Steamed or Poached Belly Pork

My steamed belly pork, garnishyed with red leaved lettuce.

My frugal grandmother (Ngie Mah) trained us to eat both lean meat and the fatty parts, without any complaints at the table. Nothing should be wasted she said.

We were not Jack Spratt and his wife, a poem we learned from our primary school text book.

We used to laugh out loud whenever we thought of the poem

Jack Spratt could eat no fat, 
His wife could eat no lean, 
And so, betwixt them both, you see, 
They licked the platter clean.


In the olden days when there was no refrigeration in rural Sibu, the villagers would take turn to slaughter a pig, either once a month of once a fortnight. The owner of the pig would then bring the different parts of the pig for sale, usually on foot or by bicycle from door to door. A 60 kg pig for example could be snapped up by 30 families, especially after the sale of the rubber sheets. Some villages only saw the slaughtering of pigs once every three months for the Chinese festivals.

Grandma and Uncle Pang Sing would poach the belly pork and serve them with some salt.

The rest would be salted and kept in a jar, to be taken out and sliced thinly and steamed on top of the cooking rice.  This "stock" of salted belly pork would last for a few weeks.....until the next batch of fresh pork came around. 

I can never forget the aroma of that special dish.