![]() “You can really smell when it’s frying,” Erway said. With that in mind, I selected two 8-ounce chops to serve four as part of a meal.įor the marinade, I whisked together a dynamic mix of soy sauce dry, clean-tasting michiu (Taiwanese rice wine) sugar salt and five-spice powder, the fragrantly sweet and licorice-y seasoning that, according to Chinese lore, represents the five elements of the cosmos-earth, fire, metal, water, and wood. Also, their bone is conveniently located at one end of the chop, making it easy to maneuver a meat mallet around it.Ĭhen mentioned that when the chops are prepared at home, they’re often cut into strips after frying and served family-style. Rib chops, with their mix of light and dark meat, were my top pick because they are tender and juicy. By the time they were pounded 1/4 inch thick, all the cuts offered loads of surface area for the marinade and starch to cling to. ![]() I tried a few different chops: blade, center cut, and rib. ![]() Including the bone for serving also makes for a splashy presentation. The bone contains superflavorful meaty bits that are great for nibbling and also helps prevent the meat from curling in on itself during frying. Numerous bone-in pork chop cuts are used to make zha paigu (the significance of pork in Taiwanese cuisine can’t be overstated-it’s a principal source of protein and a hugely important domestic product). It all adds up to pure comfort, and I couldn’t wait to come up with my own recipe for zha paigu. Sweet potato starch is a big part of the magic: It fries up remarkably sturdy and crunchy-tap the crust with a fingertip, and you’ll hear just how crisp it is-yet it feels light and shattery on the tongue. Lift the chops from the sizzling oil to reveal an expanse of juicy, tender meat encased in an exceptionally crispy, tawny-brown crust. While there are different ways to make zha paigu, Chen and Erway concurred that a common approach goes like this: Pound bone-in chops thin soak them in a savory-sweet five-spice-infused marinade dredge them in coarse sweet potato starch and deep-fry them. It’s just everywhere,” explained Cathy Erway, the James Beard Award–winning author of The Food of Taiwan: Recipes from the Beautiful Island (2015), when I contacted her to learn more about the chops. That’s because the chops are found mainly in cities, where they’re enjoyed by working folks and train commuters in paigu fan (a plate or bento box containing zha paigu, rice, and vegetables). Growing up in the countryside, Chen didn’t experience her first zha paigu until she started working in Taipei.
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