Liaoyang Pickled Cabbage Hotpot 辽阳酸菜锅

Liaoyang Pickled Cabbage Hotpot (辽阳酸菜锅) is the north-eastern pot of soured cabbage and pork as it is cooked in Liaoyang (辽阳), Liaoning. China News Service, summarising a report in Taiwan's United Daily News (联合报), singles out Liaoyang's suancai and white pork hotpot (酸菜白肉锅) as having a distinctive flavour. Suancai hotpot (酸菜锅) is also among the dishes the Liaoning Department of Commerce named when it announced its 2024 list of 196 Liaoning landmark foods.

Ingredients

The two main ingredients are soured cabbage and pork belly, and the cabbage itself is made mainly from north-eastern Chinese cabbage (大白菜). At Liaoma Restaurant (辽麻餐厅) in Liaoyang, the house version is suancai stewed with pork ribs, which the cooks stew until soft and fully flavoured, Liaoning Daily reports.

How it is eaten

In Liaoyang the hotpot usually arrives ready to eat: for the diner's convenience, restaurants cook it first and then bring it to the table in a serving vessel, according to China News Service. At Liaoma the pork-rib version comes to the dining room in large bowls, and the cooks start preparing at eight in the morning.

Where it comes from

Two Liaoyang restaurants are closely tied to the dish. Xihaixing (西海兴), founded in the Republican era, lists white pork with suancai (白肉酸菜) among its signature dishes. Liaoma began as the staff canteen of the Liaoyang textile mill (辽阳麻纺织厂): the canteen cook Liu Jian (刘剑) took it over in 1992 and opened it to the public, and it kept going after the mill fell quiet. Stewed suancai is its speciality, its staff say they stew at least seven or eight buckets of it a day, and Liaoning Daily reports that its pork-rib suancai hotpot came second when it represented Liaoning cuisine at a Chinese food showcase (中华美食荟).