In a sense, a good bowl of pork-chop rice is like a roast beef sandwich. The pork chop is the roast beef, the rice is the bread, and the vegetables are the lettuce. Like the sandwich, pork-chop rice also comes with a pickle and gravy. Both are standard fare but it takes a lot of effort to make them outstanding.
According to the above formula, Chekiang Good Taste Pork Chop King rates an 8 on a scale of 10. But if my childhood memories are taken into account, it should earn one or two more points, putting it close to perfection. Like its name indicates, Pork Chop King is one of the best pork-chop rice places in Taiwan.
Proprietor Wong Ju-chin (翁如金) started out with a small store selling lunch boxes in the style of his homeland, Chekiang, forty years ago. Now, Pork Chop King is the only place that sells pork-chop rice the way mainlanders like it.
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Mainlanders prefer their pork chops to be a bit saltier with the fragrance of white pepper, and they prefer the meat itself to be a bit chewier. So it is at Pork Cop King. The pork chops here are not fried with flour -- not even dipped in egg sauce -- and this marks the first difference between them and Taiwanese-style pork chops.
According to hostess Wong Hsiu-chin (翁秀琴), before going into the frying pan, the meat is tenderized and then marinated in a sauce made of sugar, soy sauce and the secret ingredient of the day. "We have a secret recipe for the pepper, too," said Wong.
The gravy and the vegetables are also unique to the house. Wong said the gravy is a stew made from pork and onions -- another secret recipe.
Special touches make the restaurant's pork chops crispy and unforgettably good. The restaurant uses peanut oil, carefully monitors the temperature and, most importantly, cooks its pork chops in a big iron wok. "The more you fry it, the more the meat flavor is brought out into the oil, so that our oil always smells fragrant," said Wong.
All the restaurant's staff have worked there for over 30 years. They began working as assistants, got married, and had children in the restaurant's big extended family. And the customers have never stopped coming, not even when Wuchang Street's bustling movie industry disappeared 20 years ago. And like before there are still wooden tables, wooden benches, and stacks and stacks of pork chops and chicken legs.
If chewy pork chops aren't for you, you can choose the fried chicken leg rice, which is more tender. The fried deep sea cod fish is also highly recommended.
Pork Chop King is so famous that Wong's two daughters opened two branches in New York's Chinatown, to satisfy overseas Chinese there who longed for a taste of home.
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