MCO 4.0 - Day 25

 25 June 2021     Day 23 of Movement Control Order 4.0

        One of the joys of shopping excursions to Kuala Lumpur and Penang is being able to try different eateries. But one obligatory meal would be at Din Tai Fung, a highly-popular Taiwanese restaurant that has branches all over the world. Never wavering, hubby and I would order their pork xiao long bao and their pork chop la mian soup. 

        Dearly missing Din Tai Fung and knowing that we will not be travelling to KL, Penang or anywhere else in the near future, I took up the gauntlet and brought a piece of Din Tai Fung to Ipoh. I replicated their pork chop la mian soup this evening, much to hubby's delight.

My copycat version of Din Tai Fung's Pork Chop La Mian Soup

        After being rendered some karate chops with the back of a cleaver to tenderise them, the pork loin chops were marinated for about 3 hours with sea salt, sugar, black pepper, five spice powder, ginger powder, soya sauce, Shaoxing wine, cornflour and baking soda. Just before frying them, I also lightly coated them with more cornflour.

        As for the soup, I made a pork bone broth with the pork bones and some aromatics. The latter included smashed garlic, ginger slices, white ends of spring onion and carrot.

My lil sweetheart working hard

A peek at the magic boiling away

Poised for plating

Flavourful pork chop on their beds of la mian

        This evening's Pork Chop La Mian Soup was exquisite, a perfect end to the work week, and gave me the fleeting illusion that I was on a weekend shopping trip in KL. Hmmm... Now should I next try to copy their xiao long bao? That's a tall order!