It’s always difficult to answer a question that starts with ‘What is the best OO?’, because the answer will almost certainly be a subjective one. 

It is hard enough with music, or novels, or films, but I find it especially hard to answer this kind of question when it is about food; my answer will often depend on what I am hungry for when you ask me!

I think it is fair to say that England is quite well known for its roast meats, and at Christmas we have a variety of options to choose from. 

In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, the Cratchitt family prepare a roast goose for their Christmas meal, which is famously replaced with a huge Turkey by the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge.

Roast chicken is popular if you are preparing a Christmas meal for fewer people, and roast beef is practically a national symbol, but today I am going to talk about roast pork.

Recently I have been enjoying a particular cut of pork - belly with the skin on.

There are a number of ways to prepare it, but at the moment my favourite is to roll it up and tie it, so that it cooks in a tube shape, looking a bit like a Chashu.

I am rather cheating here, as the preparation style I am using is heavily influenced by ‘lechon liempo’ - a dish from the Philippines - and inside the salted and peppered interior I wrap lemongrass, spring onion, and thin slices of red onion.

It stays in the oven for two hours at 170 degrees (Celsius of course), then gets a brushing of milk on the skin and goes back in for a final 30 minutes.

It slices well, and can be eaten with roast potatoes and gravy, with white rice, and I have even used thin slices of it in some ramen I made.

For Christmas dinner this year however, I think I will be making chicken.

Do you enjoy roast meat? Do you have a favourite recipe? If you’d like to talk about it, book a Conversation and Correction lesson, and let me know all about it!