Dongpo Meat

This is a famous dish in Hangzhou cuisine. It relates to a great poet named Su Dongpo in the Song Dynasty. When Su served as governor of Hangzhou, he had a dam built across the West Lake, which helped local farmers with the water irrigation. To express gratitude to Su, the local people visited him and brought him much pork and wine. Su accepted the gift and asked his cook to cut it into small cube-shaped pieces and braise it in soy sauce and wine. When it was ready, he gave it out to the laborers who had worked on the dam project. The pork was highly praised by the local people. A restaurant in Hangzhou copied this dish and named it “Dongpo Meat”. After that, the restaurant’s business grew dramatically and many other restaurants followed suit, thus spreading this dish far and wide.