Pickled Cabbage and Pork Stew

Pickled cabbage stew is one of the defining dishes of Dongbei (China's northeast — Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning). Suāncài is Chinese napa cabbage fermented in large vats over winter at near-freezing temperatures for four to six weeks, developing a clean, lactic sourness quite different from Korean kimchi (no chilli is added). The fermented cabbage is cut into strips and combined with thick slices of fatty pork belly (or bone-in pork ribs), glass noodles (fěnsī) and sometimes tofu, then simmered for at least an hour in a clay pot or heavy pot until the pork is falling-off-the-bone tender and the cabbage has absorbed the pork fat and broth. This stew is traditionally cooked on top of the kang — the heated brick sleeping platform of northeastern Chinese homes — and left to simmer through a winter evening. It is eaten with steamed corn bread (bō mò) or mantou.