C:\ARCHIVE\RECIPES\REC-002
Grandmother's Braised Pork Over Rice (Approximation)
REC-002 · First made 19 OCT 2024 · Last updated 10 APR 2026
| Who ate it | Anyone who has entered the apartment on a Sunday since 2024 |
|---|---|
| Why kept | The reference smell of my grandmother's kitchen, in edible form. She has never measured anything; this is a transcription of watching her hands. |
| Final verdict | She says it is "not wrong," which from her is a medal. |
METHOD
- Render the pork belly in a dry pot, medium heat, until the fat runs and edges brown. Pour off none of it.
- Add garlic, then soys, wine, sugar, pepper, star anise. Stir until glossy and dark.
- Add water to just cover, then the fried shallots — they dissolve into the sauce, which is the entire secret.
- Simmer 75 minutes, lid ajar. Add eggs for the final 30.
- Serve over rice hot enough to steam the sauce upward toward your face. That steam is the recipe's actual deliverable.
WHAT CHANGED FROM THE ORIGINAL
She fries her own shallots every time and considers the packaged ones a moral compromise she permits me. I added the eggs from the version at her neighborhood shop; she pretends not to approve and always eats one.
MISTAKES ON RECORD
First attempt used lean pork out of some misplaced health instinct. Braised pork rice without fat is a soup with regrets. Belly or nothing.
INGREDIENTS
- 600 g pork belly, cut into 1.5 cm dice (knife work matters; no mincing)
- 3 shallots, sliced thin and fried crisp (or good store-bought fried shallots, she uses both, it's fine)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice wine
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp white pepper, and then a little more
- 1 star anise
- 2 soft-boiled eggs, peeled, sacrificed to the pot
- Water to just cover
- Fresh short-grain rice, non-negotiable
FILE CONNECTIONS
RELATED PLACETaipei
RELATED MEMORYOpen the entry behind this recipe →
NOTES
The smell this makes in a kitchen is documented in ENTRY 0039. Cooking it in Shanghai makes my apartment smell like her building in Taipei for about six hours, which is the cheapest available form of teleportation.