What Dongpo pork is
Dongpo pork is a square of pork belly braised until it is soft enough to cut with a chopstick, named after Su Shi, the Song dynasty poet and official who went by the style name Dongpo. The meat is tied, slow-cooked in soy, sugar, ginger, scallion, and Shaoxing wine, then served in its own glossy sauce. A good piece eats like a savory caramel, rich but not cloying, with a clean finish that keeps you reaching for the next cube.
I first had it in Hangzhou at a restaurant near the lake, served as a single cube on a small dish with steamed buns to wrap it. The fat had rendered to a trembling jelly and the lean stayed moist. It was nothing like the heavy pork belly I expected, and it rewired how I thought about braising at home.
The dish belongs to the family of red-cooked (hong shao) meats across China, but its wine-forward, sweet-leaning sauce is distinct. The Jiangsu cuisine around it shares that careful, gently sweet hand, and the same region produced the poet who lent it his name.
The story behind the name
Su Shi, also called Su Dongpo, was a real historian, poet, and official who lived in the 11th century. The stories say that while posted in Hangzhou he improved a local method of slow-braising pork, and the dish took his name. Whether he truly wrote the recipe or just loved the food, the legend stuck, and restaurants across Zhejiang and beyond still claim their version is the authentic one.
What is certain is that the dish fits the man: a scholar who wrote about the simple pleasures of food and drink. In Japan the dish appears as tokibuta or tonkoro, carried over by centuries of cultural exchange, which tells you how far a good braise travels.
The name also does quiet marketing work. Telling a diner that a slab of pork honors an 800-year-old poet makes the richness feel earned. I am fine with that, because the pork is good enough to survive the story.
The cut and the tie
You want a single layer of pork belly with even fat and lean, cut into squares of about five centimeters. The butcher can do this, or you can buy a slab and portion it yourself. Each cube is tied with kitchen string around its middle so it holds shape through hours of gentle heat.
The tie matters more than it looks. Without it, the layers slump and the cube falls apart in the pot, which is fine for a stew but wrong for this dish, where the neat block on the plate is part of the presentation. Use butcher’s twine, not colored craft string, which can bleed dye.
How to make Dongpo pork at home
Step 1: blanch and tie
Drop the cubes in cold water, bring to a boil, and skim. This lifts the grey scum and tightens the meat. Cool slightly, then tie each cube with a loop of string. The knot should be firm but not cutting into the flesh.
Step 2: build the braise
Lay scallion and sliced ginger across the bottom of a heavy pot. Stand the cubes on their tied sides, skin down. Pour in light soy, a smaller amount of dark soy for color, rock sugar or regular sugar, and enough Shaoxing wine to reach most of the way up the meat. The cooking wine is not a background note here; it is a primary liquid, so use a bottle you would drink.
Step 3: slow braise
Bring to a bare simmer, cover, and cook low for two to three hours, either on the stove or in a 150 C oven. Turn the cubes once halfway. The meat is done when a chopstick slides in with no resistance. A thermometer is not needed; the chopstick test is enough. If you rush the clock, the fat stays waxy and the cube slumps when lifted, so trust the texture over the minutes. The sauce should coat a spoon and shine, not pool like water on the plate.
I learned to resist rushing the braise. An hour short and the fat stays waxy; the full time and it melts to silk. The steamed fish of the south teaches a similar lesson about patience with gentle heat.
Serving and what to eat with it
In Hangzhou the cube often arrives with a plain steamed bun (mantou) or a tangle of greens to cut the richness. A bowl of plain rice also works. I like a sour vegetable on the side, something like pickled mustard greens, to reset the palate between cubes.
The West Lake Hangzhou restaurants near the water serve refined versions meant for a quiet lunch. For a louder meal, the Shanghai food scene braises the same cut in a redder, sweeter style that locals call hong shao rou. Both descend from the same idea of pork coaxed soft by time and wine.
If you want to compare regional braises, the Cantonese cuisine tends to keep pork cleaner and less sweet, while the central plains lean darker and deeper. Dongpo sits in the gentle, wine-laced middle.
Regional versions you will meet
Hangzhou keeps it wine-sweet and neat, served as a single trembling cube. Shanghai braises the same cut darker and sticks it on rice as hong shao rou, a home dish more than a restaurant showpiece. In Meishan, Sichuan, locals claim Su Shi’s family version with a heavier soy and a faint spice, a nod to the poet’s time in the south. None of these is wrong; they are local readings of one idea, pork softened by patience and a sweet hand.
The Japanese tokibuta, a square of pork braised in a similar soy-sugar-wine bath, is the dish’s quiet cousin across the sea, usually served with mustard on the side. Tasting it in Kyoto after eating the Hangzhou original made the lineage obvious. If your trip reaches Japan too, the comparison is a small pleasure worth planning around.
At home the main variable is time. A two-hour braise is good; a three-hour braise is better; an oven at low heat overnight, if you trust your timing, is best of all. The meat tells you when it is done, not the clock, and pulling it early is the one error that no sauce can fix. Let it rest before you snip the string, so the juices settle and the cube holds its shape on the plate.
Quick facts
- Named after Su Shi (Su Dongpo), an 11th-century poet and official.
- Cut into five-centimeter cubes and tied before braising.
- Sauce base: soy, sugar, ginger, scallion, and Shaoxing wine.
- Cooked low for two to three hours until fork-soft.
- Classic pairing: steamed bun or sour pickled greens.
- Best eaten warm; the sauce firms as it cools.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dongpo pork the same as red-cooked pork?
It is a specific kind of red-cooked pork, wine-forward and tied into cubes. General hong shao rou may be untied, saucier, and less sweet. Think of Dongpo as a named, plated variant of the broader family.
Can I make it without alcohol?
You can swap the wine for a mild stock, but you lose the signature aroma. A non-alcoholic cooking wine exists, though the flavor is flatter. If you avoid alcohol for any reason, tell the kitchen when ordering; some restaurants offer a stock version.
Why is it so sweet?
Zhejiang cooking leans sweet compared with the north or the spicy west. The sugar balances the soy and wine. If a restaurant version tastes too sweet for you, that is regional, not a mistake.
How many calories are we talking?
A lot. This is celebration food, not a daily staple, and the fat is the point. Eat one cube, not five, and let the bun and greens do the rest of the work. I have no precise figure and would not trust one printed online.
Can I use an Instant Pot or pressure cooker?
Yes. Pressure-cook the tied cubes in the braise for about thirty-five minutes, then reduce the sauce on the stove to glaze. The texture is close, though the flavor is a touch less round than a slow oven braise.
Is it served at festivals?
It appears at banquets and family feasts more than at a specific holiday. You will see it on a wedding or New Year table in the south, but it is really a year-round restaurant dish.
Where is the best place to try it?
Hangzhou is the home ground, and the restaurants near the lake do refined versions. Shanghai and Suzhou also serve strong renditions. Use our Shanghai food guide to find the right neighborhoods if your trip centers there.
Plan a Hangzhou and Shanghai food route
Dongpo pork is a doorway into the gentle, wine-sweet cooking of the Yangtze delta. If you want a route linking Hangzhou’s lake restaurants, Shanghai’s neighborhoods, and the right day trips, tell us your plans on our contact page and we will sketch a custom food-and-travel itinerary.
Written by the ChinaTravelFood editorial team.
