Minced pork rice

Minced Pork Rice served with pickles

Minced Pork Rice with other common Taiwanese dishes

Minced Pork Rice (Traditional Chinese: 滷肉飯 pronounced as “Lu Rou Fan” in mandarin and “Lo Ba Bung” in Min-Nan dialect) is a Taiwanese-style Donburi (rice covered in sauce) commonly seen throughout Taiwan and southern Fujian province. The flavor may vary from one region to another, but the basic ingredients remain the same: ground pork marinated and boiled in soy sauce served on top of steamed rice.

Etymology

According to Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字, Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters), The word “Lu(滷)” has the closest meaning to “cooking in thick broth or sauce.” This gives the term “滷肉飯” the direct meaning of “Rice with braised meat.” However, since several decades ago, some Taiwanese locals have mistakenly written the word “滷” into the homophone “魯”. Although in China, people still use the correct and original character, “魯肉飯”, the name with the later developed character, has become the most common title seen in Taiwanese restaurants and street vendors. Due to this widely accepted error, with the original meaning of the character “魯”, which is the ancient name for the province of Shandong, in April 2011, the Michelin Green Guide Taiwan wrote that the Minced Pork Rice originated from Shandong province, China. This confusion then led to a series a fierce debate in June, in which most Taiwanese insisted that Minced Pork Rice was in reality the true symbol of Taiwan, while others viewed it as a Chinese dish that caught on in Taiwan.

Preparation

As the origin of the flavor, the key to making Minced Pork Rice is undeniably the sauce. The most popular way of preparation seen in Taiwan is stir-frying the ground meat with sliced shallot in oil before the material is later on boiled in soy sauce. In the frying process, one may customize his unique flavor by adding some condiments such as sugar, rice wine, pepper and other spices. When finished, the dark-brown meat sauce is called “Rou Zao(肉燥)”. When Rou Zao is served with steamed rice, it would be the renowned Minced Pork Rice. Other than that, the sauce Rou Zao also goes well with noodles, soup, vegetables and many Taiwanese homemade dishes.

Regional varieties

While minced pork rice is referred to as one important icon in typical Taiwanese folk cuisine, the variety of methods to customize flavors is so wide that it creates considerable differences between regions. In southern Taiwan, where people name it by the sauce “Rou Zao Fan(肉燥飯)” instead of the meat, Minced Pork Rice is preferably served with pork with less fat. People in the north of Taiwan favor a greasier version of meat sauce with rice. In southern Taiwan, while “Rou Zao Fan(肉燥飯)” is seen on the menu indicating Minced Pork Rice, “Lu Rou Fan(滷肉飯)” remains on the very same menu, referring to another dish where braised pork belly covers the rice. The same rice with braised pork belly is known as “Hong Rou Fan(焢肉飯)” in northern Taiwan. Minced Pork Rice can also be found in China, and a wider selection of vegetables such as corn is eaten along with it.

External links

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