Guo Bao Rou (Sweet and Sour Pork)

Guo bao rou is a famed northeastern dish of pork tenderloin slices coated in potato-starch batter, twice-fried until golden and crisp, then tossed over high heat in a sweet-sour sauce of sugar, vinegar and ginger, golden in colour, crisp outside and tender within, appetisingly tart.

The dish, originally called "guo bao rou" (pot-exploded meat), is said to have been created by Zheng Xingwen, head chef to the Daotai prefect Du Xueying in late-Qing Harbin and honoured as the "ancestor of riverside cuisine." To suit the palates of Russian guests, Zheng reworked the traditional salty-savoury "crisp-fried meat slices" into a sweet-sour dish, and the similar sounds of the characters for "explode" and "wrap" gradually turned the name into today's "guo bao rou."

Best served straight from the wok, the crisp shell and tender centre are cloaked in a sweet-sour sauce coating every slice, making it the headline dish of any northeastern restaurant and a banquet favourite.

The double-fried crisp shell, the bright golden colour and the pleasing sweet-sour glaze are what set guo bao rou apart from ordinary sweet-and-sour pork.