香椿 / TOON
One of the most common ways Chinese people like to enjoy any spring green is with eggs. We will nibble on toon omelets, toon pancakes, and toon and century egg salad, and then get our hands dirty making century eggs (皮蛋) together. If you think about it, traditionally-made century eggs are the ultimate expression of terroir in a single food: alkali (lime or potash) was processed from the plants and shellfish growing in an area, ash was gathered from the remnants of wood cooking fires, clay was dug from the earth, and tannin was extracted from native camellia. All this went into making a paste to coat the eggs, and finally the eggs were rolled in rice husks to keep them from sticking. (They’re also a food that recycles trash into treasure).
What if we took this ancient technology associated with China and sourced each ingredient from Long Island, where the toon trees first landed and Pekin ducks were first bred in the United States? What if we used lime burned from the slipper shells of Long Island Sound, clay dug from the Harbor Hill moraine of Nassau County, tannins borrowed from the oaks of Prospect Park, and ash burned from mugwort and phragmites gathered in the Rockaways? What if we used corn husks to cradle our eggs?
Will you join me on this culinary experiment?
Workshop address will be shared after signup. One scholarship slot is available for a workshop assistant - please email me if you’d like to be considered. If you cannot make it, please give at least 48 hours notice to receive a refund.
This workshop is part of 春游 / FIELD TRIPS, a spring foraging and cooking workshop series themed around plants from China that have naturalized in New York City - and all the questions they engender. Foraging workshops are Saturday, cooking on Sunday. See Events page for full series calendar.
