Legs…

The other day, I came across somebody sharing a local (Sibu) newspaper report on Facebook. It was in Mandarin, of course but thanks to Google Translate, I was able to understand what it was all about. It seemed that some machine used in the slaughtering of pigs here had broken down and could not be repaired. Thus, everything would have to be done manually by hand as a result of which, they were expecting a shortage of pork.

Wasting no time at all, I hopped over to the fruits and vegetables sundry shop in the next lane from my house and grabbed a whole lot of what they had fresh from their butcher that morning to stock in my freezer.

I did manage to get hold of two bags of pork leg/trotter, half in each bag. I took two because there did not look like a lot in one and anyway, my missus would be able to cook all at one go…

…and keep in the fridge so we would be able to eat it over a number of days, no need to finish it all in one sitting!

I sure enjoyed what my missus dished out, her phak lor too kha (five-spice braised pork leg) is second to none and I was delighted that she added some hardboiled eggs as well, my favourite. Interestingly, I seemed to notice that there wasn’t much fat at all, a lot of lean meat and also tendon and skin – they say the collagen is all in the latter two, great for old folks with weak bones and knee joints, yours truly included!

My missus did cook her black vinegar pork leg/trotter…

…not too long ago, last month in September, to be exact and yes, I enjoyed that a lot as well. Yes, she did say that she only bought a bag of the pork leg, half only so that day, she had to add some pork belly so there would be enough to go round.

I also enjoy char bee lau too kha…

– pork leg soup cooked with that lovely fragrant root with a bit of meng ngee (dried cuttlefish) thrown in for the fragrance and the sweetness and yes, I do enjoy a bowl of pek ting eyok too kha mee sua (Eight Treasures pork leg string noodles) once in a while too…

Of course, I love that awesome Filipino crispy pata or what we call the Philippine pork leg…

…here. Honestly, I go weak at the sight of those beauties! LOL!!! Gosh!!! I cannot remember the last time I had one. Perhaps the next time we have a reason to celebrate, I shall go and order one to take home and enjoy!

I also had German pork trotters before, once at Modesto’s at Jalan P. Ramlee in KL and another time at Gunther’s Gasthaus in Kota Kinabalu but I don’t think I had started blogging at the time so I have no permanent record of these two times. Of course I enjoyed them a lot, both times! I think I did see it on the menu at Hutong Lot 10 but I did not order it when I went there once as I felt it would be too big for me to finish alone, too much for my lunch.

We do have a few places here serving stewed/braised pork leg on a bed of cangkok manis…

…a dish that seems mighty popular among the people here but I’m just so-so with it. For one thing, even though their pork leg ain’t too bad – I would order it sometimes (usually without the cangkok manis), theirs come nowhere near as nice as how my missus does hers.

I wonder how many of you are pork leg/trotter lovers like me and how you like yours done.