🍽️ Wuxi Spareribs

Sweet braised ribs, Wuxi home-style.

Wuxi Spareribs are the emblematic dish of Wuxi, a city in Jiangsu known for its sweet-leaning Jiangnan braises. Pork spare ribs are simmered long and slow with soy sauce, rock sugar, rice wine and aromatics such as star anise and cassia bark. Wuxi tastes are famously sweet, so the ribs come up glossy red-brown, savory with a clear sweet edge, the meat so tender it slips off the bone with a gentle suck; the sauce is thick, glossy and layered. The method calls for blanching first, then a long gentle braise that drives the flavor deep into the bone. It is an everyday home-style staple in Wuxi and also a famed vacuum-packed souvenir, delicious hot or cold—soft and rich when warm, firm and sweet when chilled—best served over plain rice.