Jiuzhuan Dachang (Braised Pork Intestines)

Jiuzhuan dachang is a celebrated Jinan dish of meticulously braised pork large intestine — ruddy, plump and tender, with sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty notes all meeting in a single bite.

It is said to have been created in the early Guangxu reign at the Jiuhualin restaurant in Jinan, first called 'red-braised intestine'. Because the process was as intricate as Daoist alchemy, it was renamed 'nine-turn intestine' after the 'nine-turn golden elixir'.

It is served hot as a banquet main, eaten fresh and often with rice or noodles — a dish for tasting the technical depth of old Jinan's Shandong cooking.

Recognize it by the glossy, ruddy segments of intestine nested one inside another and its hallmark balance — tasting sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty all at once.