Oil-Passed Pork (Guoyou Rou)

Oil-passed pork is a signature Jin cuisine dish: pork tenderloin slices are coated in egg batter and flash-cooked in hot oil, then stir-fried over fierce heat with wood-ear mushrooms and bamboo shoots, yielding golden, crisp-edged yet tender slices glazed in a savory sauce.

Oil-passed pork originated in Shanxi folk cooking with a long history; by the Ming and Qing dynasties it was widespread in Taiyuan and Jinzhong, later becoming a requisite banquet dish and earning the title 'number-one Jin cuisine dish.'

Served piping hot straight from the wok, the golden crisp-edged pork slices in rich savory sauce are eaten with steamed rice or steamed bread—one of Taiyuan's most-ordered dishes at home banquets and restaurants.

Defined by the golden batter-fried tenderloin stir-fried with wood-ear mushrooms, crisp outside and tender within, glazed in Jin cuisine's characteristic vinegar-touched sauce.