Sweet and Sour Pork - Northeast Chinese Version

Northeast Chinese Version

This name is also sometimes used outside of China for a distantly related dish from Northeastern Chinese cuisine, named 锅包肉 (Guō Bāo Ròu) in Chinese. It consists of a bite-sized pieces of pork in potato starch batter, deep-fried until crispy. They are then lightly stewed in a variation of a sweet and sour sauce, made from freshly prepared caramel, rice vinegar and flavored with ginger and garlic, so the battering absorbs the sauce and softens. Beijing variant has the sauce thin and watery, while the dish as prepared in Dongbei itself often include thicker sauce with ketchup added to it, but both versions are characterized by an intense ginger and garlic flavor.