Steamed Pork Belly with Carved Plums 雕梅扣肉

Steamed Pork Belly with Carved Plums (雕梅扣肉) is a dish of Dali (大理), Yunnan, that combines kourou (扣肉), pork belly steamed in a bowl and turned out onto a plate, with diaomei (雕梅), the carved, sugar-cured green plums of the Bai (白族) people. Bauhinia magazine (紫荆) names it Eryuan Diaomei Kourou after Eryuan County (洱源县), the plums' home, and Chinese Wikipedia lists Dali diaomei kourou among the dishes of Yunnan cuisine.

The carved plums

Diaomei takes its name from the pattern carved into each green plum. Wenlvnews, the Yunnan travel news site, describes the method used in Eryuan: the plums are picked as they turn from green to yellow and soaked in limewater, then washed and dried. Once the flesh has softened, a small knife cuts a continuous curving pattern into it, the stone is squeezed out through the cuts and the fruit is pressed flat into a chrysanthemum shape. The plums are then sealed in jars with brown sugar, rock sugar, honey, rose petals and white liquor. Wenlvnews gives about a month before the jar is opened; Bauhinia magazine says the plums steep for several months until they turn golden. The result tastes sweet and sour.

Where it comes from

Eryuan is known as the 'home of plums' (梅子之乡). Huanqiu.com calls Dazhuang Village (大庄村) beside Cibi Lake (茈碧湖) the cradle of Eryuan diaomei, where every household carves and processes plums, and cites historical records that carved plums were made from green plums as early as the Nanzhao kingdom (南诏) of the Tang period, some 1,300 years ago. Making them is a skill Bai girls in Eryuan learn from their mothers, and carved plums are a required food at Bai weddings. Laid in overlapping rows on a plate, the golden plums look like chrysanthemums in bloom. Huanqiu.com also lists Steamed Pork Belly with Carved Plums among the ten geographical-indication products of Binchuan (宾川).