Bon Appétit joins Lucas Sin at Red Seasons Restaurant on the outskirts of Hong Kong to try the region’s last remaining whole-roasted underground pig. Cooked in deep underground pits, this flavorful delicacy has become rare in Hong Kong since the issuing of new permits for the fire pits ceased.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 It is 4 in the morning and we are at Red Seasons in Lamdei on the outskirts of Hong Kong.
00:09 This is the only underground whole roasted wood-fired pig left in Hong Kong.
00:16 Okay, so every morning the chefs here start the fire at around 4 or 4.30.
00:22 All three pits start with cardboard, which is the kindling, and then a bunch of 2x4s
00:28 and then increasing sizes of fruit wood.
00:32 The chefs here prefer apple wood and a little bit of lychee.
00:35 It gives it a little bit of fruity smoke, very much echoing some of the barbecue traditions
00:41 that you'll find in the US and other places, but this is a pure Cantonese technique that
00:46 dates back to 3,000 years ago, Western Zhao Dynasty.
00:50 It's smoking up, our eyes are starting to water, but chef is totally unfazed.
00:53 This is what happens every single day, seven days a week.
00:56 They're building very, very high heat because heat needs to sustain over the course of...
01:01 Wait, come look at the fire.
01:03 It's green.
01:04 Oh my, yeah.
01:07 My eyes are watering.
01:08 I'm obviously on my knees to avoid the smoke that's at the top of the ceiling.
01:17 What the f***?
01:18 Dude, the chef is like slowly increasing sizes of wood into the fire pits.
01:25 He says they burn up to 600 degrees Celsius.
01:28 Look at this.
01:31 That's how hot it is here.
01:34 He's going to bring that temperature down to a sustaining around 300 degrees Celsius
01:39 before the pigs go in.
01:40 They're still roasting in these underground pits.
01:43 Those underground pits you don't get anymore.
01:45 The reason you don't get them is because the government isn't giving out licenses like
01:48 that anymore.
01:49 Chef started to the other side.
01:50 He says he's going to start cutting the pig.
01:54 Here's the butchery room.
01:56 Two chefs, 50 pigs a day.
01:59 During the celebration season, Chinese New Year, so on and so forth, we're looking at
02:03 at least 100 a day.
02:05 This is a local Hong Kong pig.
02:08 It was butchered a couple of days ago after it was hung.
02:11 It comes in whole, bone on and everything.
02:13 The first thing to do is to clean it up and get it ready.
02:16 Go into the shoulder, cut crisscrosses to open up that flesh so that it cooks evenly.
02:21 They trim off all of the excess meat that might be a little bit too thick for the roasting
02:26 process.
02:27 Because the entire pig is roasted at one time, we need to ensure even cooking.
02:32 The belly is roasted bone on, the legs are kept on as well as the head.
02:36 The head is an important part of the process because it's part of the ceremony.
02:41 This is a pretty long history of roasting pork in southern China and presenting it at
02:45 special occasions is important to Chinese people.
02:49 I think the best way to describe this process is the salt cure.
02:52 So the cure is salt and sand ginger, sa gung, iconic southern Chinese seasoning.
02:57 We're going to draw out any of that excess moisture to give us a nice meaty texture.
03:02 It's a generous amount, but it's a huge pig.
03:04 The chefs together are flipping the pigs over the next one to get rid of the excess salt.
03:10 Onto the next pig, onto the next.
03:12 That is very cool.
03:14 He's sticking a bamboo stick into the tail end of the pig to give it a little bit of
03:19 structure so that it hangs and doesn't collapse on itself when it's roasted.
03:24 Chef is going through a process we call soong pei.
03:27 He's lathering the outside of the pig with maltose water.
03:30 Maltose is a staple sugar for Cantonese barbecue.
03:33 It's going to caramelize very gently.
03:35 It's very, very diluted.
03:37 Here in the middle, this is boneless pork.
