烟笋腊肉 Spicy Smoked Pork

Pinyin: yān sǔn là ròu

This spicy smoked pork is to die for. It reminds me a lot of dried beef (it is in fact basically dried pork), it's salty and has a nice cured meat flavor to it. I'm sure it's incredibly unhealthy for you, but hey you only live once right?

The dish is composed of slices of this smoked pork, a rather strange kind of dried mushroom and of course peppers that give it that added kick. The pieces of pork are really half meat and half fat, the fat is what adds the most excellent flavors to the dish and if you want to be healthy it's easy enough to avoid eating.

This style dish/meat is quite often served at Hunan style restaurants. There are many dishes available that use the 腊肉 and you really should try it. Again probably isn't the healthiest, but if you like smoked fish, or beef jerky and can stomach spicy things this is the dish for you.

培根高丽菜 Stir Fried Cabbage and Bacon

Pinyin: péi gēn gāo lì cài

The first smell and first bite of this dish were quite amazing. The cabbage was cooked but still crunchy and best of all it was coated in lovely tasty bacon grease. The pieces of bacon were a nice touch and gave me something to look forward to. In fact this dish was a surprising treat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One thing to remember about this dish however is that once it becomes cold it just ain't as good.