Beggar's Chicken
A young chicken stuffed with pork, ham and mushrooms, wrapped in lotus leaves, sealed in clay and baked for hours until the meat is tender enough to pull apart by hand.
How to eat it
The chicken is brought to the table still in its clay shell, which a waiter cracks with a mallet, then the lotus leaves are peeled back and the aroma comes out all at once. After that the meat is pulled apart with chopsticks or, in some places, with gloved hands, and the stuffing is served alongside. Everything is eaten together with rice. There is no sauce; the seasoning is in the bird. Bones are soft but should still be picked out. Do not eat the leaf or the paper wrapping beneath it.
The story behind the dish
The legend, told with variations in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, is of a beggar who stole a chicken, had no pot to cook it in, and so packed it in mud and baked it in a fire, discovering that the feathers came away with the dried clay. It is folklore, and the same story is claimed by Changshu in Jiangsu, which has an equally strong tradition. The Hangzhou version uses a young bird, a filling of pork and ham, and lotus leaves from the lake, and it entered the restaurant repertoire in the twentieth century as one of the city's showpiece dishes for guests.
For reference
Every kitchen does it its own way. What follows is the typical version — ingredients, heat and price shift from city to city and from one restaurant to the next, so take it as a guide rather than a fixed recipe.
If you have an allergy or something you can't eat, check with the staff before you order.