Do you love me…

I cannot remember when they first started serving braised pork belly with mantao (steamed buns)…

…as one of the dishes in our full-course sit-down Chinese banquet or when we got some restaurant to cater for a lavish buffet spread for our home dinners/parties but I vaguely remember enjoying it so much in the late 60’s or early 70’s.

I am pretty sure it is still available these days at some restaurant in town or they may serve it with stewed pork leg like this…

*Grand Wonderful Restaurant photo from their Facebook page*

I loved the dong po pork belly with mantao here but sadly, the restaurant has since called it a day. Otherwise, you can try going to this food court and order from one of the stalls there – I have not been there for a very long time though so I am not sure if it is still around or not.

The mantao/buns…

…are easily available at many shops and stalls all over town. You can drop by one of the wet markets – they should be selling them there but the problem is you will have to cook the stewed pork belly…

…yourself.

Well, it so happened that the other day, I spotted a packet of 6 at one of the shops in the next lane from my house. I did not take note of the price – I just grabbed it and paid for everything that I bought from them that day. They do sell them on a regular basis but they do not seem to have a lot so most of the time, they are all sold out.

My missus will steam them and eat them with butter and jam and whatever but the other day, she went and cooked that awesome bowl of stewed pork belly in the above photograph.

Of course, we were a lot more generous with the meat…

…when we pried the mantao open to stack up the meat inside. We also sprinkled a bit of the sauce on the stewed pork belly to enhance the taste, making sure not to add too much as it might make the mantao wet and soggy and it would not be so nice anymore that way.

Once done, we covered it and feasted on it…

It tasted absolutely great and we sure enjoyed our lunch that day to the max. Rest assured that I shall grab another pack or two the next time I see any available at our neighbourhood shop again.