Pickled Cabbage and Pork Belly Hotpot 酸菜白肉锅

Pickled Cabbage and Pork Belly Hotpot (酸菜白肉锅) is a pot of Northeast sour cabbage and stock, heated with live charcoal, in which pork belly is swished until cooked. It is also called Northeast hotpot (东北火锅).

How it is made

The two main ingredients are Northeast sour cabbage (酸菜), a fermented Chinese cabbage, and pork belly (五花肉). The pot is a copper one heated with live charcoal. Sour cabbage and stock are boiled together to make the base, and the pork, known here as white meat (白肉), goes into the pot and is swished in the broth until cooked.

How it is eaten

The cooked pork is eaten with sesame oil, light soy sauce and garlic paste. Chinese Wikipedia's article on hotpot describes the dish under the name shazhucai (杀猪菜, 'pig-slaughter dish'), which it says is commonly called Pickled Cabbage and Pork Belly Hotpot; in that version blood sausage (血肠) is added to the pot as well. The article on Northeast cuisine lists the blood-sausage version as a separate dish, white pork with blood sausage (白肉血肠), stewed like this hotpot but with the sausage in it.

Where it comes from

Both Wikipedia articles describe it as a traditional household dish of Northeast China. The hotpot article calls it a Manchu (满族) family dish that was mainly eaten in the Northeast and later reached Beijing; the Northeast-cuisine article says it travelled to Beijing with the Manchus when they crossed the Great Wall into China proper. White pork with blood sausage is one of the Northeast dishes that the same article traces to Manchu, Xibe and Mongol cooking.