Claypot Rice

Claypot rice (bāozǎifàn, 'clay-pot rice') is a Cantonese format that cooks each portion individually rather than from a communal batch. The unglazed clay pot — rough-textured, porous, highly conductive at the base — is the essential piece of equipment. It cannot be replaced by a metal or ceramic equivalent and produce the same result.

Raw washed rice and measured water go into the clay pot, which is placed directly over a charcoal or high-output gas flame. When the rice has absorbed most of the water and the surface has small steam holes forming, the topping is laid across the top: the most common versions include Chinese sausage (lap cheong, sweet and slightly smoky), marinated chicken thigh with ginger, salted fish with pork, or preserved pork belly (laap yuhk). The pot is covered and left on reducing heat for a further several minutes until the bottom layer of rice has toasted against the clay.

This toasted layer — guōba in Mandarin, faan jiu in Cantonese — is the purpose of the format. It produces a crisp, slightly smoky, caramelised rice crust at the base while the upper layers remain fluffy and distinct-grained. The pot arrives at the table with the lid on; the cook drizzles a seasoning sauce of light soy, sesame oil and a few drops of dark soy around the perimeter as the lid is lifted, allowing it to run down the inner walls. The diner scrapes the crust up from the bottom and mixes it through the rice and toppings.

Autumn and winter are the traditional season for this dish in Guangzhou — specialist shops open in the evenings only and close when the day's batch of pots is sold out, which is often before nine in the evening.