Guō Bāo Ròu (simplified Chinese: 锅包肉; traditional Chinese: 鍋包肉; pinyin: guōbāoròu) is a classic dish in Heilongjiang cuisine, originating in the Heilongjiang Province of Northern China. It consists of a bite-sized pieces of pork in potato starch batter, deep-fried until crispy. They are then lightly stewed in a variation of a sweet and sour sauce, made from freshly prepared caramel, rice vinegar and flavored with ginger and garlic, so the battering absorbs the sauce and softens. Beijing variant has the sauce thin and watery, while the dish as prepared in Dongbei itself often include thicker sauce with ketchup added to it, but both versions are characterized by an intense ginger and garlic flavor. In Manchuria, the sauce acts almost as a seasoning, not to overpower the taste of the fried pork- it is neither overly sweet or particularly viscous.
