Food, Recipes

Taiwanese Pork Rice Recipe ( 魯肉飯 / 滷肉飯 )

3 Comments


Photo by Yohmi via Flickr

When I think about childhood, I immediately remember mom’s home cooking. When I think of comfort food, I don’t think of meatloaf and fried chicken like many other Americans – I think about Taiwanese street food. One of my favorites is a savory, flavor packed pork dish that’s quite simple to make at home.

Back in the motherland you can get Taiwanese pork rice (魯肉飯 / 滷肉飯 / lu rou fan) in any street market and in many Taiwanese style restaurants. I haven’t found it here in Austin, Texas so I have to make my own using mom’s recipe.

The ingredients are fairly standard and with the exception of fried shallots, you can find them in any American style supermarket. The shallots can be picked up at any Chinese grocery store such as MT supermarket.

This recipe can probably feed 6 people… you don’t need much pork because it’s so full of flavor.

Ingredients:

  • 1.25 lb ground pork
  • 1 bunch green onion
  • 1 yellow / white onion
  • 4 tbsp fried onion / shallots
  • 2 table spoon Kikkoman soy sauce
  • 6 table spoon water to dilute soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon rice vinegar to make it sweeter

(you can add a little more soy sauce, this mix tends to come out on the slightly less salty side – but you will be reducing this liquid later so it gets salty)

Preparation:

  • Mix soy / water / rice vinegar (taste should be slightly sweet and not overly salty)
  • cook white onions until translucent
  • add in pork – stir and cook til not pink
  • add in fried shallots / fried onions
  • add in soy / water / rice vinegar mix
  • add in green onions (i think you can do this after simmering too)
  • stir then simmer with the cover on for 10 mins (the longer the better)
  • put on top of a bowl of rice and eat

This mix can be frozen pretty easily and microwaved. It also does well in the refrigerator for a few days. I think the secret is getting it perfect is getting the sauce right and the type of shallots you use. This dish is very inexpensive so it’s great for foodies on a budget – (in Taiwan you can get a bowl of this for about a dollar).

Have you tried out the recipe? Let us know in the comments!

Happy Tasting,
Peter

3 thoughts on “Taiwanese Pork Rice Recipe ( 魯肉飯 / 滷肉飯 )”

  1. I wanted to thank you for this recipe. Made it tonight and my family ATE IT UP! We’re a biracial family and getting our kids to eat food that is of Asian background can be a challenge at times. Not this dish it was demolished, i still have enough for my lunch tomorrow 🙂

    thanks again

  2. @Duan – thanks! I’m glad that your kids loved the dish! True, I didn’t think of it as being very palatable to most American taste buds – who doesn’t love pork and rice ?

Comments are closed.