This was actually one of the most delicious things I’ve ever made.
At first glance this seems to be simply rice with slices of pork belly and aubergines laid over the top for roughly 45 minutes of steaming, and indeed a second glance does very little to dissuade those first impressions. However it’s just magnificent. Here it was accidentally combined with leftover cabbage from a previous meal (https://foodfoodeateat.co.uk/oyster-sauce-chicken-with-celery-and-peanuts/) , but as it happens this turned out to be a quite perfect accompaniment and the combination should be replicated whenever possible.
The rice is gently seasoned, but the aubergines and pork are unaltered. I believe that it’s OK to double layer the veg and meat, although there is certainly some subtlety to consider with the layering the toppings up, how they impart flavour to each other and how the order of the stacks may have an impact. Indeed what is certain is that the steaming brings out a wonderfully savoury pork flavour which is imparted to the rice and contributed to making this so unexpectedly good.
All this alone may all be a little bland, and I stress the may in this statement as actually I believe I would happily eat the above on its own, however what truly makes this magical is the hit of salt from the garlic and soy sauce dip.
I diverged from the recipe slightly by frying the chopped garlic for 30 seconds or so to aid digestion, but then added it to the soy sauce and a splash of sesame oil. Keeping it separate rather than sautéing it into a sauce coating the pork allows you to easily mix up the flavours and choose exactly how you want to eat. The steamed aubergine is a bit of a revelation when dipped in this, truly bringing sense and order to a vegetable that I have previously been content to disregard.
Really quite excellent.
From Every grain of rice, pg. 264,