What it is
Bu rou (卜肉) is pork tenderloin cut into long strips, battered and deep-fried, with a crisp coating and tender meat inside. It is a Yilan County dish, and Sanxing Township (三星鄉) is the place most linked with it. Yilan cooks fry vegetables the same way and call them bu cai (卜菜).
Where it came from
The name is local. Elsewhere in Taiwan 卜 is not a cooking word, but in Yilan Hokkien it means to deep-fry. The word is thought to come from the Hakka 烰 (poˇ), kept by Yilan families of Hakka descent who now speak Hokkien (福佬客).
It was home festival food. The women of a household used to fry it, together with cakes and other fried dishes, for festival offerings, and fewer do so now. It also belongs to Yilan's banquet (辦桌) cooking, alongside gaozha (糕渣) and xi lu rou (西魯肉). Local historian Chuang Wen-sheng (莊文生) links its heavy, high-energy character to the farming families of the past, whose work was hard, and to Yilan's cold winters.
How it is made
The tenderloin is trimmed of sinew and fat, then sliced into long strips. These are seasoned and dipped in batter. One description lists flour, potato starch and egg, with sugar and salt for seasoning. The strips are then deep-fried until cooked through. Many versions taste noticeably sweet.
How to eat it
It is eaten hot as a snack, often dipped in pepper salt (胡椒鹽) or sprinkled with sesame. Visitors to Sanxing tend to pick it up on the same trip as the town's spring onions and the Qingshui geothermal park (清水地熱). Not everyone likes it: some diners find the batter too thick or the taste too sweet.
Around Taiwan
- North
- Yilan is the home of bu rou. In Sanxing, Weizhenxiang (味珍香卜肉店) on Sanxing Road sells it, and in Luodong (羅東) Xiaochun Bu Rou (小春卜肉) fries Taiwanese pork loin in a flour coating.
