Wrinkle meat with mussel

Wrinkle meat with mussel, 淡菜皱纹肉, Dan Cai Zhou Wen Rou [Photo/js.ifeng.com]

Wrinkle meat is also known as "tiger skin meat" and "fried boiled pork". It is a traditional Nantong dish. The dish is first made by primary processing of cooked pork, and then it is put into oil-bath at high temperature until the pork skins become fluffy. Part of fat is then expelled. After the meat is braised in soy sauce and steamed, the pork skin shows wrinkles like ripples of lakes and the meat become tender but not greasy. Mussels are then added to cook together, which not only makes for the delicious taste of mussels into the meat, but also increases the nutrition of multiple mineral substances and vitamin. The final dish is extremely tender and delicious. The pork skin is like amber and the meat is like jade, standing as a wonderful dish of pork meat. Wu Daoxiang, a special-grade chef of the older generation in Nantong, is a master of cooking this particular dish.