Vietnamese Caramel Pork Stir Fry

After the lack of meat from last week's meals, I decided we needed some meat. We got this 30-Minute Vietnamese Caramel Pork Stir Fry recipe from How Sweet It is.

Ingredients:
From the Pantry (or market)

• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 bouillon Chicken stock
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tsp cornstarch
• 3 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3 cups cooked brown rice (1 cup uncooked Uncle Ben's 20 Minute brown rice)

From the market

• 1.5 lb pork tenderloin, cut into cubes
• 1.5 large sweet onion, dicded
• 3 tsp grated ginger
• 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 head cabbage, sliced
• 1/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup freshly torn cilantro
• 2 limes

Directions:

1. Prep your ingredients. Season pork with salt & pepper.
2. Heat oil in large wok over high heat.
3. Add pork once the oil is hot. Cook until seared and golden brown on all sides, about 6 to 8 minutes.
4. Remove pork from wok and set aside.
5. Add onion, ginger, and garlic to the wok, stirring to toss. Cook until slightly softened, about 5 minutes.
6. In a bowl, whisk together chicken stock, sugar, soy sauce, cornstarch, vinegar, and pepper flakes.
7. Pour mixture into wok and bring to a boil.
8. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
9. Add pork and red pepper into the wok, tossing to coat and cook for another 2 minutes.
10. Add rice, cilantro, peanuts, and lime juice.
11. Serve over cabbage.

This was a pretty tasty recipe and pretty simple to make. If you prep all your ingredients in this order (onion, ginger, garlic, red pepper, cabbage, cilantro, pork) and set each one aside, you will only need to wash three bowls, one cutting board, one knife, and one wok. We will probably make it again because it didn't take too long to make.

Gasthaus

This German restaurant was recommended to us by my supervisor as well as our B&B host. It's a cute little place with two dining areas: fine dining or pub and garden. We chose the pub and garden.

We made reservations so were seated promptly. We ordered the bruschetta and the pork hock.

The bruschetta came quite quickly. The flavours were well balanced and it was still warm.

The pork hock took longer than I'd like. But when it arrived, I understood. It was REALLY big. For a $20 dish, I was expecting something half the size. I think four people could comfortably share this.

The pork hock came with a side of cabbage, which went really well with the rich, fatty meat. It was tasty, but really rich and needed a bit of acidity from the cabbage to balance it out.

Overall, will recommend and will return - but will probably not order the pork hock unless I'm with a bunch of people.