Red Crispy Pork, also known as Tengwang Pavilion Red Crispy Pork, is a traditional specialty dish from Jiangzhou. It is made using pork belly, eggs, water chestnuts, and other ingredients, through processes like frying and simmering, and involves several intricate steps.

This is a typical "scholar's dish." According to legend, it was personally cooked by the famous Northern Song official Wang Anshi during his wedding feast, and it has been passed down for over a thousand years.

The people of Jiangzhou often include this dish in celebratory banquets to enhance the festive atmosphere.

However, despite its legacy, even in Jiangzhou, few chefs know how to prepare it. The reason lies in its overly complex preparation process.

To complete this dish, from ingredient selection to serving at the table, at least seven steps are required, each testing the chef's skill and patience.

Specifically in ingredient selection, Red Crispy Pork has extraordinarily strict requirements. Its main ingredient is pork belly, but not just any pork belly will do; it must be pork rib meat with a fat-to-lean ratio of 3:7.

Only with such pork belly can the Red Crispy Pork achieve the effect of being aromatic and flavorful, rich but not greasy, and lean but not dry.

Once the meat is selected, the manufacturing process begins.

After cleaning and scraping large square pieces of pork belly, slice the fat and lean meat 5 millimeters from the skin and chop it into a paste; peel and mince the water chestnuts, then mix them with the meat paste, eggs, scallion and ginger juice, cooking wine, soy sauce, and MSG until sticky.

Then, lay the large slices of meat skin flat on a cutting board, cut a lychee flower pattern on the fatty side, marinate with fine salt, cooking wine, and scallion ginger water for ten minutes, then roll the skin so the fatty side faces out, and evenly sprinkle a layer of cornstarch on top.

Next, embed the marinated meat paste into the meat skin bit by bit, pressing it down with a knife to integrate the paste tightly with the skin.

Finally, smooth the surface of the meat paste with a knife and cut it into domino-sized blocks of 4.5 cm in length and 1.8 cm in width, creating the raw Red Crispy Pork.

With this step, the preparation is just complete, and it's time to start cooking.

First, clean the pot thoroughly and heat it, then add lard and heat it to sixty to seventy percent hot, toss in the prepared raw Red Crispy Pork, and fry until golden brown, then remove and drain the excess oil.

Pour out the excess lard from the pot, leaving a small amount of base oil, then add sliced scallions and ginger chunks to bring out the aroma, add the fried Red Crispy Pork, pour in some cooking wine, soy sauce, and fine salt, add two large spoonfuls of broth, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat.

While the Red Crispy Pork is simmering, boil another pot of water, blanch a few washed baby bok choy in the boiling water, remove and drain, then arrange in a circle around a round plate.

When the Red Crispy Pork is simmered until the skin is tender and the sauce is thick, add MSG for taste, remove the scallions and ginger, take out the Red Crispy Pork and place it in the center of the bok choy circle, pour the sauce over the pork, and finally sprinkle with coriander leaves to complete the dish.

It sounds simple, but to actually make this dish, even a skilled chef would need more than an hour to complete it.

Deng Zehang and Ma Wendong were responsible for selecting ingredients. Both locals of Jiangzhou, even if they hadn't tasted the dish, they'd surely heard of it. They quickly gathered all the prepared ingredients and seasonings.

Jiang Yu and Du Guangning didn't waste any words, briefly checked the ingredients, made sure nothing was missing, and got started from either side.

...

A cooking competition without suspense was unfolding in the second-floor kitchen, while the first-floor cafeteria had just started serving.

The girl at the front of the line looked drowsy; perhaps she got up too early to queue, as she couldn't help dozing off, and even now, her mind wasn't fully back.

Today, Chen Fugui, in charge of selling soup dumplings, couldn't help but shout, "Hey, hey! Classmate, wake up, it's mealtime!"

"Huh? Ah! It's mealtime?"

The girl, slightly chubby and likely a foodie, woke up immediately after Chen Fugui's shout, quickly wiping the drool from the corner of her mouth, apologetically said,

"Uh, classmate, I'd like a basket of soup dumplings…

I just thought they were sold out. Luckily, you called out, otherwise, I wouldn't have realized it was just a dream!"

"You're first in line—for others, the soup dumplings may be unavailable, but you'll definitely get some."

Chen Fugui deftly handed over a steaming basket of soup dumplings, then pointed behind him, loudly saying,

"In a few days, it'll be the beginning of Spring; Senior Brother Jiang is making spring rolls for everyone today—there are both grilled and fried ones. Everyone can try one later!

Remember the usual rule: buy according to your appetite, no wasting!"

Upon hearing this, the girl's eyes lit up, her face filled with joy, she said:

"Really? I love spring rolls, having one in Spring, and waiting for the peach blossoms... oh, it's so embarrassing!"

