siu yoke [roasted belly pork ]

 I discovered these pork belly roasts in vacuum sealed packs at coles.  They're really convenient sold this way, as they keep longer in the fridge than if they were just glad wrapped on a Styrofoam tray.
sorry for the bad photos again! i just dont have the time to read through the camera manual properly so i just point and shoot like the amatuer i am.

this is a simple way to cook it from a Chinese Malaysian cookbook - just dry the skin well, make slits in the underside and stuff with garlic cloves, and sprinkle underside with 5 spice powder. leave in fridge a few hours or overnight to dry out.

then, sprinkle and rub a TON of salt on the skin, and put into the oven on a rack with a dish of water underneath at 180C for an hour, then remove all the salt [i just scraped it with a butter knife and wiped it as much as I could with a paper towel] and shove it back into the oven at 240C for 45 minutes or until skin crackles.
let rest before slicing.

i didn't bother with the traditional nam yue [fermented tofu] or rice wine, just used salt, 5 spice powder and garlic for flavouring - and it worked very well.

traditionally its eaten with rice and some raw cucumber and tomato slices to counteract the fattiness but in my opinion it'll take more than that to "negate" its health effects. Perhaps some oatmeal and omega 3 tablets will help! and uh...a few hours working out on the treadmill?