Teochew Braised Pork Belly and Duck Rice (滷肉滷鴨飯)

Braising is often used extensively in the cuisines of Asia, particularly Chinese cuisine, where dark and light soy sauce  are the primary seasoning in the rich brown braising liquid. 5-spice and sometimes Chinese herbs may be used. Braised foods are usually meat/poultry based. Dried seafood and dried shitake mushrooms are also common main ingredients for braising. We usually eat braised foods with fluffy steamed rice because the delicious thick gravy goes very well with it. For my lunch yesterday, the delectable sauce was incorporated into the water for cooking rice to enhance flavour and aroma of the long-grained rice – hence the rice (in background of the photo below) is brown in colour.

The above photo is an ala carte set of braised meats – pork belly and duck with duck gizzards and liver.

I was undecided if I should have braised rice rice or kway chap but when the hawker told me that the big intestines were sold out, I dismissed kway chap and had the duck rice.

“While there are many variants, a common 5-spice mix are:
Star anise (bajiao, 八角)
Cloves (dingxiang, 丁香)
Chinese Cinnamon (rougui, 肉桂)
Sichuan pepper (huajiao, 花椒)
Fennel seeds (xiaohuixiang, 小茴香)

Other recipes may contain anise seed or ginger root, nutmeg, turmeric, Amomum villosum pods (砂仁), Amomum cardamomum pods (白豆蔻), licorice, Mandarin orange peel or galangal. In South China Cinnamomum loureiroi and Mandarin orange peel is commonly used as a substitute for Cinnamomum cassia and cloves, respectively, producing a different flavour for southern five-spice powders.

Five-spice may be used with fatty meats such as pork, duck or goose. It is used as a spice rub for chicken, duck, pork and seafood, in red cooking recipes, or added to the breading for fried foods. Five-spice is used in recipes for Cantonese roasted duck, as well as beef stew. The five-spice powder mixture has followed the Chinese diaspora and has been incorporated into other national cuisines throughout Asia.

Although this mixture is used in restaurant cooking, many Chinese households do not use it in day-to-day cooking.” – Wikipedia

An Kee Braised Duck Rice & Kway Chap.
Lunch for 2 persons – braised pork belly, braised duck and sides of duck gizzards and duck liver.

I was pleasantly surprised that we were given broth to go with our lunch. Hawkers seldom go through the extra mile these days. The soup was a little “bitter”, not entirely, but herbal kind of “kum kum” (tart) taste. The braising sauce was not overpowering which is good as I’ve said I’m sensitive to strong smell and taste and this fowl can be foul if not treated properly during the cleaning and cooking process. My friend Rick cn attest to that “no bad smell” because after we’ve eaten, he went to order a piece of nose! You know, bishop’s nose like the term for chicken’s backside! What do we call it for ducks? He said there’s absolutely no shitty aftertaste, but I abstained, lol…

The duck meat had good bite and bounce, same goes for the gizzard and liver. In the platter, I liked the braised pork belly best! The skin was rid thoroughly of any porky hair and the fat content ratio to meat was pretty “healthy”. I’ll go for a plate of braised pork belly and big intestines with plain rice or porridge on my future visits. And oh yes, I mixed the two chilli dips together and result was yumz!

An Kee Braised Duck Rice
Hong Lim Food Centre
531A Upper Cross Street, #02-18,
Singapore 051531.

Happy eating and bonding :)