In Chengdu Now, as Then, Less is More

Here's a sight not familiar to us from our time in Chengdu: slabs of pork belly set to hang for a time outside, in the cool damp chill.

In the mid-eighties flour, cooking oil, and other staples were rationed and meat, though eaten daily in many city households, appeared more often as a flavoring than as a main ingredient. A dish of huanggua rousi (stir-fried cucumbers with pork), for example, might include two cucumbers and at most two tenths of a kilo of pork, sliced thin enough to travel amongst the vegetable pieces. Because Chinese pork had (and has) so much flavor, we never wished for more meat.

Those days are gone, from the looks of apartment balconies all over town. Suspended from railings and clotheslines and strings strung between the backs of two chairs are fatty squared-off planks of pork -- larou, or bacon -- and links of plump, lard-dotted fresh sausages thick as a broomstick. Every Chengdu household, it seems, is taking advantage of the cold weather to cure its own pork.

The larou -- savory, salty, richly larded but not overwhelmingly greasy, deeply porcine -- is my new favorite pork product. Our first morning in town a vendor at an open-air market offered me a slice; it melted on my tongue, leaving a lovely lingering lick of smoke. We've had it as a cold starter -- simply sliced, again -- and several times stir-fried with sweet Sichuan leeks.

 

It's a dish that conjures the relative abundance of Chengdu's food stocks in the twenty-first century prosperity and its mid-eighties shortages all at once.

Each lusciously wok-crisped, smoky larou slice is luxuriant in its richness, but the meat is used sparingly -- sliced tissue thin, as all meat used to be, and balanced by a profusion of green, garlicky leeks. A palmful of halved dried chili peppers says 'Sichuan'.

Comments

[Liuzhou Laowai]

"a sight not familiar to us from our time in Chengdu"

You surprise me. I've been seeing it for near 15 years.

The mid-80s were 25 years ago!

[3hungrytummies]

I made some larou last year, it is the best thing to jazz up a vegetable dish!

[Chris]

Is "la-rou' a literal translation of "wax meat"? I've seen darker coloured versions of it and it is used in making flavoured rice in a hotpot, very popular in the winter. In the early days Mum made some in the basement, hanging strips of pork belly from the rafters!

[Lisa in Toronto]

Glad to hear you are eating well in Sichuan, but I had full confidence.

I am sorry that I do not know the name of the restaurant I want to recommend to you (if it is not yet demolished of course), but it is on Fuxing Lu, not too far from the Starbucks opposite the the Xinjiekou pedestrian mall.
I thought the food was delicious!

Here (http://www.analecta.ca/lisarr/archives/00000693.html ) is a photo of part of the sign.
Here (http://www.analecta.ca/lisarr/archives/00000694.html ) is a photo of the street sign.

And have you met the author of the Food and Drink Chengdu blog (http://eatdrinkchengdu.blogspot.com )? Her recommendations seem excellent. Oops you would need a VPN to view that where you are.

[Jonathan]

If you want some really good larou you should consider traveling over to Hunan province, where it's much more prevalent. I recommend western Hunan province, that's definitely your guys' kind of place. Love the blog!

[Pain Relief]

that makes me hungry.. I want to eat that..

[Medical Treatment]

Wow, looks mouth watering makes me feel hungry.

[Jennifer]

I see it beats out Roli Roti's porchetta!

[Baobabs]

This post makes me really want to visit Chengdu, would offer a nice culinary change from Beijing.

[Jessie]

Chris - the 'la' in 'larou' actually comes from the 'la' which is another word for the 12th lunar month of the year, referring, presumably, to the time of year at which they are traditionally made