烧白 (shāobái) · steamed pork belly, shaobai

Measure Word

一碗烧白 wǎn

Meanings

1 steamed pork belly
2 shaobai

Made with

About the dish

川菜 Sichuan · 热菜 Hot dish

Slices of fatty pork belly with fried, wrinkled skin, slowly steamed over salty preserved mustard greens until very soft and turned out onto the plate. Very fatty but not greasy. The sweet version, 甜烧白, has sticky rice and red bean paste.

Characters

white (referring to the fat)

Examples

HSK 7-9

咸烧白下面铺着一层宜宾芽菜。

Xián shāobái xiàmian pū zhe yì céng Yíbīn yácài.

Savory shaobai has a layer of Yibin ya-cai underneath.

HSK 7-9

甜烧白夹着豆沙，甜糯化渣。

Tián shāobái jiā zhe dòushā, tián nuò huà zhā.

Sweet shaobai is layered with red-bean paste - sweet, sticky and melting in the mouth.

Tips

culture

烧白 is a pillar of 川菜 banquet cooking, especially at 九大碗 (nine-bowl) rural feasts in Sichuan and Chongqing. Two main variants: 咸烧白 (savory, over 芽菜) resembles Hakka 梅菜扣肉, while 甜烧白 layers pork belly with sticky rice and red-bean paste. Served belly-down in a bowl, then flipped onto the plate.