Delicately holding a thin slice of pork belly with rind in both hands, the chef lays it in a porcelain bowl, as if handling an exquisite artifact. “The quality of the pork belly is the key. We use pork rinds with four to five layers of lean meat and fat,” the cook says, gesturing at the salty red and white meat strands. “You also need the rind; the rind is essential.” He was explaining how to cook fenzhengrou, (粉蒸肉) or “ground rice steamed pork”, a common dish in pretty much every southern household in China.

Eileen Chang (张爱玲), the great female writer and symbol of 1940s Shanghai, loved fenzhengrou so much that she often wrote it into her fiction. “If the Cantonese and Hunan beauties with deep-set eyes and thin cheeks were sweet and sour ribs (糖醋排骨),” Chang wrote, “then Shanghai women would be fenzhengrou.” In Chinese, the very word fenzhengrou conjures up images of curvy ladies with powdered, rosy cheeks and radiant fair skin, much like 1930s Shanghai calendar girls, casting seductive glances from inanimate posters. If you are a carnivore, the dish fenzhengrou is just as alluring as any plump Oriental poster girl.

Many love fenzhengrou, believing it to be more hearty and satisfying than most meat dishes to be found in Chinese cuisine. The main ingredient is pure, quality pork belly. Crowned “the king of all ingredients”, pork was referred to as “sacrificial” and has a chapter dedicated to its usage in The Suiyuan Cookbook (《随园食单》), the gastronomic classic written by Qing scholar Yuan Mei (袁枚). “Use half-lean and half-fatty meat, stir-frying rice powder till golden, mix with a sweet sauce, and steam with cabbage leaves on the bottom,” wrote Yuan. “Not only is the pork delicious, but the cabbage is as well…A signature Jiangxi dish.”

Unsurprisingly, even though this dish originated in Jiangxi, it soon spread across Southern China, becoming a favorite food amongst many different regions, each adapting it and so leaving behind a variety of versions to suit local tastebuds. Depending on how the different spices and ingredients are rendered, the flavor can veer toward either spicy or sweet, while the overall texture and heartiness are maintained. The coating of the dish is essential. In the case of this article, the chef used a homemade spiced rice flour mixed with anise, star anise, and cinnamon stick (though a ready-made version is available in supermarkets). Along with the use of chili oil, the dish takes on a slightly spicy Hubei taste.

Naturally, Eileen Chang’s choices were the Hangzhou and Shanghai styles of fenzhengrou with lotus leaves. The fresh and earthy scent of lotus leaves infuse with the pork, setting it apart from other fenzhengrou recipes.

The dish has pedigree too. Legend has it that the Chongzhen Emperor (崇祯皇帝, 1627-1644) first fell in love with the dish in Henan on a trip down south. During the trip, the emperor ventured out too far and too late to return to his lodgings, so he stayed at a local inn run by a family surnamed Ding. Cordial as the Ding family were, they treated their guest to fenzhengrou, a special dish they usually saved for the New Year’s feast. The emperor was so taken by its taste that not only did he reveal his true identity to the Dings the next morning, he also appointed Ding as the imperial chef and brought him back to the imperial palace.

No matter which flavor or region, fenzhengrou’s charm always lies in its texture, a combination of the granular ground rice and the salty gelatinous pork belly. Once you flip over the bowl to see the dish in its final glory, you can see juices flowing down along the succulent slices. Try the recipe and pair it with a light vegetable dish, and before you know it, you’ll be craving this hearty dish all the time.

INGREDIENTS

• 500g pork belly with rind 带皮五花肉
• 30g spiced rice flour 蒸肉米粉
• 60g regular rice flour 米粉
• 20g thick broad-bean paste 豆瓣酱
• 15g smashed ginger 姜末
• 10ml chili oil 辣油
• 5ml hoisin sauce 海鲜酱
• 4ml oyster sauce 蚝油
• 3g chicken extract 鸡精
• 2g chopped green onion 葱末
• 1g black pepper 黑胡椒

STEP 1

Slice pork belly with rind into half-centimeter thick pieces. Season them in a large bowl with smashed ginger, chicken extract, and black pepper. Mix evenly. Add broad-bean paste, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, and chili oil. Stir to help set the flavors. Coat the slices with rice powder evenly.

STEP 2

Layer the seasoned and coated slices from one rim of the bowl around to the opposite rim with the rind facing the bottom. Insert two slices on each side of the row you just made, making sure the rind still faces the bottom. Don’t put left over slices on top of the pile, instead, start over in a new bowl.

STEP 3

Put the bowl in the steamer for 40 minutes.

If you use a rice cooker, use the steaming feature to cook it for about 50 minutes.

STEP 4

Last but not the least, presentation is critical, given that meat dishes tend to look sloppy.

Remove the bowl from the steamer. Place a plate over the bowl, hold the two containers tightly together and in a swift motion, flip them. Remove the bowl carefully to maintain the structure of the overlaying slices. Finally, sprinkle chopped green onion to add color, and your dish is ready to be served.

Recipe thanks to:

RED TOMATO CHUZHEN FANG (红番茄楚珍舫) 

36 Cuiwei Nanli, Wanshou Road, Beijing 

010-68215512 

Photographs by Cai Yi.