Watch Sachie’s Kitchen: Would you eat this jelly-like black preserved century egg?

Tuesday, 18 June 2024

Would you try a jelly-like black century egg, preserved for weeks in brine?

The century egg is a Chinese delicacy believed to date back hundreds of years to the Ming Dynasty. It’s certainly an acquired taste for those not accustomed to its pungent aroma and flavour.

In this week’s episode of Sachie’s Kitchen, chef Sachie Nomura heads offshore to discover the culinary secrets of two major foodie destinations - street food utopia Hong Kong and home of oyster sauce, southern China.

The Japanese-born Kiwi-raised personality runs Sachie’s Kitchen cooking school in Auckland and is on a culinary tour around New Zealand, inspired by local produce from the regions.

Each Tuesday, a new episode of her foodie road trip series is released here on Stuff Travel.

You can also find her recipes online inspired by the series published each week.

In this episode, Nomura heads offshore where she tries a famous century egg in mainland China. Watch the episode to find out what she thought of it. Spoiler alert - she won’t be making these back home any time soon.

Heading to Hong Kong’s bustling but disappearing open-air food stalls, Nomura tries flaming wok-fried crab from Sing Kee, one of the oldest and most famous dai pai dongs still operating in the special administrative region of China.

She also meets one of Hong Kong’s first celebrity chefs, Esther Sham, who runs Maison Es, a contemporary French fine dining restaurant in Wan Chai. Sham uses Chinese and French cooking techniques and the menu is heavily influenced by Japanese ingredients.

“I grew up half in Hong Kong and half in Los Angeles so we had a lot of exposure to Japanese ingredients. They bring a lot of flavour and umami into the dishes,” Sham tells Nomura in the episode. When asked what she loves about cooking, Sham replies:

“I love it because it’s the most direct way to send love to another person.”

Nomura also meets Alex Lam in Three Fathoms Cove, who is leading Hong Kong’s sustainable aquaculture movement and grows a variety of indigenous fish. Formerly a designer and hair and make-up stylist, Lam swapped a career in fashion for food.

“In Hong Kong, we have not much choice of food, especially fish. It’s not sustainable, it uses a lot of chemical - I don’t want my son to eat the chemical fish,” he explains, before preparing his XO Batfish topped with finger lime.

Visiting mainland China, Nomura discovers the origins of oyster sauce and meets one of the most famous and oldest soy and oyster sauce companies in the world, Lee Kum Kee, while learning the secrets to perfect egg fried rice.

Finally, Nomura heads back home to Auckland to demonstrate her chilli prawns with oyster sauce recipe.

Watch Sachie’s Kitchen Episode 1: Marlborough

Watch Sachie’s Kitchen Episode 2: Rotorua

Watch the first episode of Sachie’s Kitchen at the top of this story and tune in every Tuesday for a new episode.