Pork Belly with Anlu Fermented White Flower Cabbage

The dish brings together two Xiaogan-region specialties. Anlu white flower cabbage (Cleome gynandra) has been cultivated in Anlu with documented history since at least the Kangxi period: the Anlu County Gazetteer of 1665 CE records, 'white flower vegetable, also called fragrant vegetable, blooms small white flowers in summer; can be made into relish — the fragrance and flavour are outstanding; there are two varieties, red-stemmed and white-stemmed, the red-stemmed being superior; other places cannot compare, owing to the particular nature of the soil.' The Ming dynasty materia medica Shiwu Bencao also records the plant's medicinal properties, indicating cultivation predates the Qing records. In 2009, Anlu white flower cabbage was registered as an agricultural geographical indication product by China's Ministry of Agriculture. The inverted-bowl steaming technique (扣碗蒸法) is one of the oldest documented banquet presentations in Chu cuisine, and the dish has been codified as one of the inaugural provincial Chu cuisine standards.

Peel back the topmost layer of amber pork skin—it pulls in long, gelatinous ribbons with the quiet resistance of thick silk. The fat layer beneath has rendered to near-transparency and yields at the faintest pressure. The white flower cabbage is dark, complex, and tangy-salty, carrying a fermented grassiness that cuts through the fat like a mild vinegar but without the sharpness. Eaten together: the fattiest Chu cuisine dish feels light.

The transformation unfolds in two stages. First, deep-frying the soy-marinated pork: the skin layer contains abundant bound water from the marinade; when immersed in oil at 190°C, this water flash-vaporizes, forming steam pockets beneath the surface that burst through to create the characteristic blistered tiger-skin texture. Simultaneously, Maillard browning produces the amber color and complex aromatic compounds. Second, the long steam: sustained temperatures near 100°C cause collagen in the skin and connective tissue to hydrolyze fully into gelatin over 90 minutes, producing the melt-in-mouth quality. The fermented white flower cabbage acts as a natural fat sink: lactic-acid fermentation during pickling has broken down cell walls and greatly increased their surface area, so rendered lard flows into the vegetable matrix by capillary action during steaming—simultaneously de-fatting the pork and enriching the cabbage in a symbiotic exchange.