Bak Kwa – Dried Pork Slices

Bak Kwa or dried pork slices is very popular among the Chinese for some reason. This is especially so at Chinese New Year when people queue up outside the famous bak kwa shops to buy packets of the meat to bring home. Bak Kwa is also known as yoke kon in Cantonese.

The meat is either sliced into thin slices or minced and then reshaped into flat thin slices and seasoned with sugar, msg, salt and a combination of various other sauces which usually remain a trade secret. These thin slices of meat are then dried or barbequed over a charcoal fire. The meat is basically, smoked and dried which cooks it in the process. I reckon if you can get hold of the recipe you could even replicate a healthier version at home.

I’m not much of a fan of bak kwa because it is sweet and because of the cooking over the charcoal grill. There are many reports that it is not a very healthy thing to eat at all due to the cooking process, the meat used, and the high fat and sugar content. That said, once in a long while, its nice to munch on a slice just for old times sake. Now, sellers have diversified into chicken slices or even chicken and seaweed slices or any number of flavours and combinations. But nothing beats the original plain dried meat slices.

When I do eat, I usually buy my bak kwa from Hock Seng Guan that has an airplane as its logo. The shop I usually go to is at Hotel Furama in Chinatown. I go for the premium sliced meat version and its got the best bak kwa I’ve eaten so far.

The meat is savoury sweet and is usually eaten by itself as a snack. I reckon it is like jerky but not as dry nor as hard. At times like Chinese New Year or around the Mooncake Festival, it might be sliced and served as a snack with chinese tea. I also like it in bread as a sandwich. In fact, people even sell them in a bun and call them Chinese Burgers (wait for an upcoming post on this one!)! I don’t forsee the bak kwa going extinct any day soon.

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