>"cow yuck," thrice-cooked pork belly pot roast, 扣肉/釦肉

Memorial weekend. Are you BBQing?
If the weather doesn't cooperate, how about a little fatty pork belly pot roast?
Perhaps try a popular Hakka (客家) version on a bed of mustard greens?

Here's a simple 2-step recipe, which omits the first step some recipes recommend (hence "thrice-cooked");
1) boil the pork belly first,
2) then fry it,
3) then steam or braise it.
... then lay the slices on a plate atop prepared veggies.

Or, if you are like me who's not that ambitious, culinarily speaking, you should look for it in Chinese restaurants. The name of this dish is 梅菜釦肉 or 梅菜扣肉.

梅 (plum) 菜 (vegetable) 釦 (ring) 肉 (meat)

Mandarin: méi cài kòu ròu (mei2 cai4 kou4 rou4) (this pretty lady cooks with perfectly manicured nails)
Cantonese: muy choy kau yuk (mui4 choi3 kau3 yuk6) (noisy fun)
Hakka: (tk Hakka 梅菜) kiu nyuk

English translation? Good luck! It ranges anywhere from "Chinese bacon hotpot simmered with reconstituted salted plum leaves" to "pulled pork fat claypot stew with preserved vegetables." Pulled, because the character 釦 meaning "button" or "gold rim" is substituted by 扣 which originally means to "knock" or "pull." Alternatively, since this is a pork dish and you happen to hate beef, try uttering this appropriate sentiment, "cow yuck," which does seem to get understood most of the time.

And knock away.








First thumbnail image courtesy of Beifan.com