XO Soused

For years now , and since Andrew's visit to the brilliant Albert Adrià in Barcelona in 2017, Andrew and Albert have been talking about collaborating on a menu that meshes the world of dim sum and tapas and upends European industry norms about pastry. Finally on Friday 7th July 2023 - after months of emails and calls - Albert arrived with his team and boxes of specialist ingredients to prep for a special weekend menu that is an industry first and marks an exciting new evolution in creativity for both chefs. On the eve of these dinners, Mukta recorded a live Q&A with Andrew and Albert to explore the collaboration from an XO Soused POV!Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.comXO Soused aims to be a fortnightly audio newsletter. We'd be grateful if you can share XO Soused with your friends! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

In a new format for XO Soused, we welcome a guest!Susan Jung - arguably the most powerful voice in East and South East Asian food and cookery - sits with Andrew and Mukta to explore; * why apprenticeships are sometimes better than formal culinary education* how a well-timed lunch can help launch a food writing career* what makes Susan angry as a restaurant reviewer* Susan's favourite meal* What fried chicken reveals about East and South East Asia * the special artisanal ingredients that elevate East and South East Asian cookerySusan's book, Kung Pao and Beyond, Fried Chicken Recipes from East and Southeast Asia is available from bookshops and online at Hive. Apéritif: Susan, Mukta and Andrew talk a little more about chickenIntro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.comXO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter. We'd be grateful if you can share XO Soused with your friends! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Macanese gastronomy is reputedly the oldest fusion cuisine in the world and has been recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage. This tiny territory - smaller than Hong Kong, which it neighbours - also has one of the most dynamic economies in the world where some of the best chefs using the finest ingredients cook for the very rich. How does Macanese food cut through this noise?But how does a chef like Andrew - operating within a system of distinct yet connected regional Chinese cuisines - understand, embody, codify and cook a corpus that borrows so heavily from Portuguese colonial tastes and textures? And is fusion a problematic term or simply an imprecise word to describe complex alchemies involved in cooking food that lands well in a given context? ReferencesBoileau, Janet Patricia. "A culinary history of the Portuguese Eurasians: the origins of Luso-Asian cuisine in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries." PhD diss., 2010.Das, Mukta. “One of Many Ways For Macanese Aluar” The Recipes Project, 2021Jackson, Annabel. The Making of Macau's Fusion Cuisine: From Family Table to World Stage. Hong Kong University Press, 2020.Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.comXO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter. We'd be grateful if you can share XO Soused with your friends! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

From being the little princeling in the kitchen during his culinary training to asserting his creative and commercial voice - Andrew's authority has not always been clearly exercised, reflecting the complexities with succession in family businesses. Considering all these complex succession hangovers, why was Andrew so adamant that his own new venture - A. Wong - should be launched on the site of his dad's previous restaurant? Why not a clean break and a new site? What has remained of his father's empire - the other businesses, the team, the network - and how has the family adapted to the new business? Or are there continuities in how decisions are made and dreams realised through all three generations of Andrew's family?Thanks for listening to our special miniseries. Normal service resumes with the next episode of XO Soused on Tuesday 2 May. Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.comXO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter. We'd be grateful if you can share XO Soused with your friends! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Episode 2 goes inside Andrew's family as they battle to carve a space in London's hospitality sector . As Britain's Asian restaurant sector transformed in the lead up to the new millennium, so too did the ambitions of many a restaurateur -not least Andrew's father, who constantly cast about for new ideas and concepts. What kind of pressures, limits and opportunities did this present to the family? How did the teenage Andrew understand these forces as they impacted on his father in particular? What did it mean to have a family business in this patriarchal world, and where did it leave Andrew's mother and Andrew when his father passed away?Tomorrow: British Chinese cuisine - Wong family dynamics from 2008 - the presentIntro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.comXO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter. We'd be grateful if you can share XO Soused with your friends! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Introducing a special three-episode mini series of XO Soused. One episode per generation, and one episode each day from Monday to Wednesday this week. Andrew's family have been involved in the Chinese catering trade in Britain for three generations. Every generation of Andrew's family had an ambition for their business. During the years that his grandfather owned these businesses, these ambitions were shaped by this powerful patriarch and his network in the midlands, and by the realities of baby boomer Britain and its effect on the Chinese cuisine on its shores.And along came Andrew's father with ambitions to start up in London, setting a course for Andrew's family that still defines their lives today. In this first special episode of this miniseries, Andrew and Mukta delve into these personal histories - into these sagas of competition and cooperation, of succession and discontinuity - of the 1970s and 1980s. Tomorrow: British Chinese cuisine - Wong family dynamics in the 1990s-2000sIntro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.comXO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter. We'd be grateful if you can share XO Soused with your friends! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

