Who makes the best Taiwanese street food? In the first episode of Dish it Out, lo bah png is on the menu | CBC News

According to Li-Hui Hsu, her lo bah png dish is special because she cooks it with all her love.

Lo bah png, a street food famous in Taiwan, is made primarily with ground pork and soy sauce and is served over rice. 

The reason it’s so popular in Taiwan? Hsu’s daughter, Tzu-Hao Hsu, believes it’s because it’s an affordable, accessible meal to make. 

“It’s a very street- and community-oriented dish that’s now been elevated to, sort of like, fine cuisine, depending on where you go,” said Tzu-Hao Hsu.

WATCH | Tzu-Hao and Li-Hui Hsu and their family friend Zoe Wu are the first group of competitors to take part in Dish it Out: 

Dish It Out: Who makes the best Taiwanese street food? Three women battle it out

Dish It Out is a CBC Newfoundland and Labrador series in which three people from the same place make the same dish. They taste it, rate it and one winner takes home the coveted sparkling silver spoon. Hosted by Nicole Obiodiaka, and produced by Katie Rowe, Amy Joy and Mike Simms of CBC Newfoundland and Labrador.

Over the next month, community members from West Africa, Mexico and Newfoundland and Labrador will also take on the challenge. 

Want to try your hand at making the dish? Check out Tzu-Hao’s lo bah png recipe below, which she shared with one small disclaimer.

“For my recipe,  the measurements are incredibly approximate — I definitely take a cook with my nose and let my ancestors guide me approach,” Hsu said. 

Ingredients

2 shallots
2 cloves of garlic 
2 cups soy sauce
2 tablespoon sugar
500 grams ground pork, lean or medium 
1 tablespoon canola oil 
3 cups rice — short grain recommended but jasmine will also do

Instructions

1. Heat canola oil in a pan or wok to medium high.
2. Finely dice and caramelize garlic, shallots and sugar.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce and stir until integrated with the caramelized mixture. 
4. Add ground pork and saute until cooked and separated. Try to break up any chunks or clumps that form during the cooking process.
5. Transfer the contents to a saucepan, add the remaining soy sauce and add hot water until it just covers the mixture.
6. Stir and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust the salty-to-sweet ratio by adding sugar or soy sauce by tablespoonful to your taste.
7. Serve over rice. Optional garnishes include sliced and pickled cucumber, pickled daikon, green onion, cilantro or other Asian greens of choice. For dietary variety, substitute ground pork with ground chicken/turkey, or cubed medium firm tofu. You can also add peeled hard-boiled eggs to the lo bah png sauce during the simmering process to flavour the eggs as another optional accompaniment. 

Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Click here to visit our landing page.