Food Sparks: Pork Belly in Shanghai 上海辣肉絲麵館的醬汁大肉

I read online a very well written Chinese article -- [陋巷美食], which meant “Gourmet Food in an Alley” -- about a noodle shop in Shanghai and its signature pork belly. The author’s description of the pork belly was a killer: “that piece of layered fat and lean meat was truly delicious; the fat soft but not greasy, the meat tender and not dried out; it melts in your mouth, filling it with a sweet fragrant soya flavor. 那肉真是好吃，肥瘦相間，柔而不膩，酥糯而不粉粑，帶點鮮甜的醬香，入口即化。” I urged a friend living in that city to check it out.. (To read the article [陋巷美食] by 鄭培凱, follow this link: http://barry1.cityu.edu.hk/han3/7/6/9/0/0/0/1/www.cciv.cityu.edu.hk/website/?redirect=/cheng_literature/cn/A155.php.)

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Since the article mentioned only the district where the shop was located (老西門) and some description of it, but not the name or address, it took some detective work on the internet to identify the place as the “Spicy Hot Shred Pork Noodle Shop辣肉絲麵館” (what a generic name). My friend went with his wife, ate there and reported back with some photos.

The noodle place was on a narrow one-way street in an old Shanghai neighborhood. Its size was about that of a parking space for a single automobile, with stoves on one side and just enough room for kitchen work. Customers ate outside at a few tables on the sidewalk.

My friends arrived before the lunch crowd. The shop owner immediately recognized them as visitors and said that he would decide for them what to eat – one bowl of yellow crocker noodle soup (黄魚麵), one bowl of pork liver noodle (猪肝麵) and an order of the signature pork belly in brown sauce (醬汁大肉).

Yellow crocker was a favorite fish in the Shanghai area. With demand outstripping supply, large yellow crocker became scarce and expensive. This shop stir fried lightly battered filets of fresh small crockers for the noodle soup. It was so good that my friend’s wife finished the whole bowl by herself. The pork liver noodle was good too. Pork liver was sliced not too thick, and stir fried with diced bamboo shoot. The white noodle had a slightly chewy texture as good noodle should.

The star of the meal was the pork belly. The large piece draped across a medium sized plate. The sauce was slightly sweet which was typical of Shanghaiese cooking. The belly was cooked perfectly -- the fat just melted in the mouth without feeling greasy; the lean meat of the belly absorbed the fat during the cooking, and was tender and flavorful. My friends could not stop eating until the whole piece was gone. That was pretty amazing for two people who usually watched their diet.

It was a big lunch. My friends finished all three dishes. The delicious meal came to RMB$64, which was about US$10. They were so happy with the food that they went back for a reprise. On their second visit, they paced themselves and packed most of the pork belly home.