Dongpo pork Puzzle

Dongpo pork Puzzle

Dongpo pork (simplified Chinese: 东坡肉; traditional Chinese: 東坡肉; pinyin: dōngpōròu) is a Hangzhou dish which is made by pan-frying and then red cooking pork belly. The pork is cut to around 2 inches square in dimensions, consisting of half fat and half lean meat. The mouth feel is oily but not greasy, with the fragrance of wine. The dish is named after the famed Song Dynasty poet Su Dongpo.

Legend has it that while Su Dongpo was banished to Hangzhou, in a life of poverty, he made an improvement of the traditional process. He first braised the pork, added Chinese fermented wine and made red-braised pork, then slowly stewed it on a low heat. The legend, like that for General Tso's Chicken, is romantic, not historical. Lin Hsiang Ju and Lin Tsuifeng in their scholarly Chinese Gastronomy give a recipe, “The Fragrance of Pork: Tungpo Pork,” and remark that the “square of fat is named after Su Tungpo, the poet, for unknown reasons. Perhaps it is just because he would have liked it.” [3]

A popular tourist website relates that Dongpo Pork experienced three phases from its first appearance to being widely known. The whole history was generally in line with the life experience of Su Dongpo. Starting from Xuzhou, a northern city of Jiangsu province, in which Dongpo pork appeared in the name of Huizeng pork, to Huangzhou, today's Huanggang of Hubei province, in which Su Dongpo completed the whole cooking method, and finally to Hangzhou, in which Dongpo pork was officially named and widely known in China.