Happy Chinese New Year!

[liuzhou]

16 hours ago, DianaB said:

what does the apparently steel dish towards the middle of the table contain?  

 

 

Mystery solved.

 

As@dcarch guessed it is a chicken and, as I guessed, a very small one. Most unusually, it is served whole. My friend informs me that it is stuffed with a pork and onion mixture, then stewed "for a long time" until very tender. It does become so tender that it is  easily picked apart with chopsticks. It called 嫩鸡 nèn jī , which literally means 'tender chicken'.

 

Here she is stuffing the very bird!

 

I mentioned that I had never heard of or seen chicken being served this way before and she agreed that it is indeed unusual, but is specific to her home town of Qinzhou (钦州 qīn zhōu) on the southern coast of China, near the Vietnamese border.

 

I also mentioned to her that it is unusual to have so many chicken dishes at one meal and she corrected me and said there are only two. The 'tender chicken' and 'white cut chicken'. The others are duck and goose. She did concede four poultry dishes is unusual but her family like it that way.

 

I did say the new year traditions are very diverse, and was glad to discover a new one. I live and learn.

[dcarch]

17 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I also mentioned to her that it is unusual to have so many chicken dishes at one meal and she corrected me and said there are only two. The 'tender chicken' and 'white cut chicken'. The others are duck and goose. She did concede four poultry dishes is unusual but her family like it that way.

 

 

But if she stuff the chicken inside the duck and the duck inside the goose ------------------------- chicduckoose!!!

 

dcarch  

[DianaB]

Thanks so much @liuzhou for taking the time to post the additional information on the Chinese New Year banquets.  As you say the first film is simply beautiful and I really enjoyed it even if I couldn’t understand what was said.  As you have pointed out it is bizarre to identify a clip as subtitled in Chinese and English when only the Chinese is visible.  Perhaps the film was made for a different platform?  I know that YouTube will offer subtitles ‘on the fly’ for many films that don’t include any such assistance.  I have difficulties with accents sometimes so will use the automatic subtitles YouTube offers, they can be amusing even if at times very inaccurate.

 

I was surprised the bird in the second film wasn’t boned before cooking.  As you no doubt know in Europe we have Chicken Ballantine: an entire bird boned, stuffed and then cooked.  I haven’t made that in years but your post has reminded me of that recipe and I’m thinking of having another go.  I did it with poussins stuffed with a veal mousseline for one of our New Years a long time ago.

 

I would really love to try any of the dishes you have shown us!

 

Thanks also to @dcarch for helping with identification of the chicken.

[liuzhou]

2 minutes ago, DianaB said:

I was surprised the bird in the second film wasn’t boned before cooking.

 

You are welcome, @DianaB. I was as eager to find out, after you asked.

In China, few foods are boned before cooking.

 

Yes, the subtitles issue is a format difference. The  DVD does have both languages, but I can't post that.