{"id":11304,"date":"2025-11-13T23:47:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=11304"},"modified":"2025-11-13T23:47:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:47:31","slug":"dish-in-focus-aged-rice-duck-a-lorange-at-epure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=11304","title":{"rendered":"Dish in Focus: Aged rice duck \u00e0 l\u2019orange at \u00c9pure"},"content":{"rendered":"


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When you have a signature three-yellow-chicken dish as successful as chef Aven Lau\u2019s<\/span> at \u00c9pure<\/span>, it\u2019s usually a tough act to follow. And as Hong Kong\u2019s chicken craze finally begins to plateau, the man who helped kick-start the trend has elegantly pivoted, turning his focus to a new muse: the Guangdong rice duck.<\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not French, so why force French ingredients?\u201d Lau quips, a philosophy that crystallised early in his career. Though trained in French techniques, his culinary imagination remained fundamentally inspired by the flavours and principles of Chinese cuisine. \u201cAs I matured as a chef, I found many more interesting ways to cultivate this interest,\u201d he explains. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say that the food I prepare here is fusion food. Rather, we approach cooking with a sense of place, culture and time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Chef Aven Lau\u2019s aged rice duck \u00e0 l\u2019orange, as served at \u00c9pure. Photo: Handout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This \u201caged rice duck \u00e0 l\u2019orange\u201d represents the ultimate expression of that ethos \u2013 what Lau describes as \u201ccooking closer to my roots as a Chinese person\u201d, using ingredients that resonate with local palates. This philosophy begins with his selection of Guangdong rice duck, which Lau notes possesses a fundamental distinction from French varieties: Asian ducks are fully bled during processing, resulting in a \u201ccleaner, less gamy\u201d flavour that aligns perfectly with regional preferences.<\/p>\n

Refining this duck took a seven-month odyssey of relentless experimentation. The development path involved tasting more than 80 ducks and spending countless hours researching techniques online, even on RedNote. \u201cThere were times when I thought I would never achieve the vision I had for the duck,\u201d he admits. His solution emerged as a meticulous 14-day dry-ageing process. The monumental challenge extended beyond mastering the technique to solving the operational puzzle of consistently dry-ageing ducks in Hong Kong\u2019s humid climate, a feat that ultimately required investing in a dedicated ageing fridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat dry ageing does is essentially remove moisture from the skin, making it more consistently crispy,\u201d Lau notes. This crucial step intensifies the flavour and firms the meat. The final, impossibly crisp, Peking duck-style crackle is then achieved through a process of brining, a maltose-vinegar treatment, and high-temperature roasting.<\/p>\n

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Chef Aven Lau prepares his ducks in a dedicated ageing fridge. Photo: \u00c9pure<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This meticulously prepared duck is accompanied by a suite of reimagined components. The classic orange is replaced by aged tangerine peel (chenpi)<\/span>, which Lau discovered in Hong Kong\u2019s traditional markets. For the garnish, endives are slowly braised for 90 minutes with the chenpi, plus cinnamon and honey, while fresh endives provide a crisp textural contrast.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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When you have a signature three-yellow-chicken dish as successful as chef Aven Lau\u2019s at \u00c9pure, it\u2019s usually a tough act to follow. And as Hong…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[5747,1264,1314,9363,2051,9362,1315],"class_list":["post-11304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-aged","tag-dish","tag-duck","tag-epure","tag-focus","tag-lorange","tag-rice","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}