Shanghai Stir-Fried Pork with Cabbage

Legendary restaurateur Cecilia Chiang’s story spanned continents, at times on foot, and culminated in the 1961 opening of The Mandarin in San Francisco, arguably the first restaurant in the U.S. to offer true regional Chinese cooking instead of the chop suey and egg foo young most Americans mistook for it.

She grew up in a large Chinese family of unimaginable privilege. Chiang and her 11 siblings shared a building with their many caretakers in her family’s palatial Beijing compound. Her mother and father slept in their own domicile, and there were two more buildings to house all the other servants. Her life sounded idyllic, the dining table routinely loaded with the finest dishes cooked by the family’s two highly skilled chefs, who both worked under the exacting direction and impeccable taste of her mother.

In 1942, a few years after Beijing was occupied by the Japanese, 22-year-old Chiang and an older sister fled, with their parents’ blessing and disguised in commoners’ clothes, by walking over 1,000 miles to Chongqing, still under Chinese Nationalist control. On that journey, they had all their belongings stolen and narrowly escaped Japanese bayonets and the strafing of fighter plane bullets, the whole time never bathing, their skin encrusted in fleas.

And somehow, in the face of all that, Chiang remembered the food of her journey, despite how meager it must have been in those desperate circumstances. She recalled the diversity of cuisines she observed as they walked and how she learned the vastness and variety of Chinese cooking. It was a lesson that would inform her future career in restaurants.

Chiang shared with Food & Wine the recipe for this humble pork, cabbage, and shiitake stir-fry, seasoned simply with soy sauce, white pepper, and sherry. It’s an easy and satisfying one-wok dish you could whip up on a busy weeknight, so low-pressure that even the mushrooms, she assured me, were optional. It revealed the wisdom she’d earned through life: There’s no need to bolster one’s iconic status with elaborate displays of sophistication and skill. Honest cooking will do. — Daniel Gritzer

Frequently asked questions 

How long do dried shiitakes last?

Dried shiitakes and dried mushrooms in general last indefinitely, as long as they are stored in an airtight container in a cool, dark place. 

What temperature should pork loin be cooked to?

According to the USDA, pork should be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 145°F. 

Notes from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen

You can use the mushroom soaking water as you would a vegetarian stock or broth, to cook beans or as the base for a soup or stew. Strain it before using it, in case there is any dirt or residue from the dried mushrooms.

When she shared this recipe, Chiang recommended briefly freezing the pork to firm up the meat, which makes it easy to cut the thin slices needed to fully and quickly cook them over high heat while ensuring they stay tender.  

Suggested pairing

With the stir-fry's acidity from sherry, a zippy natural white wine like Christina Netzel Grüner Veltliner pairs well with the dish.