Sweet and Sour Pork

Cantonese sweet and sour pork (gu lao rou) is crispy fried pork pieces in a glossy, balanced sweet-sour-savoury sauce with capsicum, onion, and pineapple. The sauce must be balanced — the Chinese name gu lao means old-fashioned vinegar-sweetness. The commercial orange-red sauce of Chinese takeaways is a bastardisation. The authentic sauce uses Chinkiang vinegar, sugar, ketchup in small amounts, and pineapple juice.

Guangdong province, Canton (Guangzhou). Sweet and sour preparations appear in Chinese culinary literature from the Tang Dynasty. The Cantonese restaurant version became internationally standardised through the British-Chinese takeaway tradition.

Tsingtao lager — the clean Chinese lager alongside sweet and sour pork is the standard combination in any context.

Pork: shoulder, cut to 2.5cm dice, marinated with soy, Shaoxing, and egg white Double-fry coating: toss in cornstarch, fry at 180C until pale gold, rest, fry again at 195C until deeply golden and crisp The sauce: Chinkiang vinegar, tomato ketchup (a small amount), pineapple juice, soy sauce, sugar — balanced to equal sweet and sour The bloom: fry garlic briefly in oil, add the sauce, bring to a simmer, add a cornstarch slurry to glaze Capsicum and onion: par-blanched, added to the sauce at the last moment Toss the pork in the sauce immediately before serving — not in advance, or the crunch is lost