TacoCat's TrEats #33: The Crispiest Pork Belly! 😋

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Hey Steemit!

I'm back with another post for the Local Dishes contest! Singapore has plenty of delicious local dishes so I'm practically spoilt for choice. If you've ever visited Singapore before, you know that like many other countries in the SEA region, we're a food paradise! Hawker centres are the hub of the most local dishes and are my personal favourite places to eat.

The dish I chose today is called Roast Pork Rice (or 燒肉飯 shao rou fan)! Also known as siu yuk/siew yok in Cantonese, it is made by roasting an entire pig with seasonings, such as salt and vinegar in a charcoal furnace at high temperature. Roasted pigs of high quality have crisp skin and juicy and tender meat. Usually the meat is served plain with its skin, but it is sometimes served with soy sauce or hoisin sauce in restaurants. But in hawker centres, you can get it on top of rice of noodles.

The cut used to make Roast Pork Rice is known as 三成肉 san cheng rou (three-layered meat), streaky pork with layers of fat and lean meat. Although somewhat similar to the German roast pork knuckle, Cantonese-style pork’s crackling is more brittle as the skin’s entire surface is pricked with countless holes and dried out before roasting, making it light and crispy.
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Source: Chinese Cooking Demystified [youtube]

And crispy it is! Done correctly, there are supposed to be 3 layers to each piece of pork; with the top most layer being the crispy salted pork skin. 😋
However, most of the roast pork rice I've eaten at hawker centres have been quite disappointing in the crispiness of the roast pork, except this shop!

Aptly named Roasted Master, they specialise in a variety of roasted meat dishes with both noodles and rice options. I first tried their roast pork rice a few years back in Ang Mo Kio and I thought it was the best and crispiest roast pork I've ever eaten! I believe they also have outlets in Toa Payoh and Bishan as well.
And they recently opened another shop at a new food court in Woodlands!

Source: eatbook.sg

It's a little out of the way, but this air-conditioned food court called Woodlands Glen is actually really convenient for me; being right opposite my house. But if you're looking for a more easily accessible outlet I'd recommend the Ang Mo Kio branch as it's just opposite the MRT station.

Definitely check it out if you're in the area!

Thanks for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!