How do contemporary cooks interpret historically researched cookbooks? How relatable to contemporary dining are Song era historical recipes, and how far do recipe writers, cooks and chefs have to do this translation work? Andrew talks through a present day book of Song era recipes that he has been reviewing and researching as both he and Mukta explore how these recipes reflect Song dynasty social, economic, cultural and philosophical life. How do these recipes draw from and sketch out the luxury markets that defined the era, as well as the clean-eating philosophies that developed in reaction to these rich diets? And, equally importantly, how does this cookbook - a complicated culinary snapshot of Song era cooking - capture the evolution of Han majoritarian cuisine against which all other Chinese cuisines have become ‘ethnic’, or ‘other’? Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.comXO Soused is a fortnightly audio and video newsletter. We’d be grateful if you can share XO Soused with your friends! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

How does a chef cooking Chinese cuisine incorporate bitterness into their dishes? Is bitterness truly necessary as sweetness, sourness, pungency and saltiness in Chinese gastronomy? Or is it trapped in a traditional medicine cul-de-sac? What did key Chinese gastronomic thinkers and writers think about bitter tastes and how did this thinking shift in recent centuries? What ingredients and techniques layer in bitter tastes and how have these changed over the course of Chinese food history? XO Soused is now available as a video - watch belowFurther reading on drinking bitter tea: Mei, Yuan, circa 1790. Wuyi tea [武夷茶] in Suiyuan Shidan [隨園食單], translated by Sean Chen, Way of the Eating, 2019Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.comXO Soused is a fortnightly audio and video newsletter. We’d be grateful if you can share XO Soused with your friends! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

What are braised bear paws doing on a (likely) imperial banqueting menu from the 1700s? What does the appearance of this exotic meat, and other dishes like steamed camel hump, tell us about the changing categories of ‘wildlife’ and ‘livestock’ in global food history, and about how Chinese heartland foods and peripheral cuisines are constructed? Are there more to the names of these dishes than straightforward description, or can these names signal less about the central ingredient and more about the look of the dish? As the skills and knowledge to cook such dishes remain accessible to Andrew and his chef network, how can he bring such complex ideas of edibility to his diners without crossing certain lines? What cross-cultural encounters about edibility and etiquette does his banqueting menu already contain and where else will he push out the envelope? Further reading: Yue, Isaac, 2018. The Comprehensive Manchu–Han Banquet: History, Myth, and Development. Ming Qing Yanjiu 22(1):93-111Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.comAfter an unexpected hiatus, XO Soused is back to being a fortnightly audio newsletter. We’d be grateful if you can share XO Soused with your friends! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

We kick off season 2 of XO Soused with an update from Andrew about the swap he has made to his evening menu - from à la carte dining to a fixed banquet menu - at his restaurant A. Wong. This has meant changing from catering for a variety of guests who bring different appetites: ‘some people eat more, some people eat less, some people…. have five or six different dishes, others just want to have a duck in the middle’ to serving 19 different dishes to every guest across four or five courses. What do these changes now demand from Andrew’s kitchen brigade and how has this changed Andrew’s role at the pass? Is this different from the organisation of banquets in Chinese history? Can Mukta’s analysis of Qing-era banqueting menus help Andrew with new ideas for preparation and for dishes that buy his kitchen the time and fluidity it needs? How will Andrew integrate Mukta’s analysis into his future banqueting menus? XO Soused has been a fortnightly audio newsletter. Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Andrew is taking his restaurant in a new direction in 2022. Gone is his à la carte menu and in its place will be a a dining experience akin to some of the historical Chinese banquets written into court records and novels, and painted on to silk. In this special festive episode Andrew and Mukta discuss why Andrew has taken this direction, what historical recipes are inspiring, and what underlying rules and rituals shape flavours combinations, the dishes that are served and to who, and even where dishes are placed on the table. Download Dr Isaac Yue’s excellent chapter on the Qing-era Han-Manchu banquet to access the translated dishes that Andrew reads from during the episode. This episode of XO Soused is a festive special. XO Soused will return for season 2 in January 2022. Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