03:39 They're roasted on top of a net.
03:42 This is the pork that they're cutting up for rice and for noodles.
03:45 The second type is the ones with their heads dipped inside of a metal bucket to protect
03:50 it from burning.
03:51 This step is called boi pei.
03:53 Chef is dehydrating the pig in the relatively lower temperature oven so that that skin can
03:58 tighten up.
03:59 They're not getting these pigs well cooked.
04:01 They're just trying to dehydrate that skin a little bit, naturally over smoke, over fire.
04:05 The cavity is facing outwards because he's just trying to toast that skin.
04:08 He's not trying to cook the inside at all.
04:10 It's about five minutes.
04:12 [FOREIGN]
04:17 38 kilograms.
04:20 That's 84 pounds.
04:22 And they're going to go through 50 today.
04:25 This skin is just warm to the touch.
04:28 They're just toasting it for the next step.
04:30 Chef is pricking holes into the side of the pig.
04:34 This is the primary tool they use.
04:36 Smaller holes, a little bit more shallow.
04:39 Here's the second one, longer.
04:41 The length and the depth at which they are pricking the pork is really important because
04:47 they need to make sure that the fat is being rendered and fat's going to leak out.
04:51 But they don't want juiciness of that pork to come out.
04:53 So this first step is going to create smaller holes for some of those gelatin pockets to
04:58 form.
04:59 Here's the next step, slightly longer.
05:01 He's poking into the fat because he wants the fat to render out to the outside of the
05:04 skin.
05:05 So he's doing it on his own, trying to get the pig skin to puff up.
05:09 And you're frying it.
05:10 The frying part is the lard coming out of the fat of the pig.
05:14 So this is really quite technical.
05:16 That final roast begins.
05:18 These pigs are going to go in between an hour and an hour and a half.
05:22 Evenly spaced out with the back facing the center of the oven.
05:28 I would like to emphasize that the two chefs have not said a single word to each other.
05:34 Just on autopilot.
05:36 As the pigs go in, the room begins to smoke up once again.
05:40 Chef says the first 30 minutes or so are about setting the skin of the pig slightly higher
05:46 temperature.
05:47 The ideal skin in Cantonese pork is called sesame skin, chi ma pei.
05:52 Heat is going to cause fat to render.
05:54 That fat, as it renders out through those little holes, is going to fry the skin basically
05:59 on the outside, inside out as it dribbles out.
06:01 As that's happening, the gelatin that is formed by collagen melting is going to trap any moisture
06:08 that comes out of that skin to make little bubbles that bubble when it hardens at the
06:13 right time and the right speed.
06:16 It's going to be crispy.
06:17 A second step is 30 minutes of more of a bake to continue rendering that fat to get some
06:23 of the grease out, but more importantly, to cook the pig itself.
06:27 It is a lot less warm than it was when we first started, but chef is staying in this
06:32 room and he hasn't left for 30 minutes.
06:35 He's going to be here until this pork is done every day of the week.
06:40 When we got here first thing in the morning, chef was feeding the oven, kindling, and that's
06:46 our...
06:47 Oh, pork's coming out.
06:48 Here we go.
06:49 So, it's been about an hour, an hour and a half.
06:55 Oh yeah.
06:58 Whoa.
07:00 小心啊,小心.
07:04 Whoa.
07:06 Look how consistent that skin is.
07:18 Oh my God.
07:22 Way clear because there's oil splashing everywhere.
07:25 All that fat that's rendered out is in the bottom of these bowls.
07:30 Come with me.
07:31 Here's a pig.
07:32 They're just brushing off little bits of burnt pieces.
07:35 It's inevitable because of the inconsistency of the skin.
07:38 The good news is that this skin is quite thin.
07:41 There's still going to be crisp underneath.
07:42 Can you give me the light?
07:45 You see how thin this skin is?
07:47 That's the light shining through.
07:48 I mean, it's a little bit like a Rice Krispies, right?
