Posted on 01/29/2010 9:45:15 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Official guidelines have been issued to restaurants across China instructing them how to cook Mao Tse-tung’s favourite meal, an unctuous dish of pork.
In Mao's home province of Hunan, much of the Great Helmsman's success has been credited to his fondness for hong shao rou (red braised pork) cubes of braised pork belly glazed with caramelised sugar and Shaoxing rice wine. The dish is widely regarded as the "brain food" which provided Mao with the wits to defeat his enemies.
Now the local government in Hunan has sought to standardise the cooking of the dish, in order to stem the tide of imitations that crowd Chinese restaurants.
According to stringent instructions from the government's food quality supervision and testing institute, true hong shao rou can only be made with the meat of rare pigs from Ningxiang county. Officials have designated the pig, which has been bred for nearly 1,000 years, as an "agricultural treasure".
The Xiaoxiang Morning Herald, a local newspaper, said that three other dishes, including stir-fried peppers with pork, steamed pork with pickled cabbage and steamed fish head with peppers, had also been codified in the official recipe book. Restaurants which do not follow the correct procedures will not be allowed to title themselves as "authentically" Hunanese, said the guidelines.
"These rules are great. I'm pleased my home province can offer standards to all Chinese people for reference," said one Hunanese native, named only as Mr Hu, to the newspaper.
Hunan has not been shy in cashing in on Chairman Mao's fame. Last month, a 100-foot tall statue of Mao as a young man was unveiled in Changsha, while earlier this month the local tourism bureau proposed the designation of December 26, Mao's birthday, as a new national holiday.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Ingredients 1lb. pork belly (skin optional)
2 Tbsp peanut oil 2 Tbsp white sugar 1 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine ~ Fresh ginger (a ¾-inch piece), skin left on and sliced 1 star anise 2 dried red chilies ~ A small piece of cassia bark or a small cinnamon stick ~ Light soy sauce ~ Salt ~ Sugar ~ Scallion greens Steps 1. Plunge the pork belly into a pan of boiling water and simmer for 3 or 4 minutes, until partially cooked. Remove and, when cool enough to handle, cut into bite-sized chunks.
2. Heat the oil and white sugar in a wok over a gentle flame until the sugar melts, then raise the heat and stir until the melted sugar turns a rich caramel brown. Add the pork and splash in the Shaoxing wine.
3. Add enough water to just cover the pork, along with the ginger, star anise, chilies, and cassia. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 40 to 50 minutes.
4. Toward the end of the cooking time, turn up the heat to reduce the sauce, and season with soy sauce, salt, and a little sugar to taste. Add the scallion greens just before serving.
This recipe is from the Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop.
Well, there is only one Kentucky Fried Chicken, so why should there be many Hunan Pork Belly’s?
Seriously, this is going to kill the creativity of Chinese cooks who can do it even better than the original.
yitbos
AT least now the WHite House chefs will know how to prepare it.
General Tso’s Chicken rules.
I don’t know about you but I would have a hard time telling the difference between the bacon from one breed of pig to another.
If I didn’t know better I would say that the local government in Hunan is trying to boost the export sales of pork from the province.
I thought Mao’s favorite dish waa 14 year old virgins.
I think that may be one of the few dishes I didn’t try when I was in China. Sounds tasty, though Peking Duck will probably always be my favorite...along with 90% of the other dishes I had there (you don’t wanna know about the 10% that didn’t make the cut, trust me).
The Chinese can keep most of their adult beverages, however. The beer wasn’t bad (with the notorious exception of “Reeb”, which tasted just like you would expect a beer spelled backwards would taste) and the rice wine was passable.
The Mao-Tai, however, just about killed me.
mao’s a rumberjack and he’s oink-k
They can serve it to Anita Dunn when she comes to visit, though I have a feeling she probably eats it several times a week at home.
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