As we come to the end of the first season of XO Soused, we share a rough cut of a recording by Andrew and Mukta as they look back on almost 8 years of working together —from the very first research Mukta did for Andrew for the launch of his basement bar the Forbidden City to almost ending it all over their presentation at SXSW - a presentation they didn’t even deliver as a result of COVID travel restrictions. Andrew and Mukta pick out key moments and summarise the lessons they have learned. They end with some advice for chefs and anthropologists/academics looking to do similar kinds of cultural-historical research together. XO Soused has been a fortnightly audio newsletter. Andrew and Mukta will be back in mid-December 2021 for a festive special before returning in Jan 2022 for season 2. Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

What is Beggar’s Chicken? What are the myths that surround it and why are they important? How has Andrew attempted to bring Beggar’s Chicken - chicken stuffed and wrapped in leaves and clay - into his professional kitchen, and what iterations of the dish is he trying next? Why is the technique such a fundamental part of its origin story and how has that technique and the recipe changed over time? XO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter.Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

What are the differences between family cooking and restaurant cooking? How has lockdown and chef-prepared cook-at-home meal kits blurred the boundaries of home and restaurant? Is there a difference in the way Chinese chefs approached this compared to chefs of other cuisines? How did the divide between family food and restaurant food get created in China, and how has the divide been muddied in Chinese food history? And as family meals increasingly take place in restaurants - in family-style eateries and Michelin-starred places - how do chefs cater for a new generation of - perhaps - more clued-in child diners?XO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter.Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Why are there so many ingredients in Chinese cuisine that are dried? What is the cultural and culinary importance of these foods? Weaving their way through key dried items such as abalone, bird’s nest and even controversial ingredients such as shark’s fin, Andrew and Mukta discuss why Chinese chefs have chosen certain seafood, livestock and plant matter for drying and rehydrating, and what flavours, textures and cultural value this adds to dishes. And how are these foods dried? What marinades and stocks are used to soak the foods before drying? How many times ingredients are dehydrated and rehydrated in these same or different stocks and sauces? And how should we rehydrate foods before finally cooking these in a dish?XO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter.Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Raw fish and vegetables appear in some regional cuisines in China, with a variety of dipping sauces. Were the Chinese the first to champion raw meats and fish in East Asia? With such a rich culture of preparing raw meats and fish to present to diners in Confucian and Han times and on-and-off up until 14th Century China, what knife and saucing techniques, and skilful finishes with hot oils and fats did Chinese chefs have to master? Why have raw preparations of vegetables and salads narrowed in recent centuries in Chinese food history? And what about the histories and cultures of raw meat and fish dishes in Western Europe? What’s the future for raw meat and fish preparations inside and outside of China?Read Alec Story’s translation of Ni Zan’s [倪瓚] 14th Century recipes: https://sundries.alecstory.org/2018/01/ni-zans-dietary-system-of-cloud-forest.htmlXO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter.Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Why should dessert go at the end? Why have western and westernised restaurants embraced this structure of cooking and eating, while in some Asian cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes are served together? More importantly, why do western professional kitchens barely use sugars in their savoury dishes? Meanwhile chefs cooking some Asian foods use sugars - cane sugar, beet sugar, honey, and maltose - in equal quantities as savoury ingredients for taste, colour, viscosity, and depth and balance of flavour. So where does that leave Chinese desserts? What are their levels of sweetness and creaminess? How does Andrew create desserts for A.Wong that navigate these Chinese norms and the expectations of his Chinese and non-Chinese diners? A video and accompanying recipe for Dragon’s beard candy: https://www.tastemade.com/videos/dragons-beard/XO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter.Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Who are the iconic female chefs in Chinese food history? What influence did they have on Chinese cuisine? And why are they not more prominent in the histories? What are the gender dynamics that Andrew encounters in professional kitchens in China and in the UK? And does he think about gender when he recruits or supports his kitchen team? And take a look at the book that Andrew has a hankering for: Johnson, Ian, 2021, Forbidden City: The Palace at the Heart of Chinese Culture. New York: AssoulineXO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter.Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

