China is well-known for its mouthwatering duck dishes and its huge array of herbal teas. But a restaurant in the Hanam city area of Gyeonggi Province in Korea popularized the idea of combining the two, creating a knockout dish that swept across the nation.

The dish is called yuhwang ori, or sulfur-fed duck, which is raised on herbal feed, stuffed with herbs and other healthy ingredients, wrapped in a hardened coating of mud and then baked individually for up to three hours in an earthenware oven. Grilled yuhwang ori is said to revitalize the weary body, as it is good for anemia and blood circulation.

Like some of the world’s greatest dishes, yuhwang ori was the result of sheer happenstance. Its origin as a menu item in Korea is said to date back more than two decades to a restaurant in the city of Hanam. At the time, residents in the area started selling boiled ducks in an attempt to cater to an increasing number of mountain climbers and athletes in the area looking for an energy boost.

As a way to drum up business - and with no evidence to back up his words - one restaurant owner claimed that duck is healthy for men and women of all ages. But a diner who just happened to be a renowned Oriental medicine doctor refuted the owner’s claims. In Oriental medicine, the doctor said, there are positive and negative energies, and duck falls into the latter category. He said, however, that feeding sulfur to the ducks would balance the positive and negative energies, and - voila! - a new dish was born.

In today’s versions, the duck is stuffed with 23 ingredients including rice, ginseng, licorice root, gingko nuts, figs, pine nuts and prune-like jujubes. During the cooking process, the ducks are also covered with pine needles and medicinal herbs that can help boost the immune system. With autumn just around the corner, yuhwang ori is the perfect way to reward your body for surviving the summer heat.

Source : JoongAng Daily