Bamboo-Leaf Steamed Pork
Slices of pork belly marinated in soy sauce and rice wine, coated in coarse spiced rice flour, wrapped in fresh bamboo leaves and steamed until the fat is soft and the leaf scent comes through.
How to eat it
Each portion is a leaf parcel. Open it on your plate with chopsticks and eat the pork and the rice-flour coating together; the coating has soaked up the fat and is the point of the dish. Do not eat the leaf. The pork is fatty by design, so take it with plenty of plain rice and something green from the table. Parcels stay very hot inside for several minutes after arrival. The rice flour can be gritty if the kitchen has rushed it; a good version is soft and bound to the meat.
The story behind the dish
Steamed pork in rice flour is a common dish across central and eastern China, and the Huzhou hill counties give it a local twist by wrapping each portion in the bamboo leaves that grow in unlimited supply on the slopes. Anji is one of the largest bamboo-growing districts in the country, and its farmhouse cooking uses shoots, leaves and even bamboo tubes as containers. The leaf keeps the meat moist and lends a faint grassy scent that the plain version lacks. It is a rustic dish, served in village restaurants and at country feasts, and has become a standard order for visitors touring the bamboo forests.
For reference
Every kitchen does it its own way. What follows is the typical version — ingredients, heat and price shift from city to city and from one restaurant to the next, so take it as a guide rather than a fixed recipe.
If you have an allergy or something you can't eat, check with the staff before you order.