沙茶牛肉 Tea Boiled Beef

Pinyin: shā chá niú ròu

Over the weekend, my dinner included some beef, which is actually pretty rare, pork is the meat of choice in China. While eating my dinner I remembered why I avoid beef, it’s tenderized to an almost comical point.

The powdered meat tenderizer that you buy in a supermarket is made from a combination of enzymes. Soaking the meat in the tenderizer or sprinkling it on top can break down the meat and make it more tender obviously. Surprisingly the enzymes are derived from pineapple, papaya, kiwifruit, and figs, and have a wide variety of medical uses.

This dish came to the table still cooking. The soup was based on tea and simple things like soy sauce and garlic. There wasn’t enough broccoli to satisfy me and the only other vegetables were a few hidden onions. The beef was tender to the point I wasn’t sure it could be called beef anymore.