Hakka Pork Belly

Hakka are an ethnic Chinese group that settled in south east Asia and are therefore a very common Chinese community in Malaysia. I grew up in Malaysia for the first 11 years of my life. Our family had a monthly ritual of going to the Hakka restaurant for Sunday lunch, which was then in a Chinese sports stadium. We always ordered the same dishes and my favorite was this pork belly dish called 'Hakka Pork Belly'!

Pork belly is a slab of bacon cooked for about 12 hours in soy sauce and whatever else and a preserved vegetable only available in China. The result is absolutely delicious. I go to the restaurant, now moved to the KL city, and order it every time!

There is another side to this story, I had gone to the Hakka almost immediately upon landing in KL but had forgotten to take a picture so when one of my father in law's acquaintances who is a senior lawyer in Singapore invited him to the Hakka for a meal and I was also invited, I jumped at the chance. The host is quite a guy, I will try and show you his very impressive card to the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs which is, this is taken from the Singapore web site spelling errors and all (he he) 'An international society devoted to fine dinning and the camaraderie of the table. For gastronomes and culinary professionals'.

Anyway I prevailed on him (and he very kindly agreed) to supplement the extensive menu he had planned with a dish of the Hakka pork belly.