A Look at Stewed/Minced/Braised Pork Rice (滷肉飯)

Braised/stewed pork is an absolute favorite of mine.  Even though I grew up in the US, I have always had a huge love for stewed pork with rice (lu rou fan, 滷肉飯) from Taiwan.  Every time I go back to Taiwan to visit, I eat this almost every day.  It is my go-to when out shopping or when I'm at home and nobody wants to cook.  All my relatives know that all I could ever want to eat when I visit is bowls of stewed pork with rice.  (Click here to see the millions of images of different ones.)

The most common meaty parts that people use to make stewed pork is often the pork belly (or bacony part).  The nice and fatty cut of pork that renders so well after stewing for hours.  Lu Rou Fan is one of Taiwan's most famous dishes next to their beef noodles.  So what makes it so good?  It's simply a bowl of white rice topped with soft and tender pork with a savory sauce.  It's not only available from various small restaurants, it's also all over the night markets in Taiwan too.  Oh yes, it's also quite cheap at a bowl for about $1-2 USD!  People typically have it just so or with stewed eggs or pickled veggies on the side.

From http://reviews.noobcook.com/formosa-chang/

If you're ever in Taiwan, try Formosa Chang's (Hu Xu Zhang 鬍鬚張), which is supposedly the best one.  I've had it and I don't know if I'd rate it the "best", but it was delicious nonetheless.  Another way to find a good Lu Rou Fan is to hit up a busy restaurant district and see where there are long lines.  Oftentimes, the small shops with the longest lines have some of the best, hearty meals!  My uncle showed me this during lunch one day and I could see they'd bring out the huge stew pot and rice pot to the front and just keep scooping lunchboxes of it.  And of course, when in doubt, follow your nose!  The meaty stew that smells wonderful definitely tastes wonderful!

My own renditions of it.

  

Enough about the Taiwan ones now... I've attempted to make it on my own many, many times and I just can't ever get it quite as excellently soft and flavorful as the ones I've had in Taiwan.  It's a hard recipe to master if you're really trying to make the best melt-in-your-mouth stew!

Here are a few recipes I found online:

• http://www.food.com/recipe/lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-stewed-pork-with-hard-boiled-eggs-497671
• http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/07/taiwanese-meat-sauce-recipe.html
• http://taiwanduck.com/braised-pork-on-rice-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-style-food/

Each recipes talks about similar ingredients for creating a flavorful stewed pork.  My uncle in Taiwan cooks an awesome stewed pork.  He learned cooking from a talented grandma and he has his own restaurant in the Shanghai area now.  When he was cooking it one time, I watched him.  I was only in middle school at the time so I couldn't remember much.  The one thing I remember is that he cut up a huge amount of shallots and fried them in a layer of oil.  Then he scooped out all the fried shallots and fried the meat in the flavored oil.  Oh, it smelled wonderful!

While the meat can be ready in as little as 30 minutes, the trick is to let it simmer for hours so that it's very tender and flavorful.  Someday, when I perfect mine, I'll post a recipe.