Dōnɡ pō ròu –东坡肉

What’s Dongpo Pork?

 Dongpo pork (Chinese: 东坡肉, Pinyin: Dōnɡ pō ròu) 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 (the picture below). 

 

                            Sū Dōnɡ pō–苏东坡 

 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 but unfounded. 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.”  

 

Origins