Fly's Head

A simple dish inspired by a classic from Taiwan

My first Fly’s Head was eaten at Win Son. But last week when I was editing the review of Wenwen, I was feeling inspired to try making it myself. It seemed like an easy answer for the question: what are we having for dinner tonight?

My first attempt at Fly’s Head probably had an incorrect proportion of meat to vegetables.

We ended up building our entire dinner around the Fly’s Head. I made a cucumber salad and fried chicken spiced with Momofuku Savory Seasoning Salt, Chinese Five Spice, and hot paprika, and my wife put together some roasted long beans.

When it came to the Fly’s Head, our local grocery store only had beef in two pound containers. I was briefly tempted to the reserve some for meatballs, but there seemed like so much raw scallion. So the ratio of meat and greens is a bit off, but at least we had lunch for the next day. I also used hot peppers grown in our garden, and supplemented these with a few extra hot chilis. Finally, while traditionally fermented beans are typically added while cooking, I couldn’t find them in the pantry, so I added a splash of hot chili crisp instead.

RECIPE

Ingredients

• 1 lb Ground Pork

• Scallions or chives or garlic scapes, a lot

• 6 cloves minced garlic

• minced fresh ginger

• Small, hot red peppers

• Soy sauce

• Red win vinegar

• Pinch of sugar

• Cooking oil

• Sesame oil*

• Spoonful of Hot Chili Crisp

Instructions

• Brown the ground meat in oil, keeping loose

• Add soy sauce, vinegar, sugar

• Add sesame oil if you have it

• Add spoonful of hot chili crisp

• Simmer

• Reserve the meat

• Cook the vegetables in splash of oil

• Add the meat back in and stir

• Serve over white rice

Our dinner had plenty of other components, but for lunch we reheated the leftovers and topped the Fly’s Head with a soft-yolk fried egg.

*The sesame oil was missing from the pantry, so I did not include this.