Why have Candy when you can have Cholesterol ? For Halloween, a tasty treat that will send you to the grave if you eat too much. But what a tasty way to go ! Lap Cheong ( 臘腸) a sausage you can eat all year round, but mostly in winter. It looks like salami but you have to cook it or it's like leather. Always sliced at a diagonal angle, to ensure maximum exposure of the insides, and minimal casing. Never coin shaped : that's indigestible. Ideally cooked over rice, as it steams, so the fat leaks into the rice and makes it fragrant. And greasy ! Or stir fried with vegetables (preferably strong flavoured greens like Chinese mustard) or added to stews and hotpots. A little goes a long way, but adds a distinctive flavour which addicts savour. Lap cheong comes in many varieties, including liver and blood but the tastiest are pork with a bit of spice. In the past, they were prized for high fat content: "Pick a good one with lots of white", said my grandma. In the past, though, people didn't eat much, or often, so high fat was actually good for them. If you were poor, one sausage could feed a whole family. But even as a kid, I'd nibble the meat and discreetly leave the lumps of fat aside. Not that it did me any good. Nowadays lap cheong is healthier, and the ratio of fat to meat lower : Diet Lap Cheong ! Canadian lap cheong is popular because the meat's tastier and the fat content as low as possible yet still authentic.
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