The Method

1. Clean the pork belly and remove any hair. Blanch in hot water for 5 minutes. Immediately cool down with running water until cool to handle.
2. Pat dry pork belly and tenderise it by poking holes on the skin with a meat tenderiser.
3. Place skin side down and partially slice through the meat in a grid-like pattern with approximately 4 cm spacing. First massage the meat portion with Chinese Shaoxing wine then the dry marinate. Avoid any marinate on the skin side.
4. Tightly wrap the pork belly in a box shape with aluminium foil exposing the skin side. Lightly brush mixture of white rice vinegar, table salt and baking soda on the skin and refrigerate overnight.
5. When ready to roast. Preheat oven (broiler) at 180°C. Wipe any moisture off the skin and then evenly cover the skin with coarse salt. Line a tray with aluminium foil and place aluminium box of pork belly onto lined tray. Place in oven for 1 hour.
6. Take the pork belly out , and set oven to 240°C. Remove pork belly from aluminium box and discard the box. Remove all the salt and place pork belly back into the oven (broiler) for 30 minutes or until pork skin is crispy. After 15 minutes it should be crackling. You may need to adjust the oven temperature if its burning the skin.
7. Rest for 15 minutes. Prepare and mix dipping sauce ingredients. Once cool, scrape off any burnt skin and slice pork with skin side down and serve. To reheat, oven at 200°C for 20 minutes.