07:51 Every bubble is where fat leaked out and water punched out and gelatin encapsulated it.
07:58 And as it roasted and hardened, that's what makes it crispy.
08:02 These pigs are going to get transported by truck to various locations, including the
08:06 restaurant they have 100 feet away.
08:09 The pork has made its way into the kitchen.
08:13 Okay, so did you hear that crisp?
08:19 Listen to the sound.
08:20 You hear that crisp?
08:22 You hear that crunch?
08:23 This is the front of the restaurant.
08:25 All the different types of barbecue meats, whether it's char siu, poached chicken, the
08:29 roast pork, or duck and goose hanging out front.
08:33 This is what we do as Hong Kong people.
08:34 We walk down the street, we look at these front displays, and we look at what was good
08:38 today.
08:39 Whether they had roasted it well, whether it looks juicy and delicious.
08:43 Do you sell all of these in one day?
08:48 Yes, we do.
08:49 We sell all of them.
08:50 How many pigs do you think you can sell in one day?
08:53 Three or four.
08:55 Three or four.
08:56 Down with the same cleaver?
08:57 Oh, so good, so good, so good, so good.
09:01 Chef and I were discussing, this here is our favorite cut.
09:04 This was roasted a little while ago, but you can smell that smokiness.
09:08 You see how juicy it is?
09:10 You see that layer of fat?
09:11 Some of it's rendered off.
09:14 That's why it's starting to separate, which is actually a good thing.
09:16 There's no hard layer underneath.
09:17 It's very nice and thin.
09:23 That lard has rendered out.
09:24 It's nice and pure.
09:25 It's nice and silky smooth.
09:27 And that shoulder is so flavorful.
09:29 Deliberate, hard cuts.
09:31 One, two, three, four, five, six.
09:34 Boom.
09:35 Gorgeous.
09:36 There you go.
09:37 Three ribs for you.
09:39 This is the roast pork.
09:40 Shut up.
09:41 Less talking, more eating.
09:51 It's just like that first piece the chef handed me.
09:53 So crispy, crunchy.
09:55 Even when it gets to room temperature, it gets a little bit more flavor.
09:58 This feels like how roast pork must have been a long time ago.
10:02 Other places, you'll still get crispy skin.
10:04 You'll still get nice succulent tender pork, but you're not going to get that applewood
10:07 smoke.
10:08 Here's the move.
10:09 Mustard.
10:10 Some people call it Chinese mustard.
10:12 It's mustard seeds ground, activated for its spiciness in cold water.
10:18 This is going to cut through the richness and the fattiness of that pork.
10:25 Here's another cut.
10:27 On your right, I have your belly.
10:30 Here is that leg.
10:31 It's going to be more intense in pork flavor, technically.
10:34 This is going to be juicier.
10:36 Some people prefer this cut to the belly.
10:43 Good barbecue is flavorful and it's representative of what that animal and what that meat tastes
10:48 like in the first place.
10:49 And if it's pork, it's got to be meaty.
10:51 It's got to be juicy.
10:52 It's got to be fleshy.
10:53 There's something special and sacrificial about eating the entire hog.
10:57 Here in Hong Kong, when it's cooked like a whole hog like this, people usually order
11:01 the pig to go to the temple, to pay respects to the elders, to pay respect to those who
11:06 have passed away.
11:07 They order this for the opening of a business or for a wedding.
11:11 It's a very, very special thing.
11:13 And of the roast pork that you can get in Hong Kong, there are none like this one left.
11:18 Cooking in that oven, those chefs are just doing such an incredibly good job.
11:22 It is hard, hard, hard work.
11:24 It's one of the hottest rooms that we've ever shot in.
11:26 But their hard work pays off because you can taste it and I get to show it to you.
11:33 This is part of the pride of Hong Kong.
11:35 Thank you, Chef.
11:37 Bye bye.
11:38 Come back next time.
11:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]