🍽️ Huangtian Braised Pork

Pork with taro, Hezhou banquet dish.

The Huangtian Braised Pork is a traditional banquet dish of Huangtian town in Hezhou, eastern Guangxi, featuring taro and pork layered together. Skin-on pork belly is parboiled, fried until the skin crisps and cut into thick slices; lipu taro is cut to the same shape and fried. Pork and taro slices alternate, skin-side down, in a bowl, sauced and steamed until meltingly tender, then inverted onto a plate. The pork is fat but not greasy, almost dissolving on the tongue, while the taro absorbs the meat juices and becomes starchy and sweet, each borrowing flavor from the other. Hezhou, in eastern Guangxi, blends Cantonese and Hunan influences, and this dish is a banquet must, signaling abundance. Labor-intensive and long-steamed, it stars at festivals and celebrations, and visitors to Hezhou find it at local restaurants.