts the lids so he can see
when the water is boiling.
After boiling, he needs to check when the water
has fully evaporated.
After a visual check, he lowers the heat
and tilts the pots on two sides for five minutes each.
During those 10 minutes, chef Yu needs to carefully listen
for the crackling sound of the fan jiao forming.
Alex: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Medha: Chef Yu also has to smell the distinct aroma
of the fan jiao to know it's ready.
Alex: It's really hard to describe with words.
It's kind of, like, with feelings,
it makes me feel like I'm at home.
I really can't. It's just a very homey smell.
It's got this, like, aroma that's very pleasing.
Medha: The chef cooks meats, vegetables,
and other toppings and adds them to the rice,
which continues to cook for several minutes.
Alex: This is the part when the rice
is actually breathing in all of the flavors.
Medha: Before serving, final garnishes like soy sauce
and scallions are added on top.
I'm really excited.
It was so amazing to see how the clay-pot dishes
were made and how labor-intensive it is, especially how...
Ewa: A lot of care and love in these dishes.
Medha: Yes, yeah!
And how, like, time-sensitive it is.
Ewa: So the sauce that he's drizzling on
is like a sweet soy sauce.
It's house-made here,
but it's not as salty as regular soy sauces.
So we have two different toppings.
Medha: OK.
Ewa: So, I have the traditional lap cheong.
It's a very traditional Chinese sausage
that you find in a lot in Cantonese cuisine.
It's rich and fatty and a little bit more sweet
than I think traditional sausage
that people might be used to.
But it's incredibly addictive.
Medha: All right, let's dig in.
Ewa: So, yeah, then you want to mix everything together
so you can get all of the different textures in this dish.
So you have the crispy golden rice from the clay pot,
and then the center of the rice is, like, soft and fatty
from the meats seeping in. Medha: Like soaking in?
Ewa: Yeah.
What do you think?
Medha: It's so good.
I'm a lover of rice.
But this is like all the different textures in a rice,
like it's not only soft and tender,
but then you get the crispy rice from the bottom.
And then also, I really am enjoying the sauce
that he just drizzled on.
It's sweet yet not too sweet,
and it just adds a lot of dimension to the flavor.
Ewa: So, if this is your first time eating clay pot,
I would definitely recommend going lap cheong
if you eat pork.
If not, I think eel is really great, as well,
'cause they add a lot of flavor to it.
If you're vegan, vegetables, tofu,
and you'll still get a lot of flavor too,
because you can add ginger-scallion sauce,
you can add the sweet soy sauce
so you won't be missing out on anything.
In the ginger-scallion sauce, it's really just ginger,
scallion, salt, oil.
It's a classic Cantonese sauce
that you find in a lot of different dishes.
Medha: I think I'm more on the salty-savory
when it comes to my dinner dishes and rice dishes,
so I think I'm someone who would definitely put a lot
of this ginger-scallion sauce into the dish.
When I heard about the crispy rice at the bottom,
I thought it was just going to be, like
you know like at the end,
we're scraping it off but it's not really edible,
but it's actually very edible and you can hear the crunch.
Every time I bite into the crispy rice,
it's very much cooked well and throughout.
That's also very fun to eat
because I think in a lot of cultures
I feel like when the rice is burnt,
they tend to throw it out or they tend to say,
like not use it and not eat it, but in this situation
it's actually very much complementing the dish.
Ewa: It's a really comforting, casual dinner dish.
It's something that you can eat with friends.
It's something that you can eat on your own.
You can get, like, a bunch of different clay-pot dishes
with your friends to all try different toppings,
so it's just a very communal type of cuisine.
Medha: If you're cold, just hold the clay pot.
Ewa: But be careful, because when it first comes out,
it is very hot, so maybe at the end.
Medha: So maybe at the end, but don't touch it right away.
Just, just at the end. Ewa: Yeah.