Lǔ Ròu Fàn

Taiwan's everyday bowl: pork belly hand-chopped rather than minced, braised slowly in dark soy with fried shallots and star anise until it collapses into a glossy sauce, served over rice with a soy-braised egg

Origin: Taiwan

From the journey of Soy.

Lǔ ròu fàn is perhaps the dish that most completely expresses the Taiwanese relationship with soy sauce. Dark soy here is not a condiment but a cooking medium, and it supplies the long braise's colour, its salinity, and the depth that nothing made in under two hours can imitate. Pork belly diced and cooked until the connective tissue has collapsed into a gelatinous gravy, spooned over white rice in a carefully judged quantity, is amongst the simplest and best balanced things in the whole Chinese tradition. The dish exists across Chinese regional cooking in various forms, but in Taiwan it acquired both a particular refinement and a democratic ubiquity: it is eaten at plastic-seat street stalls and in serious restaurants alike, at every hour, by every class. Hokkien migrants of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries brought the long-braised soy pork tradition across the strait from Fujian; the mainland refugees of 1949 added their own regional variants; and between them they produced what is now the benchmark of Taiwanese home cooking. Three details separate a good bowl from an indifferent one. The first is the knife work: pork belly hand-chopped into small irregular pieces rather than minced, so that fat and lean stay distinguishable and the fat has something to collapse into. The second is yóu cōng sū, shallots sliced and fried slowly until deep brown and brittle, which go into the pot with their oil and supply a sweetness that raw onion cannot. The third is star anise, used more sparingly here than in Cantonese braising, at one or two stars: a bowl of lǔ ròu fàn should smell of shallot and soy first and of star anise a moment later. The soy-braised egg, lǔ dàn, added to the pot for the final hour to absorb the dark amber of the braise, is the detail that separates a carefully made bowl from a rushed one. By the time it is served it should be coloured through to the yolk and slightly jammy inside.

Ingredients

Pork

800 g pork belly, skin on, hand-chopped into 1 cm dice

Braise

50 g fried shallots, plus 3 tbsp of their oil
4 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
2 whole star anise
1 stick cassia bark, about 5 cm
0.5 tsp five-spice powder
90 ml light soy sauce
80 ml dark soy sauce
100 ml Shaoxing rice wine
40 g rock sugar
1 tsp white pepper, ground
700 ml water or light stock

Eggs

6 large eggs, for the lǔ dàn

To serve

4 portions steamed short-grain or jasmine rice
100 g pickled daikon, sliced

Method

Fry the shallots in oil over a low to medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes until evenly deep brown and crisp, then drain, reserving both shallots and oil. Skip this if using ready-fried shallots, but you will need shallot oil separately.
Blanch the chopped pork in boiling water for two minutes, drain, and rinse.
Heat three tablespoons of the shallot oil in a heavy pot and fry the pork over a medium-high heat for 10 minutes until the fat has rendered and the pieces are lightly browned.
Add the garlic and five-spice, fry a minute, then pour in the Shaoxing wine and let it bubble for a minute.
Add both soy sauces, rock sugar, white pepper, star anise, cassia, water, and two thirds of the fried shallots. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook very gently for 1 hour 30 minutes.
Meanwhile boil the eggs for exactly seven minutes, cool them under running water, and peel.
Add the peeled eggs and cook uncovered for a further 30 to 45 minutes, turning them occasionally, until the sauce is glossy and coats a spoon.
Spoon generously over hot rice, halve an egg onto each bowl, scatter the reserved fried shallots, and serve with pickled daikon.

Notes

Lǔ ròu fàn is significantly better the next day, once the pork has absorbed the braising liquid fully and the sauce has deepened. It keeps four days refrigerated and freezes well without the eggs; add freshly braised eggs when reheating. The eggs can be left submerged in the sauce overnight, by which time they will be deep mahogany throughout with a fully seasoned yolk. Hand-chopped pork belly is the single thing that most affects the result, so ask the butcher for a piece with a good fat-to-lean ratio and chop it yourself. Fried shallots are sold ready-made at any Asian grocer and are a reasonable shortcut. Star anise is used sparingly here, unlike in Cantonese braising: two stars is right for this quantity. Pickled daikon is sold in packets at Chinese groceries and its sharpness is the counterpoint that makes the richness sustainable across a whole bowl.

The Gastrographer

Name: Lǔ Ròu Fàn
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Taiwan
Ingredients: 800 g pork belly, skin on, hand-chopped into 1 cm dice; 50 g fried shallots, plus 3 tbsp of their oil; 4 cloves garlic, lightly crushed; 2 whole star anise; 1 stick cassia bark, about 5 cm; 0.5 tsp five-spice powder; 90 ml light soy sauce; 80 ml dark soy sauce; 100 ml Shaoxing rice wine; 40 g rock sugar; 1 tsp white pepper, ground; 700 ml water or light stock; 6 large eggs, for the lǔ dàn; 4 portions steamed short-grain or jasmine rice; 100 g pickled daikon, sliced

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control