Shimen Pork Intestines 石门肥肠

How it is made

Qin Zhengcun (覃正村), the Tujia cook from Shimen whom Hunan Daily names as the reputed creator, gives the method. The fresh intestine is rubbed repeatedly with flour and turned inside out and back while it is washed, and surplus fat is cut away. It is blanched, then boiled with cassia bark, star anise and ginger for about half an hour, until a chopstick pushes straight through, and cut into small triangles.

Sichuan pepper and cassia are fried until fragrant, potato chunks go in, then the intestine, with vinegar, cooking wine, ginger and garlic to take away any remaining odour. Ground dried chilli and broad-bean paste are stirred through before it is served.

How it is eaten

The dish is served in a dry pot or a bowl-shaped pot (钵子) set over a burner. A low flame keeps it warm; a high flame fries the intestine further until it turns crisp and browned. When the intestine is finished, pickled greens or tofu can be added to the pot. Well-cleaned intestine is meant to have no off smell, to be crisp and chewy outside and soft inside, and to taste hot and fragrant.

Where it comes from

Qin cooked in the army from 1968 to 1974 and then in canteens in Shimen. In 1993 he opened Huahua Restaurant (华华餐馆) on the street by Shimen railway station, with intestine as its main dish. In 1994, when the Shimen thermal power plant began operating, the county government asked him to cook dry-pot intestine for the opening banquet attended by Vice Premier Zou Jiahua (邹家华). After the banquet, intestine restaurants multiplied across Shimen and filled Station East Road, and Hunan Daily reported in 2018 that "Changde intestine restaurants" (常德肠子馆) could be found across Hunan and beyond.

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