P
Chinese · Sichuan Province
Sichuan Cold Sliced Pork in Garlic Sauce (Suan Ni Bai Rou)
Suan ni bai rou (蒜泥白肉) — garlic-pasted white pork — is one of Sichuan's most refined cold dishes: pork belly is poached in lightly seasoned water until just cooked, chilled, then sliced paper-thin and arranged on a plate. A pungent garlic paste (suan ni) dressing with chili oil, soy, and Chinkiang vinegar is drizzled over. The contrast between neutral white pork and aggressive garlic sauce is the point.
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I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
For the poach
600 g
pork belly
skin on, in one piece
Your own market
20 g
2 tbsp
Shaoxing wine
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
For the sauce
4 cloves
garlic
pounded to a smooth paste
Your own market
2 tbsp
light soy sauce
1 tbsp
Chinkiang vinegar
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tbsp
chili oil
adjust to heat preference
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tsp
sesame oil
Your own market
1 tsp
sugar
Your own market
To serve
100 g
cucumber
cut into thin strips
Your own market
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Place the pork belly skin-side down in a pot. Cover with cold water. Add the ginger slices and Shaoxing wine. Do not salt heavily. Bring to a gentle simmer and poach until the pork is just cooked through — a skewer meets no resistance and the juices run clear, not pink.
2
Lift the pork from the liquid and allow it to cool completely, then refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. The pork must be cold all the way through before it is touched with a knife — press the surface with a finger; it should feel firm and cold, not yielding.
3
Pound the garlic cloves in a mortar until reduced to a smooth, cohesive paste with no visible chunks remaining. This step is where the dish lives or dies: sliced or roughly minced garlic will not integrate into the sauce, and the coating across each slice of pork will be uneven — the paste must be seamlessly smooth so that it suspends in the dressing.
4
Combine the garlic paste with the light soy sauce, Chinkiang vinegar, chili oil, sesame oil, and sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the sauce is uniform. Taste: the garlic should be assertive, the soy and vinegar in balance, and the heat present but not dominant. Adjust chili oil only — the garlic quantity is fixed.
From the canon — Chinkiang vinegar (镇江醋, Zhenjiang hei cu, Zhenjiang black vinegar) is China's most celebrated vinegar — a dark, complex, aged rice vinegar produced in Zhenji… Chinkiang Vinegar (镇江醋 Zhenjiang Hei Cu) — The Black Vinegar of Jiangsu →
5
Using a sharp knife, slice the chilled pork belly across the grain into slices of 2–3 mm maximum. Each slice should hold its shape cleanly and show a neat cross-section of fat, meat, and skin. Arrange the cucumber strips across the serving plate as a base.
6
Lay the pork slices flat over the cucumber, skin-side consistent in orientation throughout. Drizzle the garlic sauce evenly over the pork immediately before serving — not before. The surface of each slice should carry a visible, even film of sauce.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Free-range pork belly with a pronounced fat-to-lean ratio and thick, gelatinous skin; single-variety raw garlic at peak pungency; artisanal Chinkiang vinegar aged for complexity; hand-pressed chili oil with whole Sichuan aromatics.
02
Estate — Good-quality butcher pork belly, skin on and untrimmed; fresh garlic from a reputable greengrocer; a reliable branded Chinkiang vinegar; a well-made commercial chili oil with visible sediment.
03
Market — Standard supermarket pork belly, skin on; fresh garlic from any source, provided it is firm and unpuckered; standard Chinkiang vinegar; any clear chili oil with honest heat.
04
House — The dish cannot be made with pre-sliced or skinless pork belly, pre-minced garlic, or balsamic as a substitute for Chinkiang; those substitutions alter the dish's identity rather than merely its grade.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. A skewer inserted into the thickest part of the poached belly meets no resistance and the juices run clear.
◇Touch. The chilled belly feels uniformly firm and cold to the finger — not yielding — before the knife is applied.
◇Sight. Garlic paste in the mortar shows no visible chunks; the mass moves as a single cohesive body.
◇Sight. Each pork slice, 2–3 mm thick, holds its cross-section cleanly without tearing at the fat-meat boundary.
◇Sight. The finished plate carries an even, unbroken film of garlic sauce across every slice of pork.
◇Where it lives or dies. The garlic must be pounded to a completely smooth paste — not minced, not sliced — so that it suspends evenly in the dressing and coats every slice of cold pork uniformly.
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VI
What to Pour
A lightly chilled, off-dry or medium-dry Riesling carries enough acidity to meet the vinegar and enough residual sweetness to temper the raw garlic; alternatively, a cold Shaoxing yellow rice wine echoes the poaching aromatics. Iced jasmine tea is the classical non-alcoholic accompaniment to Sichuan cold dishes of this type.
The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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Sourced through Provenance