As she spoke, her face turned red, and she hurried off with the basket. Before leaving, she even cast a sidelong glance at Chen Fugui.

Chen Fugui, struck by that glance, shivered, slightly puzzled:

Why are you looking at me? I'm not a spring roll!

If Hu Zhihai were here, he would surely pat him on the shoulder and sigh:

"Brother, you're amazing. You're just like your boss, single by sheer ability!"

The girl in front just left, and the people behind were all excited. They had already heard Chen Fugui's loud voice!

Senior Brother Jiang actually made two different types of spring rolls for everyone, isn't that awesome?

Now, who among them doesn't know that any food made by Senior Brother Jiang is something they've never tasted before and is definitely delicious? There's no need to choose between these two types of spring rolls; they'll both definitely taste great!

The guys were, of course, overjoyed, happily discussing amongst themselves:

"Back home, we'd always make some spring rolls for the Start of Spring. I thought I'd miss out on them after coming to college, but I didn't expect Senior Brother Jiang to be so thoughtful and have them ready for us!"

"My family doesn't make them, but I've eaten them at small street stalls. They're crispy with one bite, and really quite tasty!"

"Forget street stalls, even the big restaurants in the city can't make them as good as Senior Brother Jiang. This time, I'm going to eat five!"

"I've tried fried ones but never had baked ones. This time, I want to try both!"

"..."

Compared to the cheerful guys, the girls were all frowning slightly, looking very conflicted:

"Wow, Senior Brother Jiang is so thoughtful! He even knows that us girls shouldn't eat too many fried foods, so he made an extra baked version just for us..."

"But, no matter if they're fried or baked, the spring rolls made by Senior Brother Jiang must be delicious. I can't bear to miss out on the fried ones, 55555!"

"I can't bear to either, so I plan to buy one of each. A bite of fried, then a bite of baked — this way, I should only gain half the weight, right?"

"Oh, don't worry, just eating one won't hurt, will it? At worst, we can play more badminton and sweat it out, and the weight will be gone!"

"Boohoohoo, then you'll find out that the fat is gone but muscles have formed — you'll turn into a buff Barbie..."

"..."

Although the girls' faces were full of dilemmas, when it was their turn to buy food, they appeared very decisive, as if they had never been conflicted about which type of spring roll to choose:

"One of each type of spring roll, and give me a braised egg and a bowl of lean meat congee with vegetables, thank you!"

"Fried, baked, I want one of each! And a bowl of eight-treasure congee with longan and lotus seeds, make sure to add sugar!"

"The same as hers, thanks!"

"..."

It's a good thing Jiang Yu wasn't here, otherwise, question marks would definitely be popping up above his head:

Last semester, these girls were always clamoring for low-fat meals. Now, worried about the oil in the fried spring rolls, he specifically made baked ones, and they want both?

So what was the point of him making two types of spring rolls? Did he think the kitchen staff in the dining hall were too idle?

Downstairs in the dining hall, the students were jubilant over the freshly made spring rolls, while in the second-floor kitchen, two woks were steaming away with "gurgling" sounds, emitting tantalizing aromas of meat filling the whole kitchen.

After a while, Jiang Yu saw that the time was about right, so he lifted the lid and gently poked with chopsticks. He hadn't even used any force before the chopsticks pierced through the skin and into the meat.

The Red Crispy Pork was already braised to perfect tenderness and flavor. Jiang Yu nodded to himself, added some chicken essence to the pot, stirred it well with a spoon, and then turned off the heat. He removed the ginger and scallions, tossed them into the trash, and neatly arranged the Red Crispy Pork piece by piece around a mound of bok choy, forming a pagoda shape.

After arranging all the Red Crispy Pork, he drizzled the thick sauce from the top of the tower, and finally sprinkled some cilantro leaves on the Red Crispy Pork. With that, the dish was completed.

On the other side, Du Guangning, seeing Jiang Yu finish the dish before him, didn't hurry. He let the Red Crispy Pork stew for a while longer before seasoning and plating the dish.

It must be said that although Du Guangning's plating was different from Jiang Yu's, it was also very exquisite.

He first placed the Red Crispy Pork skin-side down in a bowl, and after arranging it, he took a white round plate and inverted the bowl over it, so all the Red Crispy Pork was like a molded dish, with the skin facing outward to form a semi-circle shape.

Next, he arranged the boiled and drained bok choy on the other side of the plate, with the red and green contrasting sharply, making the presentation both striking and clean.

Then, Du Guangning poured the sauce over the Red Crispy Pork and sprinkled a few cilantro leaves on top.

With that, his dish was also complete.

After completing this, Du Guangning, full of pride, placed the wok on the stove, gestured towards Jiang Yu with a "please," and smiled confidently:

"Boss Jiang, the Jiangzhou Red Crispy Pork is ready. Please taste!"

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