Bazirou Braised Pork Belly 把子肉

Bazirou Braised Pork Belly (把子肉) is a snack of Shandong cooking (鲁菜) and of the Xuzhou-Haizhou kitchen (徐海菜), popular in the Jiangsu-Shandong-Henan-Anhui region, with Jinan (济南), Jining (济宁) and Xuzhou (徐州) as its centres. Each of these places makes it slightly differently.

How it is made

The meat is pork belly, cut into rectangular blocks that each carry both fat and lean. The blocks are red-braised with soy sauce or caramelised sugar, then stewed until the seasoning has soaked in; while they cook they are often tied with string. The meat is rich without being greasy.

How it is eaten

Bazirou Braised Pork Belly comes with a spread of meat and vegetable sides. The meat sides include four-joy meatballs (四喜丸子), grass carp, sausage, ribs, pork knuckle or chicken legs; the others are bean products such as orchid-cut dried tofu (兰花干), wheat gluten, tofu skin and vegetarian chicken (素鸡); kelp knots; tiger-skin eggs (虎皮鸡蛋) or quail eggs; and seasonal vegetables such as daylily buds, bok choy and green beans. It has a name as a rice-killer (下饭神器), a dish that sends plain rice down, and it is ordinary everyday food in Jinan, Xuzhou and the country around them.