Food, travel, recipe & sights

Long time ago, before we have refrigerator to store our foods, we have to cure them withsalt to preserve them. During festivals, my mom will offer boiled chicken and a slice of pork to the ancestors. Usually, they taste bland and there are plenty of leftovers.

Sometimes, the chicken ended up being fried with soya sauce. And the pork will be seasoned with lots of salt and left in room temperature. The salt prevent the meat from spoiling but somehow, the meat has a distinct smell. After two or three days, mom will deep fry the pork, making it a lovely kiam bak (or salted pork).

Nowadays, I miss that kind of pork. So, I try to re-create them on my own. Of course, I dare not store meat at room temperature for days. It may turn green and toxic! LOL. So, what I normally do is to buy a slice of fillet pork. In Hokkien, the butcher call it ‘eu chee bak’ or kidney meat because this part of the meat comes near the belly. It is the softest part of the whole pig and costs more. You can find these beautiful long roll of meat at the frozen section where the non-halal meats are.

Season the pork (about 500gm) with :

• 4 tablespoons of Shao Hsing Wine
• 1 tablespoons of fish sauce
• generous amount of pepper
• 2 tsp salt

Leave the pork overnight to marinade or leave in room temperature for several hours. Deep fry.

Slice the meat thinly and serve with white rice or porridge.

Remember to cook the pork really thorough. If you prefer, steam it first before deep frying to ensure that it is cook through. Normally, I will put the slice of pork on top of my rice cooker while cooking rice. The juice will drip into the rice and give it a nice aroma. After steaming, then only I deep fry it for a while to brown it.