The origin and allusions of Dongpo Pork

Dongpo Rou is said to have been created by Su Shi (a native of Meishan City, Sichuan Province), a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty (one theory is that it was created by Su Shi's concubine Chaoyun to improve his diet when Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou). It is the earliest The birthplace is Meishan, Sichuan. The prototype is Xuzhou's gift of meat, which is one of Xuzhou's "Four Dongpo delicacies".

On February 1, the third year of Yuanfeng (AD 1080), Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou and served as deputy envoy of Tuanlian. He opened up wasteland and farmed his own land, so he called this place "Dongpo Layman". This is the origin of "Dongpo Pork".

While in Huangzhou, he cooked braised pork himself and wrote his experience in "Pork Eating Poetry". The braised pork cooked by Su Shi when he was in Xuzhou and Huangzhou was only influential locally and not very famous nationwide. The braised pork that is really famous and famous all over the country is "Dongpo Pork" when Su Shi was in Hangzhou for the second time.

On January 3, the fourth year of Yuanyou's reign (1089), Zhezong of the Song Dynasty, Su Shi came to Hangzhou, where he had been away for fifteen years, to serve as magistrate. In May and June of the fifth year of Yuanyou, heavy rains continued in western Zhejiang, Taihu Lake overflowed, and large areas of crops were submerged. Thanks to Su Shi's early and effective measures, the people in western Zhejiang survived the most difficult period. He organized migrant workers to dredge the West Lake, build embankments and bridges, and transform the old appearance of the West Lake into a new one.

The people in Hangzhou were very grateful to Su Shi for this good deed. Everyone praised him as a wise parent official. I heard that he liked to eat pork the most when he was in Xuzhou and Huangzhou, so during the Chinese New Year, everyone would carry pigs and wine to pay him New Year greetings.

After Su Shi received it, he instructed his family to cut the meat into cubes, cook it until it was red and crispy, and then distributed it to the migrant workers who participated in dredging the West Lake. After eating, everyone was amazed and sent him here. The meat is affectionately called "Dongpo meat".

External evaluation:

In 1956, Dongpo Pork was among the 36 famous Hangzhou dishes. In July 2021, it was selected into the provincial Tianfu Tourism Food Candidate List in Sichuan Province.

In December 2015, at the Sixth Member Congress of the Hubei Cooking and Hotel Industry Association, six local dishes in Huanggang City were recognized as Hubei famous dishes and Chinese famous dishes. Among them is Huangzhou Dongpo Pork.