Chinese Bacon & Japanese Ankake Don

In the restaurant the pork belly was hung from the ceiling like smoked meat but. It wasn't smoked, just hung there to dry. Marinated with Shaoxing rice wine, prickly ash (sansho), and soy sauce, it was hung there for about a day, apparently like many Chinese does on the 8th of December, according to the moon calendar.

Later the bacon was thinly sliced, and chef was thinking of a special dish for this week's dinner. I am so looking forward to seeing how it will come out.

Before that at lunch, he tried to use the bacon to make a Japanese Don for the staff. Lotus, minced meat, Chinese cabbage, and freshly "smoked" bacon under the roof. The aroma from the bacon smelled good in the thicken gravy that topped on the rice.

The enjoyment one has with sophisticated Chinese cuisine is it excites your imagination. Without the original ingredients seen in the dish yet one can feel the existence with the smell, the flavor, or the aroma.

He is a craftsman.