Taiwanese braised pork rice (Lu rou fan)

1. Hard-boil the eggs for 9 minutes, then peel them; cut the skin-on pork belly into 1 cm dice, thinly slice the shallots and finely chop the garlic.

2. Heat the oil in a pot and fry the shallots over low heat for 6-8 minutes until golden and crisp; remove half of them.

3. Add the pork to the pot and fry for 5 minutes until the fat renders, then add the garlic and fry for another minute.

4. Pour in the Shaoxing rice wine, add the soy sauce, sugar, five-spice and water, add the boiled eggs and braise, covered, over low heat for 1.5 hours until the pork is almost melting and the sauce thick and glossy.

5. Meanwhile cook the rice in the water.

6. Spoon the pork and its sauce over the hot rice, add the halved, browned eggs, sprinkle with the reserved crispy shallots and serve.

Tip: One of Taiwan's favourite street foods: the collagen from the skin-on belly makes the sauce sticky and glossy. It's worth making a bigger batch – it's even better the next day and freezes perfectly.