Round the corner, out of sight = heavenly ribs

It's basically compulsory when traveling with me to seek out the local dish made by the local people in a tiny shop hidden out the back of a residential tower block.  Love it.  Luckily when we were in Tianjin, China recently, Banker Man was able to take us to just such a place.  He's a Kiwi who has lived in Tianjin, so knew the place well.  I promise this wasn't my idea, but it all turned out spiffingly anyway!  Twenty odd of us piled into this tiny establishment and ate whatever was placed in front of us.

The restaurant is called the Li Family Restaurant.  Here's the map so you can go there too:

 They Li family are famous amongst those who know for their pork ribs.  They are astonishing.  Ribs is probably the wrong word for Westerners as that would make us think of those spare ribs you have to gnaw at to get the meat off.  These are more like chops, cut about 2 inches (in old money) thick and meaty with it. 

The meat on these ribs was so soft that you could pull it off them with an elegant "grab and twist" chopstick movement.  The Li Family won't tell you how they make them – why would they?  But I'm guessing they're marinaded for a good day or so in a very sweet (brown sugar and molasses or treacle is my guess), lightly spiced (but not chilli or pepper, more like aniseed and coriander seeds, though it's really hard to tell!) mix. Then I'm surmising that they're cooking (with smoke?) over indirect heat in a moist environment in a barbeque equivalent for 6-12hours at a really low temperature (maybe around 100C?).  Basting every few hours.

Here's the kitchen!

No sign of the ribs here, unfortunately. 

I'm probably completely wrong about this method of this, of course.  But I'm still going to have a go at recreating it.  I've never seen anything like these ribs in NZ, but I would think that the southern Americans famous for their barbeque (Memphis, St Louis etc) might have.  I guess that the sweetness of the Li family's recipe would appeal to those Southerners – from what I've seen of their recipes with all the molasses and sugar and treacle and apple juice.  They go for moist, long, low cooking, often adjusting the temperature throughout the cooking to achieve their desired outcomes. 

Another pic, from a different angle (and a strangely romantic filter effect!):

Southern barbeque is where I'm going to start hunting for ways to replicate the dish.  I'll wait until after Pav's back, just in case I make so much I can't hide the disasters by myself!  My traveling colleague reckons they were so good he can still conjure up the taste, so he'll have to be a taste tester as well.  I'll let you know how I get on.  If it's any good. 

Photo credit: 2 photos courtesy Brett Tompkins