How does creativity work for a professional chef cooking Chinese food? What was creative culinary life like in the palace kitchens in China? What was the role of tradition and how did other rules and boundaries either restrict or even elevate innovative thinking? When there’s too much choice - a defining characteristic of working from vast and well stocked palace stores - how does a chef find a culinary direction or a theme, and find a space for his specialism?And what rules and boundaries allow Andrew to innovate in his kitchen? How does his experience mirror the creative lives of imperial chefs in the past or of the Michelin-starred chefs around him? If you’d like to read more about chefs in the Qing Court: Rawski, E, 1998. The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions. University of California Press. Pages on food and the court (pp 46-49) can be viewed for free on Google BooksXO Soused is a fortnightly audio newsletter.Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Chinese restaurants in the UK (and in other places) often offer a hundred or more dishes on their menu. What is the reason for this? Why does Andrew’s restaurant, A. Wong, offer 70 items every day and what has he had to negotiate to get to this number?How is the professional Chinese kitchen and its arrangements of stations, and the construction of meals in the dining space, geared to offering this variety compared to a western restaurant of similar size?How has Chinese banquet culture defined the length of composition of Chinese restaurant menu? What is the legacy and impact on restaurant menus of the ingenuity and open-mindedness of past dim sum chefs and their ability to create hundreds of different dim sum? And how do Chinese chefs negotiate this and find space to create signature dishes? XO Soused is now a fortnightly audio newsletter.Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

With so many oil and fat substitutes available to the modern chef, what role does lard still play in professional Chinese kitchens? What classical Chinese - and particularly dim sum - recipes require lard? And how is the fat from the pork put to other uses by Chinese chefs, including and legendary Cantonese chef, William Poon? What techniques using pork fat has Mr Poon taught Andrew recently?How have dim sum chefs adapted their pastry making to suit western palates unused to the porcine aroma of lard-laminated dough? And what of the other dishes that use lard - how have these recipes changed in recent time? And does this lard taming mirror the work that Chinese chefs had to do in the past?Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

What is tofu? What reputation does tofu have among western diners and chefs? What varieties of tofu can you find in supermarkets and how does this effect the way that tofu is used and enjoyed? When was soybean curd first formed and pressed into existence and when did varieties of dried, smoked, fried and fermented tofu become ubiquitous? What are the differences in the way these varieties absorb flavour and impart mouthfeel?How are tofu skins now being used by other 3-star Michelin chefs? And how and why does Andrew use tofu in vegetarian and meat dishes? How does his use in meat and vegetarian dishes subvert or mirror vegetarian practices and meat eating identities in the UK and in China? If you’d like to learn more about tofu (and soy milk) in 20th century China: Fu, Jia-Chen. (2018). The Other Milk: Reinventing Soy in Republican China. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

XO Sauce - a combination of dried seafood, ham, chillies and other seasonings in a stock - has grown to be a Hong Kong condiment par excellence. How is this condiment now used in the Chinese kitchens, and what ingredients does it go well with during the cooking process? What does the XO in the name signify, and what are the origin stories surrounding the sauce, and how does it play up the distinctions and disjunctures in Hong Kong society? In this edition we revisit and do a deep-dive into our ‘sort-of’ namesake. How many ways do you enjoy XO sauce? Do you add it as a savoury topping to comforting congee, to spread it like jam on wagyu beef? Are there hard and fast rules defining how XO sauce is created? And, now that East Asian dried scallops are no longer available in the UK, how has Andrew adapted these rules for making a London-style XO sauce? If you’d like to learn more about Hong Kong cuisine in the 1970s and 1980s: Cheung, S, C. H., 2012, ‘Food and Cuisine in a changing society' in D. Wu and S. C. H. Cheung (eds) Globalization of Chinese Food, Routledge, pp. 120-132. Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

