Five-Spice Pork Rolls 五香卷
Five-Spice Pork Rolls is featured among the local specialties of Fujian.
Five-Spice Pork Rolls (五香卷) are rolls of five-spice-seasoned filling wrapped in tofu skin and deep-fried, a dish of southern Fujian (闽南). In Zhangzhou (漳州) and Xiamen (厦门) they are simply called wuxiang (五香, 'five spice'), and other Fujian names include zha wuxiang (炸五香) and zha wuxiang tiao (炸五香条). The roll is described as originally a noted product of Shima (石码), the seat of Longhai District (龙海区) in Zhangzhou.
How it is made
The dish began in poorer times as a way to use leftover meat and vegetables: they were marinated with five-spice powder, wrapped in tofu skin to form a roll and deep-fried. The Shima version lists lean pork, starch, sugar and five-spice powder as its main ingredients.
Xiamen's wuxiang tiao uses a special bean-curd skin wrapped around chopped lean meat, water chestnut and spring onion, shaped like a spring roll and fried in oil until golden brown. It is then cut into several pieces and eaten with a dipping sauce, and is described as fragrant, crisp and savoury.
How it is eaten
In Zhangzhou, festivals and wedding or birthday banquets call for lu mian (卤面) noodles served with fried Five-Spice Pork Rolls, and the rolls are dipped into the broth of the lu mian. Emigrants from southern Fujian took the related ji juan (鸡卷) to Taiwan, where it is now a well-known snack, and a version called ngo hiang (五香卤肉) is popular in Chinese communities in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.