Dear Mr. Know-It-All,
I have lived in Hong Kong for a few years years but I am still terrified of shopping at the wet market. The vegetables I’m ok with, but how on earth do you choose meat? Any tips? – Wet Blanket
It’s true, Wet Blanket. Meat is terrifying. All that protein, just… hanging there, inert. Spoooky. Wet market meat is geared towards Chinese cooking: that means leaner cuts. If you’re after a western-style steak, don’t bother with the beef stalls. The meat they sell is a) expensive and b) super-lean. You’ll get fresh, but you won’t get fat. Chickens are safe to buy, but they’re gamey and you had better be happy watching them killed and plucked in front of you. Carrying home a still-warm chicken may take some getting used to. It’s pork and fish where you can do well: go for clear-eyed, shiny fish—you’ll find salmon, snapper, carp… you name it. (Non-oily fish? Just steam with ginger, spring onion, soy sauce and a touch of sesame oil.) Get your pork chops sliced straight from the shoulder. As for freshness, take the Hong Kong approach to wet market life: prod your meat. Is it still moving? Then it’s really fresh. Note: this applies mostly to seafood. If you poke a hunk of lean pork and it moves, then back away really quickly.
A quick Chinese measurements run-down, if that’s what’s driving you crazy. There’s a very easy way to remember this. Pay attention: one candareen is of a mace, which is of a tael, which is of a catty. Which is of a picul. Got that? (Click here, if you don’t believe me.)
What you actually have to know is that one catty, yat gun, weighs about 605 grams, or 1.3 pounds. A tael, yat leung, is of a catty: about 38 grams (Hence the saying bun gun baat leung—“half a catty, eight taels”—or, “six of one, half-a-dozen of the other.”) And always remember: if you buy a catty of something, you’ll get twice as much as you need. If you buy half a catty, you’ll need twice as much as you got. I call this Mr. Know-It-All’s Uncertainty Principle: a catty in a bag is simultaneously too little—and not enough.