Love in a Bowl : A Cut of Pork Leg

To "cut into suoh ku suoh ku" in Foochow we write「斲蜀箍蜀箍」or「斲蜀躯蜀躯」where「斲」(Mandarin: zhuo2) is "derk" (doek) meaning to cut, chop, cleave etc.「箍」(Mandarin: gu1) or「躯」(qu1) both read "ku" (khu) in Foochow, both are quantifiers (量词) referring to the cut up parts of a (usually) longish-shaped portion of a slaughtered animal (or fish), such as a pork leg.

My Ngie ma (maternal grandmother) and my mother love to eat pork leg, cooked in various Foochow styles.

When my grandmother was visiting us, our third uncle, Pang Sing, would also drop by to have a meal with her. That would be the time when my mother would give each of them a big cut of pork leg, with skin and bone, for them to enjoy.

This kind of culinary cut is much favoured by the Foochows.



It is definitely a very generous cut or portion.

According to my mother, this kind of cut of pork for a good stew or soup, is more flavourful because it would bring out the softest of the meat and the most tasty of the soup.

The meat would just drop off from the bone.

Thus today, whenever we visit my mother she would make sure that we get our portion of love from her.