What it is
Braised pork belly rice (爌肉飯) is a bowl of white rice topped with one large piece of pork, stewed in soy sauce until the skin and fat turn soft. The sauce soaks into the rice, and pickles or bamboo shoots cut the richness. Many shops in the south simply call it 滷肉飯 (braised pork rice), a name that in the north means rice with minced pork.
Where it came from
The name has several spellings. 爌, 焢, 控 and 炕 all stand for the same Taiwanese word, khòng. The Ministry of Education's Taiwanese dictionary prefers 炕, which means cooking slowly over a low flame until soft, and a 1943 article in the journal Minzoku Taiwan (民俗台灣) already used that character.
The food writer Yu Fu (魚夫) traces the dish to 封肉 (hong bak), a slow-cooked pork that emigrants carried to Taiwan and South-east Asia. Chen Shu-hua (陳淑華), writing on Changhua food, notes that 封肉 was a common banquet dish in the city's early eateries and restaurants.
Changhua is especially known for it. In 2018 Changhua City had more than 30 shops, some open only in the morning and others only late at night. The county government held a festival for the dish in 2011, and a food festival there in 2012 produced a 647 kg bowl that set a Guinness world record.
How it is made
Most shops use pork belly (三層肉, "three-layer meat"), cut into large pieces and simmered with soy sauce, sugar, rice wine and spices until tender. Many braise it in the same sauce as their minced pork rice. Changhua cooks also use the upper hind leg (腿庫). Some cut the fat and lean separately, then pin them together with a bamboo skewer so each piece holds its shape. The meat goes on the rice and the sauce is spooned over.
How to eat it
It is eaten at any hour, from breakfast to a late-night snack, and is one of the commonest lunchbox (便當) choices. Pickled cucumber or radish and shredded bamboo shoots are the usual sides. Some Changhua stalls offer a soft-yolked fried egg and a home-made chilli relish with spring onion and fermented black beans. Ask for 爌肉飯 or 控肉飯, or 滷肉飯 in the south when the menu shows a slab of meat.
Around Taiwan
- Kaohsiung
- Nan Feng Braised Pork Rice (南豐魯肉飯), in the Ziqiang night market in Lingya, has traded for more than 60 years. It sells a thick piece of pork with springy skin under the name 滷肉飯, with tangy pickled greens alongside.
- North
- In the north a close relative is 知高飯 (ti-ko rice), made with meat from the upper leg. The name is a pun on the Taiwanese 豬箍 (ti-khoo), a short form of the word for the cut around a pig's leg.
- Central
- Changhua is especially known for it. One old stall there uses the small lean core of the leg called "mouse meat" (老鼠肉), and local cooks skewer fat and lean into shape. In Xiushui and Hemei, a minced version with no fat goes by 肉臊飯.
