Summer Snacking: Pot Ang and Chinese-Style Chicken Wings

A few weeks ago, Grandpa bought some corn and dropped some off at our house. He likes to stock up on groceries that are really cheap and then distribute the goods among our extended family. Grandpa originally told me over the phone that he picked them from his garden, but when I passed on the message to Mom, she gave me a look. When I saw that look, I knew that Grandpa was trolling. We were going to a family potluck picnic at the beach, so grilling corn would be a perfect snack in the heat.

Two dishes come to my mind when I think of corn: pot ang (grilled corn) and a corn dessert with small tapioca pearls. While I already wrote about pot ang, I thought I’d give a revised recipe.

6 tbsp coconut milk

3 tbsp fish sauce

1/3 cup sliced green onions

1 tbsp sugar

Mix all four ingredients together in a bowl. Taste it. You should get hit with the coconut flavour first, quickly followed by the fish sauce and then at the end, there should be a little sweetness. That's with these proportions anyway. Once you're happy with the taste, you're ready glaze your grilled corn. We had 10 ears of corn and we had just enough. You can also water the glaze down a bit if you have more corn.

And with all recipes, you can tweak the measurements to cater to your family’s tastes. You can still taste and smell the fish sauce in this glaze, so if you have family members or friends that are sensitive to seafood, you can cut the amount of fish sauce down to 1½ tablespoons instead. Substituting fish sauce with salt won’t work, but perhaps you can try miso or something else with umami. I'm not saying it'll work. But it might.

The corn was zapped in the microwave for a few minutes until it was half-cooked. You can cook the corn directly on the grill, but it’ll take much longer.

Once the corn became a bit charred, they were glazed and placed back on the grill to continue to cook.

Each ear of corn was glazed twice to make sure they were flavoured properly.

Just as the remaining four ears of corn were about to be glazed, our propane tank ran out with a poof. Grilling the corn is the best way to make pot ang. It doesn't taste right if the corn is boiled and then topped with the glaze afterwards. The charring gives the dish more of a character. It also changes the taste of the glaze.


Our family doesn't typically make chicken wings, but on the rare occasion that we do, we make a Chinese-style marinade of soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, sugar, and green onions.


When you need to make these chicken wings quickly, you should cut a few slits into the chicken so that the marinade can do its thing much quicker.






Mom eye-balled the measurements. The pitcher contains homemade simple syrup (equal parts of sugar and water, simmered until it thickens into a syrup). After she mixed everything together, she dipped her finger into the marinade and took a taste. I was horrified! That's raw chicken! She just shrugged it off. Then I took a taste. "It has to be savoury with a hint of sweetness," she told me. The marinade tasted alright. There was too much oyster sauce though.


The chicken cooked on the BBQ and glazed using the remaining marinade. The syrup in the marinade turned the chicken wings into sticky finger-licking chicken wings.




All we needed was some rice, pickled vegetables, and soy sauce. Either that or some fresh baguettes.