Braised Pork with Dried Mustard Greens

This dish — known locally as 'dried-vegetable braised pork' — layers Shaoxing's dried mustard greens with pork belly and steams them at length, so the greens soak up the meat's richness and the pork takes on their savour.

The dried greens, salted and sun-cured from mustard, were a tribute food by Ming-Qing times; quarry workers, dockhands and boat-haulers who sweated heavily relied on the salty greens both to replenish salt and to stretch scarce meat, giving rise to the dish.

It is served as a hearty main at banquets and family tables, especially good spooned with its juices over rice.

The mellow fragrance of the dried greens against the unctuous pork makes it a signature Shaoxing dish steeped in regional nostalgia.