“It’s a great story and the shots of all those crispy golden-brown ducks are so mouthwatering you’ll be tempted to call Sun Wah and place an order to go.” —Bill Daley, Chicago Tribune/The Stew
Go inside a Chinese restaurant to learn not only how Peking duck is made but how traditions are passed from immigrant father to Americanized daughter in the new Sky Full of Bacon podcast.
Sky Full of Bacon 02: Duck School from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.
Sun Wah BBQ has been serving Chinese barbecue— chicken heads and all— for 22 years. I talk to Eric Cheng about how he settled in the Vietnamese “New Chinatown” on Argyle Street on Chicago’s north side, and to his daughter Kelly, who with two of her siblings is training to take over the restaurant— introducing new ideas of her own along the way. It runs just over 15 minutes and I think you’ll find it an interesting look at the generational changes lurking behind the smiling facade of a Chinese restaurant— and to all the work and thought that goes into a seemingly straightforward dish like barbecued duck.
Oh, and if you thought the tone of Sky Full of Bacon was set by all the pretty vegetables in the first one, be prepared for a very meaty look at the delectable duck, pork and other dishes coming out of Sun Wah’s kitchen. You’ll want the address after watching this:
Sun Wah BBQ
1132-4 W. Argyle St.
Chicago
773-769-1254
There are too many LTHForum threads to link, but these Ronnie Suburban pics (including Kelly directing her father and brother in roasting a pig) are particularly good.
About Sky Full of Bacon
Sky Full of Bacon #1: How Local Can You Go?
Please feel free to comment here or to email me here.
P.S. Big bloggy thanks to Joe Germuska for his help in making this iTunes/WordPress/RSS stuff work the way I want it to. If it does this time, thank him.
Tags: argyle, chinese, podcast, sun wah, uptown
August 28th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
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December 30th, 2009 at 6:24 am
[…] it wasn’t a year of many great new discoveries, though old favorites continued to please (and Sun Wah in particular has really blossomed in so many ways this year). But as I went through the year, I […]
March 11th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
[…] person could actually do. He talked us through blanching the duck (which you may recall from Sky Full of Bacon #2), which is done in a flavorful stock, followed, ideally, by an overnight air-drying; then the duck […]
June 12th, 2010 at 7:39 am
[…] Pork (pt. 1) Sky Full of Bacon #4: A Head’s Tale Sky Full of Bacon #3: The Last Brisket Show Sky Full of Bacon #2: Duck School Sky Full of Bacon #1: How Local Can You […]
July 2nd, 2010 at 6:54 am
[…] tells the whole story, almost, in a single image. When you get one you know it. When the guy at Sun Wah inflated a duck with a gas station air hose, I knew I had a money shot. When the whitefish […]