My friends were inspired by one of Jonathan Gold’s final LA Weekly reviews, of Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Village, so Tamara made a reservation at “the most ambitious Chinese restaurant to open in Los Angeles in a decade.” It was certainly impressive looking, with décor that brought to mind a bygone Shanghai banquet hall and a shiny menu nearly an inch thick, packed with page upon page of dishes and historical photos of Chinese women.

The food itself was uneven, but the owners most definitely had a handle on braised pork dishes, including a jiggling bone-in shank with bok choy, and even better, a dish that was called – to paraphrase – something like Shanghai Braised Pork in Old Alley. The dish featured shimmering squares of pork belly a la Shanghai’s “old alley” infused with a sweet and savory red sauce. The caramelized cubes joined hard-boiled eggs and knots of bean curd in what looked like an urn. Happily, the hog had a lot more life than the serving vessel.

Dose of Vitamin P spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.