Verified in Shanghai.
Hong shao rou (red-braised pork belly) is a signature dish of China; we have verified places to eat it in Shanghai. Start with where to eat Hong shao rou (red-braised pork belly) in Shanghai.
Hong shao rou is Shanghai's red-braised pork belly, cubes of skin, fat and lean meat simmered slowly in dark soy and rock sugar until the sauce turns glossy and the pork holds three distinct, tender layers.
Early Chinese texts describe meat simmered slowly in seasoned liquid as far back as the Qimin Yaoshu, an agricultural manual from around the sixth century, and the technique is closely tied to Dongpo pork, the braised dish associated with the Song dynasty poet Su Dongpo in Jiangnan cooking. Shanghai's version settled on pork belly, dark soy sauce for colour and rock sugar for a balanced sweetness, summed up locally as cooking with a soy sauce bottle in one hand and a sugar jar in the other. Restaurants across the city serve their own versions today, some adding bean curd knots, bamboo shoots or quail eggs to the pot.
Where to eat in Shanghai:
Where to eat Hong shao rou (red-braised pork belly) in Shanghai: the editor picks
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