Ingredients:

part (a)

• 4 pork chops, boneless
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup cooking wine. Note: I used Taiwanese cooking michiu wine, not to be confused with Japanese sweet rice wine.
• 1/8 tsp white pepper
• 1/8 tsp five-spice powder
• 1 tsp Chinese barbecue sauce
• 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

part (b)

• 1 cup bread crumbs. Known also as Panko, a flaky bread crumb used in Japanese cuisine as a crunchy coating for fried foods
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2/3 cup tapioca starch or corn starch
• 6 -8 Tbsp. of cooking oil

Instructions:

1. Flatten the pork chop, then marinate with the seasonings and ingredients listed in part (a) for at least three hours.
2. Place the tapioca starch, beaten egg, bread crumbs in three separate plates.
3. Dip both sides of each pork chop into the above ingredients in the following order: first, tapioca starch; second, egg mixture; and third, bread crumbs.
4. Heat the cooking oil in a wok and sear the pork chop first. Then cook the meat over medium-high temperature heat until it turns golden brown on both sides.
5. Cut the pork chop into slices and serve.

What is Chinese barbecue sauce?

Chinese barbecue sauce, unlike the barbecue sauce you might find at KFC, doesn’t contain tomatoes. It’s a flavorful concoction of ingredients ranging from hoisin to black bean paste. You can pick it up in most Asian grocery stores, but if you can’t find it in a store near you, the classic barbecue sauce is readily available for purchase online.

Hint

Flattening the pork chop will increase the tenderness of meat. When dipping the pork chop slices into the bread crumbs, gently press both sides of the pork chop into the plate to ensure that the crumbs stay in place.

The Hakka are an ethnic group from the southeastern Chinese provinces. Many people in Taiwan (including my brother-in-law) are members of this group and speak some version of the Hakka dialect.

Hakka cuisine is the cooking style of the Hakka people, who were once nomadic and eventually came to adapt their culinary styles to the regions where they travelled. Some of the most popular Taiwanese dishes, such as salt-baked chicken, stuffed tofu and lotus-leaf rice, originate from Hakka cuisine.

Pork belly is a staple of many Taiwanese dishes, as some of you may already know. This recipe for Hakka bacon uses Hakka-style salting techniques to produce tender, savory slabs of pork belly.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 strips of pork belly* (approximately 1 ½ to 2 lbs.)
• 2 to 3 tbsp. coarse salt or sea salt
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• ½ tsp five-spice powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon powder
• ½ tsp black pepper powder
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp of cooking wine
• 1/3 to ½ cups of soy sauce

Instructions:

1. Marinate pork strips in coarse salt for at least three hours. Keep the meat in the refrigerator during the marination process.
2. Rinse the pork belly and dry with a paper towel.
3. Marinate the pork strips with the rest of seasoning for at least 6 hours. Again, keep the meat in the refrigerator as it marinates.
4. After you have marinated the meat, transfer the pork strips and the marinating sauce to a skillet or wok. Add 1 to 1-1/2 cups of water, then cook covered over medium-low heat until the meat is thoroughly cooked. This should take 40 minutes.
5. Slice the pork when it cools and serve.

What is pork belly, and where can I get it?

Pork belly is a boneless cut of fatty meat from the belly of a pig. It is the same as fresh bacon and can be ordered from a good butcher or online from a variety of retailers, such as Niman Ranch. This is what uncooked pork belly looks like:

Make-Ahead Tip

You can make large quantities of this dish and store in freezer. This dish is a convenient pairing for a variety of different dishes. You can slice and serve it, stir fry the pieces with vegetables, add to a piping-hot bowl of ramen, or use it to accent a platter of fried rice. The sauce can also be strained and saved for later use, for example, as an flavor-enhancement for a dish of dry noodles.