Alphabet Appetite: Three Chinese Ingredients That Start With O

… octopus 生蚝
They may not be as cringe-inducing as the creepy crawly legs of centipedes or poisoned stingers of scorpions, but tentacles have their own unsettling charms. Octopus is another example of Beijing’s eclectic street food culture. You can find miniature octopi grilled three to a skewer – head and all – or if you’re a leg man, other vendors will serve tentacles only. One thing is constant: the spicing. Octopus itself is bland, but grilled in oil and onions and seasoned with sesame seeds, chili powder, and garlic, it becomes an exhilarating mix of flavors and textures.

… oolong tea 乌龙茶
The “crow dragon” of Chinese tea (sometimes spelled wulong), oolong curls and twists back on itself much like the tail of a beast might. It’s a product of strong sun, semi-oxidized and halfway between a green and a black tea. All “true teas” are made from the plant species cameilla sinensis; the difference between types hangs on how long they are fermented, a process that involves crushing tea leaves. The leaf cell enzymes oxidize, darkening the leaves. There’s a variety for everyone, and you’re sure to find a taste bud-pleaser in oolong with its wide spectrum of flavors which waver from floral and fruity to woody, plus the ground in between.

… oyster sauce 蚝油
The fable is that oyster sauce originated on the coast of 19th-century Guangdong, the thick brown sauce created out by a forgetful cook who boiled oyster soup for too long. Whether the tale holds water or not, this salty-sweet and pungent condiment has since become a staple of Chinese-American restaurants. It’s second in recognition only to soy sauce and chefs abroad often slip it into anything at all considered Asian. Lee Kum Kee churns out bottles of the sauce, or you can whip up your own fairly simply using sugar, salt, water, cornstarch, and oyster extract.

A version of this article appears in the September 2013 issue of the Beijinger

Photo: kimlongtrading.com, wikimedia.org, adailyapple.com