A few days ago I received this gift from a dear friend. It is a type of dry cure, lean pork leg only made in one small town (沅陵 YuánLíng) in the west of Hunan, China. A fairly remote place. The meat is known as 晒兰 shài lán and is rarely sold outside the town.
Avocado for scale
Normally, it is cooked with Hunan's beloved chilli peppers, soy sauce and rice wine and served as one dish alongside others in a family meal..
Tonight, however, I did something different. Probably sacrilegious to the good people of Hunan. Thinking of Xi'an hamburgers, I substituted the pork for the more usual lamb or beef in Xi'an. With the requisite green and red chillies, etc.
I ate three.
