Duck sticky rice

What it is

Duck sticky rice (鴨肉油飯) is a version of 油飯, literally "oily rice": steamed glutinous rice mixed with fried seasonings. Here the flavouring is sesame oil and ginger, and the meat is boneless duck. Mi Yuan Tzu (米院子油飯), a Bib Gourmand shop in Kaohsiung, is built around it. Plain oily rice, with pork and mushrooms, is sold all over Taiwan.

Where it came from

Oily rice belongs to Taiwan's family rites. When a baby is one month old, families cook it with sesame oil chicken and red eggs, offer them to the ancestors and share them with relatives and friends. Whether a chicken leg goes into the rice can depend on the baby's sex.

Huang Wan-ling (黃婉玲), a teacher of traditional Taiwanese cooking, lists more occasions. Families send it to close relatives on a first birthday, and in Tainan they share it when a child turns 16 and comes of age. Market sellers make extra on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the festival of Qiniangma (七娘媽), protector of children. When a daughter makes her first visit home after marrying, a large plate of oily rice is prepared, about seven parts savoury to three parts sweet.

How it is made

Ordinary oily rice starts with steamed glutinous rice, which is then tossed with stir-fried seasonings: shredded pork, shiitake, dried shrimp or squid, with shallot oil, soy sauce and rice wine. For the duck version at Mi Yuan Tzu, long-grain glutinous rice is stir-fried with pure sesame oil, slices of old ginger and boneless duck. The grains stay springy and separate rather than greasy.

How to eat it

Do not confuse oily rice with 米糕 (mi gao), sticky rice with a meat sauce ladled on when served. Huang Wan-ling calls them completely different foods, and oily rice uses more oil. At Mi Yuan Tzu the duck rice comes in two sizes, or by the catty (斤) to take home, with taro and pork rib soup alongside.