Legend attributes the creation of dongpo rou, a traditional Chinese braised pork belly dish, to Su Dong Po, a celebrated Song Dynasty poet and scholar. Half-fat, half-lean chunks of pork belly are slowly simmered with wine, soy sauce, rock sugar, scallions, and ginger for hours, until the jiggly, gelatinous squares are soft enough to pull apart with chopsticks. The process slowly renders the fat, so it melts on the tongue without leaving a greasy mouthfeel. One bite—a blur of melting fat and tender meat—and you may be moved to put pen (or calligraphy brush) to paper yourself.
The dish is a specialty of Hangzhou, the historic capital of China’s eastern Zhejiang province, but is well-known and loved across the country. To make it at home, you’ll need a clay pot, a steamer, and most crucially, patience.
