WTF Foods: Pig Face

It might resemble something you’d see leering at you from a Halloween shop, but braised pig face is the crown jewel of Huaiyang cuisine. The dish is exactly what the name suggests -- all the skin from the front of the head, including the ears, snout, and cheeks ripped off in one piece like a fleshy slasher villain mask -- it brings new meaning to the local expression “losing face.” The best, and probably one of the only, purveyors in town is palatial Huaiyang spot Wangdonglou out in the Putuo periphery. 

You have to reserve your mug at least a day in advance, whereupon they’ll pick a lucky porker and, well, deface it. The mug’s simmered for half a day until bronzed -- the preferred preparation for such cartilaginous cuts -- then arranged on a plate with mantou, cucumber, onion and decorative fruit segments, which do little to mitigate the dish’s ghoulish appearance. 

The layout bears more than a passing resemblance to Peking Duck. But you’re navigating more textural terrains, from the meat around the ears to the actual ears to the cheeks, which evaporate in your mouth like a succulent pork Jello. This simultaneously gelatinous and crunchy texture is a motif with Chinese exotica like jellyfish, shark’s fin and sea cucumber. Be warned: atRMB178/half (for 3-4 people), RMB328/whole (for more than 5), this noggin subverts the Eurocentric notion of offal as “trash cuts.”

You’re going to need a chaser after all that carnage. We nominate their lion’s head meatball -- an orb of finely-chopped fatty pork, egg whites and chicken stock. Shanghaiers have inducted the dish into their cuisine by baptizing it with soy. We like this original Yangzhou version, which is airy and yet so succulent, like the bastard child of a meatball and a cloud. 

We also recommend hairy crab meat and roe (RMB48). And no Yangzhou meal is complete without a plate of Yangzhou fried rice, a ubiquitous canteen classic of rice, eggs, peas, carrots, ham and other veg. But all these dishes pale in comparison to the main attraction; it’s all about the face. 

DETAILS

What: Wangdonglou

Where: 4F, 178 Daduhe Lu 大渡河路178号长风景畔广场4楼

Tel: [phone]

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