This recipe is reported to be Mao's favorite. We ate a version at a Tiawanese restaurant that I thought was good, but not very authentic.

This recipe comes from Jing Luan, and was originally published in the OCAIR (Overseas Chinese Association for Institutional Research) Newsletter, Volume 6, March 2002, which I'm reprinting here in it's entirety. Somehow, I don't think you can get much more authentic that that!

The only changes I made were using pork belly instead of shoulder (even fattier is even betterer!) and using low-sodum soy sauce ('cause I didn't have dark).

I served it with steamed rice and kale with sliced garlic.

"Pork Shoulder Cut with or without bone (2 lbs.)
1 t salt
Fresh ginger (thumb size)
Fresh green onion (5 or 6 stems)
Five spice powder (1 teaspoon)
Five Star Anise (5 of them)
Sugar (1 tablespoon)
Dark Soy Sauce (2 tablespoons)
Rice Liquor (1 tablespoon)
Salt (1 teaspoon)

If you want to braise it with the red color soybean cake: Preserved Red Soybean Cake (huong do fu lu)

1. Cut pork into thumb-sized cubes. Add 2 cups of water in pot and add pork and salt. Brink it to a boil and let it cook for 1 hour on medium heat with lid closed. Scoop out the layer of oil floating on the surface.

2. Slice the ginger and chop up the green onion. Add the ginger, green onion, five spice powder, and five star anise into pot. Bring heat down to low with lid closed. Cook for another 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. If the pork is not tender, extend the cooking time.

3. Add dark soy sauce and sugar. Cook for another 10 minutes. At this time, make sure the broth is less than 1/4 of the contests and it is getting thickened. Gently stir the contents to let thickened broth cover all. Right before finished, add rice liquor and stir a little more.

Serve with steamed rice and other vegetables.

Tips: Timing is important. Make sure that the broth is not too much so that the most of the flavor is still in the broth. If it looks like a pot of soup, the broth is too much. If it looks like a stew, it is still a bit too much. The pork cubes should not be sitting in the broth. Do not use powdered ginger and green onion. Fresh ingredients are the key.

This is Mao's favorite dish. As a matter of fact, he liked it fat. Pork shoulder cut has some fat in it. If the pork is too lean, it won't taste as good. Most of the fat will be separated from the meat and float on the surface and get scooped out, but the fat texture part of the meat remains, which is both tasty and rid of fat!"