Pork Belly, Tea Eggs, Noodles (Tuesday, August 2, 2011)

This picture is not pretty.  Front and center is
a pool of pork fat.  I don't really care though
when I'm eating by myself in my underwear at
10 pm.  I miss you Erin.

You ever have that feeling when you finally get the motivation to write an entry on your food blog after months of laziness and as soon as your almost done writing your internet browser suddenly crashes?  Me neither.  Last night, my friend Justin donated a large hunk of pork belly from his slab.  You can cook it like bacon.... or you can cut it into thick pieces and pan fry it will a lot of spice.  Spicy please!  I marinated the belly in hot sauces, jalepenos, dried chilis and prickly ash (aka, sichuan pepper).  I then pan fried it in a wok. BOOM!  Meanwhile I made a noodle stir fry with cabbage, carrot, onion, garlic, ginger and sesame oil.  SPLOOSH!  I also made Tea Eggs.  KAZAAMM. To make, I boiled eggs for a few minutes until hard(ish), cracked the eggs all around, returned them to the boiling water and added mystery tea bags and mystery spices (nearly certain it was Chinese 5 spice.)  This all came in a boxed kit (a gift from a Chinese co-worker, Thanks Xiaoping).  These then cooked for a while longer and eventually sat overnight in the tea (but not the ones in this picture.) The longer they sit the darker they turn.  They actually look a very disgusting shiny brown after a full night but they taste like boiled eggs.  Except they have a slight aroma and soft taste of tea and cinnamon.  The highlight obviously was the pork belly.  It was bursting with delicious savory spice.