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Smoked Pork with Dried Bean Curd
腊肉炒豆干 · Làròu Chǎo Dòugān
Sliced Hunan smoked pork stir-fried with firm dried tofu and chilli — a rural Hunan staple with a deep smoky flavour.
Làròu, Hunan-style smoked pork, is made by curing pork belly or leg in salt and spices, then cold-smoking over cypress or rice husks for several weeks. The resulting meat is deeply flavoured, firm, with a reddish-brown interior and a pronounced smokiness that permeates the wok when sliced and stir-fried. Paired with firm dried bean curd (dòugān) — sliced into thin planks — and fresh chillies, it is a standard home-cooked dish of rural Hunan. The smoked pork releases its fat into the wok, which then coats and flavours the tofu. Dried chillies and fresh garlic complete the seasoning. This dish is made in large quantities in Hunan homes during winter and is considered everyday comfort food. The smoked pork intensifies in flavour over weeks, so late-winter versions are the most developed.
Where to try
Changsha: Hunan home-cooking restaurants (Hunan cai) throughout the city. Xiangxi region (western Hunan) is considered the heartland of smoked-pork culture.
Dietary notes
Pork, soy (dried tofu). Contains chilli. Not suitable for vegetarians or pork-free diets.
Cities to try Smoked Pork with Dried Bean Curd
Other central dishes
- Chairman Mao's Red-Braised Pork毛氏红烧肉
Hunan-style slow-braised pork belly in soy, Shaoxing wine and chilli — the dish Mao Zedong reportedly ate weekly in Zhongnanhai.
- Doupi (Wuhan Tofu Skin)豆皮
Wuhan breakfast: layered pan-fried tofu skin and rice cake with mushroom, ham and bamboo shoots inside.
- Fish Head with Chopped Chilli剁椒鱼头
A whole silver carp head blanketed with fermented chopped red chilli and steamed until the flesh is silky and fiery.
- Hunan Chilli Fried Pork小炒肉
Thin-sliced pork belly wok-fried with fresh long green chillies and fermented black beans — Hunan's most-ordered everyday dish.