What it is
Pork knuckle rice (豬腳飯) is a plate of rice under pieces of braised pork leg, with skin, fat, tendon and meat, and a ladle of the dark, sticky braising liquid. Shops may offer several cuts. The trotter (kha-tsiam in Taiwanese) is mostly skin and tendon, the hock (tiong-khoo) has more meat, and the hind shank (thui-khoo) has more fat and thicker skin.
Where it came from
Pork leg has long been food for special occasions in Taiwan. Birthdays were once marked more often with trotters and long, uncut wheat noodles than with cake, the noodles standing for long life. Pork knuckle noodles are also eaten to shake off bad luck, for example after a hospital stay, and people released from prison would step over a charcoal stove and then eat a bowl. A fortune teller quoted by TVBS suggests the habit began when meat was scarce and kept for festivals and weddings. In a leap sixth month, married daughters take pork knuckle noodles to their parents to add years to their lives.
The best-known local style comes from Wanluan (萬巒) in Pingtung, a township with several Hakka villages. Accounts differ on who started the trade there, but many credit Wang Yi-ti, a Fuzhou native who settled in Pingtung in the late 1940s. The Haihong (海鴻) restaurant, opened in 1949, is counted as the earliest shop. A reported visit by President Chiang Ching-kuo in about 1980 made Wanluan's knuckle known across Taiwan.
How it is made
The skin is scraped free of hair and the leg is blanched. For the braised style served on rice, the pieces are often fried first, then simmered in soy sauce, sugar and spices, sometimes with Chinese medicinal herbs. Wanluan shops use only front legs, keep the tendons in, chill the meat in iced water and braise it with herbs including star anise and cassia twig. Some shops braise for a few hours, others all day. A second style simmers the knuckle in water until the broth turns milky.
How to eat it
Pork knuckle rice is an everyday lunch. Spoon plenty of sauce over the rice and add braised bamboo shoots, a fried egg or a bowl of soup. Say which cut you want if the shop offers more than one. For a birthday or a fresh start, order pork knuckle noodles (豬腳麵線) instead.
Around Taiwan
- Kaohsiung
- Liang Chia Pig Knuckle (良佳豬腳) in Sanmin has served knuckle braised with peppery Chinese herbs for about 30 years, over rice from Hualien with crisp braised bamboo shoots.
- North
- In Taipei, the Michelin-listed My Tsao serves its sticky braised knuckle with white wheat vermicelli rather than rice.
- Central
- Taichung has several well-known shops. Fu Din Wang braises trotters, hock and leg in a soy-based marinade for up to four hours, while Fu Juang Yuan keeps whole trotters simmering all day.
- Hakka
- Wanluan in Pingtung, a township with Hakka villages, has a street of pork knuckle restaurants. In 2004 the county paved it with motifs of Hakka indigo shirts, betel nut and pork knuckle.
