Guts and Gusto
On a balmy evening at the end of the millenium, John and I sat on the terrace of a restaurant by the Szechunghsi Hot Springs near the southern tip of Taiwan and looked out over the valley below. It had been a near perfect day—despite the keen interest John’s hairy chest had attracted from the kids—and we were looking forward to a romantic dinner before returning to our special suite (it had a round bed and the private bath tapped directly into the hot springs). We had little time together because it was nearly impossible to prize John away from his work. Dinner called for something special.
I ordered what I thought was duck, judging from the pictograms on the menu, although it might conceivably have been a kind of soup. It turned out to be neither. It was pig’s intestines.
They came in a slightly sweet and sour sauce delicately flavoured with fragrant coriander and were quite simply the best dish we had eaten in Taiwan until then (the experience of Chinese banquets was yet to come). So unsurprisingly John clapped his hands with glee when he spied chitlings (pig’s intestine) at the local farmer’s market. I could not promise him that I would be able to recreate the delicate dish we had sampled in Taiwan, but I tried my best. After a bit of trawling on the web, I assembled a recipe which I think is mainly Vietnamese. The result was OK, if a little cruder. In keeping with the topic of head-to-tail eating, I made another dish with various bits of rind I had kept in the freezer from my experiments with pig’s heads and trotters. Add a simple vegetable dish and plain rice and it makes a passable far-eastern dinner.
Sweet & Sour Pig’s Intestine250g chitlings, cleaned & par-boiled for 30 min; 1 onion, sliced; 3 cloves garlic, crushed; 1 tbsp soy sauce; 1 tbsp fish sauce; 1 tbsp sugar; black pepper; ½ pineapple, cut into flat bite-sized chunks; dash rice vinegar (optional); ½tsp cornflour to thicken (optional, stir into the sauces); small handful coriander; green from 2 spring onions.
Fry the sliced chitlings in a hot wok with the onions and garlic until they start to take a little colour then stir in pineapple followed by the sauces. Take off heat, stir in herbs and serve.
Sticky pork rindThis is based on BBQ Indonesian ribs which I have written about elsewhere on the blog.
250g leftover pork rind from boiling trotters, heads, belly etc.; pinch hot chilli powder; 2 cloves garlic, crushed; 1.5 tbsp palm sugar; 2 cm ginger, crushed; 1 small onion, grated; 2 tbsp soy sauce; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp tamarind extract; 1tsp ground tumeric
Fry the rind in the wok to heat through (careful, it can pop explosively), add the combined ingredients, cover and simmer 20 minutes or until guey and sticky.
Spring Greens in Oyster sauceThis dish is best made with broccoli, but I didn’t have any.
250g spring greens or green cabbage; 1 clove garlic, finely sliced; 2tbsp oyster sauce; 1tsp soy sauce; black pepper; ½tsp sesame oil.
Prepare a large bowl with ice water, bring a large pot of water to the boil. Blanch the cabbage/greens for 1 minute then drain and plunge into the ice water. This preserves the vibrant green colour. Fry the garlic in a hot wok until coloured, add the cabbage for 2 minutes and stir in the sauces and seasoning.
Tags: 'Round the World Recipes, Tag Index
Denni