Lion's Head (food)
Huaiyang dish, consisting of large pork meatballs stewed with vegetables
Lion's Head (Chinese: 獅子頭; pinyin: Shīzitóu) or stewed meatball is a dish from the Huaiyang cuisine of eastern China, consisting of large pork or beef meatballs stewed with vegetables. There are two varieties: white (or plain), and red (紅燒, cooked with soy sauce). The plain variety is usually stewed or steamed with napa cabbage. The red variety can be stewed with cabbage or cooked with bamboo shoots and tofu derivatives. The minced meat rich in fat is more likely to bring better texture, addition of chopped water chestnut also works.
The name "lion's head", derives from the shape of the meatball which is supposed to resemble the head of the Chinese guardian lion, specifically.
The dish originated in Yangzhou and Zhenjiang, to a lesser degree, Huai'an, while the plain variety is more common in Yangzhou and the red variety more common in Zhenjiang. The dish became a part of Shanghai cuisine with the influx of migrants in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The dish can also be prepared with beef or be made as a vegetarian dish.
History
The dish has been well known since the Qing dynasty, as the recipe extracted from Xu Ke's Qing bai lei chao (清稗類鈔) attests:獅子頭者，以形似而得名，豬肉圓也。
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