豬潤公仔麵 poached pork liver with instant noodle

Water has no taste; leaving aside the whole set of questions raised by the existence of those water ‘sommeliers’ out there, I’m pretty sure that once it’s been boiling for a few minutes, any trace elements that may have started off in the pan have long since disappeared into the ether. Buuuuut, if you use something other than water for your boiling, for your poaching, then the taste from that is going to be transferred into whatever it is that you’re cooking. A chef I follow recommends using chicken stock for your boiled potatoes as an example of this transmutational magic.

Alerted to this place — by an email subscription dropping into my in-box via Tatler Asia (oooooh, daaaarling, yeah yeah, yeah, I know) — chef May Chow, of Little Bao in HK...

…gives her recommendation for a dish popular in Hong Kong and one where at Hon Fat Noodle in Hong Kong, the broth they poach their liver in, is rich in ginger as well.

“They’re thickly sliced and gently poached to achieve a silky, slightly creamy texture. Paired with high-quality noodles—I opt for the thick-cut egg noodles—it’s served in a clear, subtly gingery broth.”

There’s a YouTube video showing the whole process

.