Roasted Suckling Pig

Although it is not summer yet, the weather in most Western European countries as well as in many cities of North America has been incredibly warm, leading people to eat on their "terrace" or lawn and even to find ways to cook a whole meal on their lawn. But what I have witnessed most is the smell of barbecue in the late afternoon.
When proncouncing this word "barbecue", it reminds me about my mother who is a big fan of barbecue and roasted suckling pig. Mother loves roasted suckling pig so much that she would order it from Chinese restaurants in Belgium at important events like new year, birthday or marriage.
For Chinese New Year, my dad usually asked me to buy one roasted suckling pig from Chinese restaurants in Rotterdam or The Hague, which have mastered the art of roasting suckling pig and charged much less than the ones in Belgium.
This below picture shows the roasted suckling pig I have purchased in a Chinese restaurants in The Hague:

As you can see, most roasted suckling pig purchased from a Chinese restaurants are "uncut" and comes into a box (not very fancy) but don't judge the book by the cover. My dad, who had tasted this dish times after times in several restaurants in many countries around the world, was a real connaisseur in roasted suckling pig. My dad has told me that the roasted suckling pig bought from Chinese restaurants in The Hague is one of the very best.
For people who do not know what is a roasted suckling pig, I will try to summarize it in few lines.
A suckling pig is a piglet fed on its mother's milk and is between the ages of two and six weeks.
This dish has been a famous dish in China for over 2000 years and is a "must have" at any Chinese wedding banquet. The suckling pig is considered to represent the bride's purity while the color of the red crackling symbolize good fortune.
I am sure that if you type on google "roast suckling pig", you will find an exhaustive list of recipe, from Chinese people as well as from Western people who love so much this dish that they have tried to reproduce it. I really respect and admire their tenacity to reproduce this amazing dish. While some people have adapted so much the recipe that it does not even taste the real Chinese Roasted Suckling Pig, some other have put some good alternatives. However no matter how good the alternative is, there will be still some gap with the authentic Chinese Roasted Suckling Pig. The below video shows how to make a roasted suckling pig in the old fashion and authentic way. The below video shows the authentic way to make a roasted suckling pig from a famous chef in Hong Kong. The show was for Chinese audience so it is unfortunately in Cantonese. However even if you do not understand Cantonese, it is really worth to see the authentic way to make this dish.

As you can see, the original recipe for this dish takes a lot of time and energy. I also doubt that most people have all the necessary materials at home to make this  recipe following accurately this video. Furthermore, unless you live in Asia, I think it is also difficult to buy a small suckling pig.
Therefore I have adjusted slightly the authentic recipe shown in this video by replacing the suckling pig by  the belly pork and using a conventional oven (with a grill rack) instead of the high temperature oven seen in this video. Beside those adjustments, I have tried to stick as much as possible to the recipe shown in this video. The below pictures show the result of my roasted suckling pig:



I put a carpet of jellyfish under the roasted suckling pig to make it look like those suckling pig dish that you would find at Chinese restaurants in The Netherlands. When you eat dim sum in Chinese restaurants in Netherlands, you can order a small portion of roasted suckling pig that is always accompanied with jellyfish. So far, I have not been able to find any restaurants in North America that serve roasted suckling pig accompanied with jellyfish as dim sum. It is really pity as the jellyfish makes the taste of the roasted suckling pig less oily and brings in harmony the overall taste.

You can either make those jelly fish from scratch or buy it pre-pack. I usually buy them in a small package as shown the below picture. Those packages come with a bag of powder to add into the jelly fish. However I usually find those powder not enough tasteful so I usually add some extra seasoning.

If you have a chance to visit The Hague or Rotterdam, I would recommend you to go to Kee Lun restaurant in The Hague or Tai Wu restaurant in The Hague to try their dim sum, including their small portion of roasted suckling pig.

If you cannot find any roasted suckling pig near your area or if you suddenly have a big craving for this dish, I would advise you to try to cook this dish !