Over at Kam’s Roast, the Singapore outpost of one-Michelin-starred Kam’s Roast Goose in Hong Kong, orders have more than doubled in this year’s lead-up to Chinese New Year. About 30 pigs have been ordered and more orders are expected to stream in. The restaurant in Pacific Plaza usually sells two pigs daily.
Like in the original Hong Kong restaurant, Kam’s Roast uses piglets from Hunan, China. Each piglet weighs about 3.5kg, which are about 40 to 50 days old. First, Wong, who helped start Kam’s Roast Goose in 2014, dry-
Then, the pig is par-roasted for about 30 minutes in an electric “Apollo” oven before it is cooled for three hours. Lastly, it is spit-roasted over charcoal for 15 minutes to achieve an intensely crispy and lacquered crackling with a smoky finish.
Parts such as the pig’s ribs, head and hind legs can be chopped up and boiled with porridge or stir-fried with spring onions and scallions.
Wong shows us how to carve a whole suckling pig:
Hold down the back of the pig’s head before chopping it. For chopping novices, you will need to pound on the chopper with your other hand after making the last few chops to ensure that the head is wholly chopped off. Put the head aside.
Step 2: Cut the body into half
Turn over the suckling pig so that its underside faces upwards. Chop along the line of the spine that runs down the centre of the pig. Chop half of the pig into four pieces. Chop away uneven parts of each slab.
Step 3: Separate the fat layer beneath the skin.
Look out for the unctuous layer that lies in between the skin and the meat. One end of this part of the fat usually merges with the bone so one can align the chopper to this boundary and slice it sideways. Discard this fatty layer. Also, slice and discard the fats from the underside of the skin. Chop away the uneven sides of the crackling slab to form a rectangle.
Step 4: Chop the remaining parts of the meat with bones to about 3cm pieces. Repeat the same for the crackling.
Step 5: To plate, assemble the chopped pieces of meat in neat rows on the platter. Cover the meat with chopped pieces of crackling.
Step 6: Cut away the protruding cheeks and neck at the both sides of the pig’s head so that it can be balanced properly on the platter. Place the head in front of the rows of chopped meat and crackling. Slice hind legs sideways and arrange them at the four sides of dish. Serve.