For an ingredient that entered into China in the 16th century - the chilli pepper has become a fundamental part of Chinese cooking. How does a chef learn to use this vegetable and it complex palate and texture? What was Chinese cuisine like before the chilli arrived? And how did it change the idea of Chinese ‘pungency' or 辛 [xīn]? How would you use salted chillies, dried chillies, pickled chillies, fresh chillies and chillies in oil? What techniques are best and what attention to do you need to pay to the texture and cut of the meat and or plant protein that you are adding these to? How do chillies work with other kinds of spices to create flavour profiles like Sichuanese 麻辣 [Málà] that prolong the pleasurable exposure to the chilli hit?Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Many Chinese dishes use a spiced chicken stock as a building block. This is a meat broth infused with cinnamon, cassia bark, fennel seed, angelica root, liquorice, and star anise. How are these spices used? What use do pre-mixed spice powders have, and why does Andrew prefer 13-spice powder (a classic western Chinese spice mix) over the Cantonese 5-spice powder for some dishes? How is history reflected in the different regional spicing cultures and spiced cooking techniques in China? And have Chinese cooks gradually eased off on spicing over the centuries? Could a 12th century Chinese recipe for a spiced meat paste appeal to modern eaters? Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Cheese, like milk, has always been an important part of the Chinese diet. The remnants of China’s artisanal cheese sector are found in China’s western regions - and made by ethnic communities - Rushan [乳扇, rǔshān], Rubing [乳餅, rǔbǐng], are the better known. But Nguri in Hokkien or Niuru in Hanyu [牛乳, niúrǔ], made in Fujian and Guangdong show that artisanal Chinese cheese making was more widespread and made deep in the Chinese heartland. Why are fresh cheeses preferred over aged cheeses in Chinese gastronomy? How is Chinese cheese integrated into cooking and what flavours and textures does it impart? What difference does terroir make to the cooking and presentation process? What cheeses pair well with Chinese food?Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Cooking and presenting a whole fish - from nostril to tailfin - is a classic approach in Chinese gastronomy. Meanwhile, in Western kitchens filleting is the usual practice. What difference does it make to the taste and texture of the fish to cook it on the bone and with the head? How does the collagen from the bone keep the flesh moist? What techniques make the best of this and how many ways to cook whole fish demand preparation as opposed to the a la minute methods of western cookery? Has whole fish always been prized? How obsessive were Chinese chefs about cutting fish in the correct way? How important were fish heads in the history of Chinese cuisine, and how has the market for dried fish heads, lips and maw generated enormous wealth for some in Hong Kong? What special knife skills, and techniques for deep-frying, are required to recreate the visually amazing plates of whole fish in Chinese cuisine?Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

A star-player in Chinese nose-to-tail (or beak-to-claw) cooking, chicken feet have been a long-term staple in dim sum restaurants. In what solution do you blanch chicken feet to cleanse them? How does deep-frying improve the falling-off-the-bone quality of the cut and its absorption of steamed aromatics and flavourings? And why does Andrew cook it so infrequently? Why is does the dish have an alternative name of ‘Pheonix claw’ (or Fèng zhuǎ, [鳯爪], if you want to find it on the menu once Chinese restaurants reopen after lockdown)? What is the difference between British and European dish naming conventions and Chinese approaches? What do chefs have to think about when naming their dishes? Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

What is the difference between Cantonese crispy pork belly and British roast pork belly with crispy crackling? How does a chef achieve the ‘digestive-biscuit-y’ quality of the Cantonese style finish rather than the toothy crunch of the British dish? Should we serve it with infused soy or mustard sauce? Why is the fat in the cut as crucial to Chinese cuisine as the meat? How did pork become so important? How is pork’s popularity in China connected with not eating beef? And how exactly has Andrew recreated Cantonese crispy pork belly for vegetarian diners?With a 50:50 ratio of pork and fat, pork belly still isn’t as fashionable in British cuisine as it is in Chinese gastronomy. This is the first of several episodes dealing with unusual cuts of meat from the Chinese kitchen, and special skills and techniques that such cuts demand. Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Listen now | A view from Delhi. Andrew is in New Delhi for this double-length episode, and oof, is he working through some stuff! How does a British Chinese chef contend with the parameters of Chinese food in India? Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Soy chicken is Andrew’s favourite dish to cook and eat. And as a poached dish it sits apart from all the other roasted meats of the Chinese roasting kitchen. How does residual heat work to cook this chicken perfectly and how is this different from sous vide? How did Chinese chefs cook slowly at low temperatures in the past without technologies such as thermostats? How does this boost the dish’s health-giving qualities and what is the medicinal or flavouring function of the aromatics sealed in with the chicken as it gently cooks?Intro and outro music: 遊子 [wanderer] by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Rice flour is the key ingredient that makes hundreds of different types of dim sum possible. Is it still as important in the Chinese kitchen as it was 2,000 years ago? What happened when wheat flour arrived? What does rice flour do that wheat flour doesn’t? What is the difference between glutinous and non-glutinous rice flour? Find out how to use this ingredient to create a variety of dishes with many different finishes, from crispy outer textures for pastries to a squidgy chewiness for cakes. Intro and outro music by mafmadmaf.com Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

