Steve Wertz wrote:
>
> On Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:48:19 -0600, Arri London wrote:
>
> > Tasty Dried Meat Squares (from one of the Wei Chuan cookbooks)
> >
> > 2 2/3 lbs fresh ham or pork loin cut into paper thin slices.
> >
> > 1 1/2 tsp salt
> > 4 tbs sugar
> > 1/8 tsp cinnamon
> > 1/8 tsp 5-spice powder
> > 1/8 tsp licorice powder (optional)
> > 2 tbs soy sauce
> > 1 tbs rice wine
> > 1/8 tsp red food coloring (optional)
> > 1 tsp MSG
> >
> > Soak pork slices in the spice mixture for 24 hours. Press soaked meat
> > slices in a lightly oiled bamboo basket. Let dry for 24 hours [could
> > probably use a food dehydrator set on low].
> >
> > Cut the meat into into 12 squares and grill for 1 1/2 minutes each side
> > or bake at 400 F until brown.
> >
> > Any Chinese supermarket will have this commercially prepared; good
> > stuff!
>
> I'm having trouble trying to determine what this would be in the
> Asian markets ("Meat Squares"?) It almost seems like it would
> make pork fu if it were shredded, but grilled and cut into
> squares doesn't fit.
>
> Slicing a pork loin paper thin and then cutting into 12 squares
> seems like it'd be awful difficult to grill such small pieces.
>
> -sw

It isn't pork fu which is as you say the shredded version. I believe the
Cantonese name is 'long yoke'. The book gives the recipe in Chinese and
expectedly the first two characters are 'zhu rou' which means pork. I
can't work out the stroke number for the third character though, so my
dictionary isn't much help LOL. When I find out what the third character
I will post it here.

The thin slices are overlapped on the bamboo strainer. Once dried they
form a single sheet. That's what gets cut into the squares. Smaller
strainer equals fewer pieces to cut it into.