Chinese New Year, the year of the pig, is celebrated on February 18th. Corinna Hardgravegets some tips on northern Chinese cooking.
If it has been a while since you strolled down Parnell Street in Dublin 1, give it a go because it provides a fascinating and fast-changing view of our new multiculturalism. Turn right at the northern end of O'Connell Street, walk about 50m down the road and you will discover Dublin's vibrant little patch of Chinatown.
The shops have a neighbourhood feel, and stock Chinese vegetables, rice and unfamiliar exotica such as pigs' ears. Rong Xing Hang is the place for fish, and further down, Du Yi Chu has a thoroughly authentic takeaway. Forget lemon chicken, chow mein and beef with black bean sauce. Here they serve chickens' feet, beef tendons and pigs' tongues.
Next door is Jack's Restaurant, run by Xiao Na Zhang, known as Na Na. She and her husband Jack opened the restaurant last July, but they've had the shop and takeaway for almost two years. She is proud of her chickens' feet: "They're Irish," she tells me. "All of our meat is Irish, and certified. We like to be sure of the quality. Our style of cooking is from the north of China, It's very different from the Cantonese food which is more familiar to Irish people."
About half of the 60,000 Chinese people in Ireland are from Liaoning province, Na Na says, and they're primarily from Dalian, in the northeast, near the Korean border. This means that many of the restaurants have a Korean and Manchu influence. Lamb is popular, as is cumin. Like many of the restaurants on the street, Jack's Restaurant has a barbeque hot plate in the middle of each table and Korean barbeque is as popular as the hotpots and cumin lamb kebabs.
Nearby, Moore Street is alive with Dublin's traditional fruit sellers, and Chinese and Afro Caribbean shops. Everyday, a Chinese shop, has cockles and mussels alive alive oh, packed tightly against razor clams. Pauline Lee, who is shopping there, is from central China, but her husband, Jacky Zhu, is from the north.
"The flavours are deeper in the north," Lee explains. "The dishes are heavier; they can sometimes be quite spicy and are usually served with rice and Chinese pickles. Family cooking from the north is very good." Lee's husband does all the cooking in their house, and he offers to give me a few pointers.
A week later, Zhu greets me at the door of his Ballyfermot house, kitted out in chef's clothes. I've struck gold. I nibble on chicken wings in a sweet spicy sauce and sip erfu tea from Hunan as he works. Deftly, he sandwiches thin slices of aubergine together with minced pork, dips them in a light flour and egg batter and pops them into a wok of smoking oil. Chinese beans are blanched, stir-fried with slivers of garlic, bird's eye chillies and small strips of pork and then seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar.
"Use this soy sauce," he advises as he holds up a bottle of Pearl River Bridge Superior Light Soy Sauce. Spare ribs are simmered with garlic and star anise, and then stir-fried with scallion. He adds a generous dash of soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and a spoon of sugar, an intuitive nod to the salty, sweet, sour and hot balance of Chinese dishes.
Roughy, an African fish, is whacked with a cleaver to break up the bones, then steamed, plated and dressed with strips of ginger, chillies and scallion, before hot oil is poured over it, followed by soy sauce. Steamed rice and garlic pickles are brought to the table, and we sit down to a feast.
You can buy authentic Chinese ingredients at Asian shops such as the Asia Market on Drury Street, Dublin 2, which looks more like a wholesaler's than a shop. There are shelves of fresh Asian vegetables, freezers filled with exotic fish and dim sum, and sacks of every type of rice imaginable. And it's not just Chinese food on sale. There are frozen frogs' legs and fresh green peppercorns from France, Japanese seaweed, noodles and tofu and Indian spices, peppercorns and large bags of nuts. Many of the labels have English instructions, and among the Chinese customers there are Irish, Indians and Africans.
The Chinese may redefine the term "head-to-tail eating", but there's no need to be scared off. If the ears, tongues and feet of various creatures don't appeal to you, just stick with the more familiar bits in between. u
Jack's Restaurant and Du Yi Chu Takeaway, 140 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, 087-2786706; Rong Xing Hang Chinese Supermarket, 158 Parnell Street, Dublin; Asia Market, Drury Street, Dublin 2; Everyday, Moore Street, Dublin 1.