What revolutionises everyday cooking into an effort that is considered gastronomy? How did parts of French cooking and Japanese food culture become elevated into ‘gastronomy’? What factors need to exist for this transformation to happen? This special feature-length episode explores these question by looking at the work that chefs in France, Spain, Japan and other countries do, the ingredients and techniques that they use, but also the kind of food media that surrounds them and the diners that support them. And what could be next for Chinese cuisine? Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Andrew’s mum always says ‘get the sauce right and the cooking will take care of itself’. What Chinese sauces are available to chefs and home cooks? What are the big differences between Chinese sauces and European sauces? Why are Chinese base stocks different from European versions, and how are they used to lengthen the fermented, umami ingredients at the centre of Chinese sauces? How have Chinese sauces developed through time? Andrew also shares his techniques for enhancing the humble bottle of soy sauce with spices and stock to turn it into a superior condiment for your table. Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Learning to make noodles teaches you about touch, the feel of flour, hydration rates, and fermentation. What is the right flour for noodle making? How much gluten should it contain? Why does Chinese culinary culture place an emphasis on the amount of gluten contained in flour (low, medium and high), rather than its use (bread flour, etc). Why are measurements for dried ingredients such as flour so complicated to western readers of Chinese noodle recipes? Which doughs truly sing when you make and eat noodles immediately and just how many different kinds of noodles are out there? Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Roast duck is a centrepiece of Chinese gastronomy. Why can it take two decades for specialist roasting chefs to perfecting “Beijing” roast duck? What corners are sometimes cut and what difference does it make? What wood should be used for roasting and what techniques result in a chef being able to take off the crispy skin in one go at the table? Errata: Major apologies for the constant mispronunciation of Jia Sixie’s name [賈思勰] throughout this episode - we don’t plan these conversations in advance and sometimes our [on the fly] recollections of the names of people, books and dishes can be flawed! Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Chinese New Year is here! How do people in the Chinese restaurant sector celebrate Chinese New Year? Just how many red envelopes do you have to give out once you’re married and own a business? What kind of dishes are eaten for the special Chinese New Year eve dinner, and what’s the secret to getting a crispy coating on your sweet sticky rice cake? Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

How is dairy used in Chinese cooking? How have minority groups in parts of China turned milk into cheese and what kind? Does ice cream have its origins in China? When did the first few references of iced butter, iced cream and iced yoghurt appear in Chinese history? Has ice cream always been a novelty in China, and what role did missionaries play in popularising condensed milk in Hong Kong and Guangdong? Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

‘Puff pastry’ in Chinese cooking is a very different beast. But what is unique about the laminated dough that dim sum chefs make to wrap, cocoon or encase dim sum fillings? What ingredients, ratios and techniques create the pastry of the Hong Kong egg tart or the millefeuille effect of baked dim sum savoury puffs? Was this mastery something that came out of early Chinese dynastic history? Or did it emerge during the later tumultuous centuries when European settled in China? Did their interactions with an open minded professional dim sum system lead to experimentation? Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

The recent media interest in Andrew - following the award of 2 Michelin stars to his restaurant A. Wong this week - has caused him to reflect on his identity and position as a British chef of Chinese heritage. In this special episode of XO Soused, Andrew and Mukta grapple with today’s thorny questions. Who has the right to cook what? What is cultural appropriation? What does borrowing from another food culture actually mean? How might chefs treat ingredients, techniques and dishes that seem far removed from their own background and cultural context? Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

What is har gau [蝦餃] ? What starches make up its sticky texture and clear skin? What techniques are required to create the unique, juicy ‘bounce’ of its prawn filling? How important is a vigorous steam? How far back in Chinese history did the required flours make their appearance? How far did Cantonese millionaires of 19th century South China push local dim sum chefs to create the modern har gau that we know and love today, and are these so different from early har gau of the Song dynasty - nearly 1,000 years ago? Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

What is Char Siu? Directly translated at ‘fork roasted’ what are the origins of this technique in China, and what are the connections to Central Asian roasting techniques? What other ingredients are stuffed with the barbequed neck-end of pork into the fluffy bun? What are the techniques and ingredients to create that texture and finish to the bun itself? How did China develop leavening agents and leavened dough and what is the historical connection with wine production? Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

What is steaming? Why does steaming food have such a long history in China? Why is it important to control the velocity and vigour of steam? What does this control mean for cooking meat, fish and dough? How does this affect how you design and cook dim sum? Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com

Introducing XO Soused - a weekly audio newsletter from Chef Andrew Wong and Dr Mukta Das sent out every Tuesday afternoon. Setting the scene, this intro explains the conversational style and previews upcoming episodes - each one based on a specific technique or ingredient. Subscribe at andrewwongandmuktadas.substack.com