🍽️ Shiqi Squab

Crispy-skinned young pigeon, a Shiqi specialty.

Shiqi squab is the most famous signature of Shiqi in Zhongshan. It uses four-week-old squabs of the local Shiqi breed, which grow large and tender. Traditionally the birds are first poached in a master stock of star anise, cassia and licorice, glazed with syrup and air-dried, then deep-fried by ladling hot oil over them until the skin turns reddish-brown and crisp. The skin is as crisp as fried chicken, the meat juicy, and the flesh tender with a subtle braised aroma, so flavorful that even the bones are chewed. Zhongshan locals eat Shiqi squab hot, torn by hand, often as two courses: the crisp skin with pepper-salt, the meat with braising sauce. It is a banquet and teahouse signature in Zhongshan and has traveled with the Zhongshan diaspora to Hong Kong, Macau and overseas, making it one of the most representative Cantonese squab dishes.