Mengjia Braised Pork Trotters 孟家扒蹄

Mengjia Braised Pork Trotters (孟家扒蹄) is a braised trotter sold under the Mengjia ('Meng family') name in Jinan (济南), Shandong. Shandong Business Daily (山东商报) lists it among the time-honoured food brands of the city's Tianqiao District (天桥区), and Haibao News (海报新闻) names it among the traditional snacks of old Jinan, alongside Jinan's 'bazi' braised pork belly (把子肉) and oil-swirl pastries (油旋).

Flavour and texture

Shandong Business Daily sums the trotter up in a quoted phrase: the meat is so tender that it comes off the bone while the skin stays whole, and the taste is fresh, mellow and savoury. Shunwang (舜网), the news site of the Jinan Daily group, describes the tendons as soft and sticky and the meat as falling from the bone, with a fresh, salty flavour.

How it is eaten

Haibao News counts it among old Jinan's cooked-meat specialities. At a Jinan farmers' New Year fair in January 2025, Shunwang listed it among the fair's local foods billed as 'heritage New Year goods' and said 50 jin (25 kg) sold out in a single morning. In September 2025 Xinhua's Shandong channel reported it served, with bazi pork and Laiwu (莱芜) mutton soup, in the old-Jinan food area of a talent-recruitment fair in Jinan.

Where it comes from

In 2019 a Shandong University student survey of traditional Jinan food made the Mengjia trotter shop one of its stops, between Caobao buns (草包包子) and the Huixianlou (会仙楼) restaurant.