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木须肉

The Moo Shu Pork My Dad's Made 100,000 Times

Passing down my dad's (James Beard Award-winning) secrets from 50+ years of making Moo Shu Pork.

Why should you try my dad's recipe?

Recipe main image

Because my dad's made this dish thousands of times (literally!) over his 50+ year career as a Chinese chef. And now, you get to learn all of his tips and techniques.

I know you'll love it as much as our community does - this recipe video has over 151.8K views and 3K likes on YouTube!

Love from our community

@Lavadx

I made this last night for my family as I was finally able to find the Moo Shu wrappers in China Town in Honolulu and WOW, these were OUTSTANDING!!! Daddy Lau's recipes are legit, every single one are spot on... Daddy Lau for POTUS 2024!!! Make Dinner Great Again!!! Love you Chef Lau, thank you and your family for sharing your amazing recipes with the world!!!

@jerryvelders4457

I love you guys. Great food, great history, great family. Thanks for sharing your life with us.

@M14-p3b

Made this recipe and added crushed garlic and ginger to the vegetables as I stir fried. This dish was better than my local restaurant’s recipe. Also used the Mandarin wrappers as they were 30 for $2 in my local Asian grocery. The separation of the wrappers took the longest. This was a great budget dish to make. For 6 servings, it cost about $1 per serving as pork tenderloin is almost always an economical cut of meat. Fantastic! Thank you and your Dad, Randy!

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Meet your chef, Daddy Lau

50+ Years of Experience

50+ Years of Experience

My dad's been cooking Chinese food for over 50+ years, as a chef, restaurant owner, and loving father.

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2x James Beard Awards

2x James Beard Awards

We won TWO James Beard Awards for our endeavors in teaching and preserving Cantonese cuisine.

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Over 2.5M+ Followers

My dad is the internet's favorite Chinese chef, teaching millions of people how to cook every month.

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Moo Shu Pork (木须肉)

Moo Shu Pork (木须肉) main image

Moo Shu Pork is a quick and healthy dish that was a popular appetizer at my dad’s old restaurant.

The Story of Moo Shu Pork

Traditionally, Moo Shu Pork belongs to Northern Chinese cuisine. By some accounts, the recipe first appeared in Shandong Province, where it then grew in popularity and evolved as it spread to Beijing, the rest of China, and to Western countries.

It was originally called Moo Shi Pork (or “muhk sāi” in Cantonese), named after the famous Sweet Osmanthus tree, which produces beautiful blossoms of "gwai fā" (桂花), a Chinese symbol of nobility, status, love, and peace.

China even named a city in the tree’s honor, Guilin, which literally means ”Forest of Sweet Osmanthus”, and which also happens to be where my parents went for their honeymoon in the 80s.

After the dish spread to American Chinese restaurants in the 1960s, somewhere along the way, we started calling it Mu Shu Pork (“muhk sēui” in Cantonese). This is a nod to some of its core ingredients - wood ear fungus (“muhk yih”) and scrambled eggs, which resemble the white and yellow blossoms of the Osmanthus tree.

Ingredients

Prep

15 minutes

Total

30 minutes

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Main Ingredients

  • 1 oz rehydrated wood ear fungus
  • 8 oz cabbage
  • 2 oz lean pork
  • 2 oz carrot
  • 2 oz celery
  • 2  egg
  • 8  flour tortillas

Flavors + Marinades

  •  salt (for mixing eggs, amount: to taste)
  • 1.5 tsp cornstarch
  • 0.50 tsp water
  • 0.25 tsp salt (for pork marinade)
  •  hoisin sauce (enough to spread on tortillas)
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • 0.50 tsp chicken bouillon
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce

Want a deeper dive into how to craft traditional, authentic Cantonese flavors?

Understanding Flavor

Learn how to recreate the Cantonese flavors you love by demystifying and mastering a handful of core, traditional ingredients

Tortillas in a Chinese dish?!

The first question my wife and I had when my dad started cooking was, "why are we using tortillas?"

The traditional form of Moo Shu Pork was eaten with a much thinner flour wrap (or you'd skip the wrap entirely.) In Cantonese, it's called a "bohk béng" - or "thin pancake". Others call it a Spring Pancake.

My parents touch on this during our "Meal Time" discussion, but at a certain point, at least for American Chinese restaurants, chefs started switching to Mexican tortillas because they were much cheaper, readily available, and just as tasty.

Moo Shu Pork's Core Ingredients

There are a lot of variations on Moo Shu Pork, but the core ingredients tend to be wood ear fungus, scrambled eggs, and some sort of flour tortilla.

In other recipes, you'll commonly find bamboo shoots, dried lily flowers, and other ingredients. My dad prefers to keep things a bit simpler, so he opted to go without those for this recipe.

We expand on this more later, but if you don't live near an Asian market, here are some options on Amazon to buy Dried Wood Ear Fungus. There's a few options, depending on what's in stock:

  • https://amzn.to/3cHYFc1
  • https://amzn.to/36jgm0o
  • https://amzn.to/36vx1OH

It's all about the Hoisin Sauce

Much of the sweet and savory flavor profile of my dad's recipe comes from Hoisin sauce. Sometimes these can be hit or miss, so I've linked to the one that my dad uses.

  • Koon Chun Hoisin Sauce

Finding Asian Ingredients

Some of these ingredients are hard to find in a typical grocery store.

If you don't live near an Asian market, most or all of what my dad uses in this recipe can be found on Amazon.

  • Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster Sauce
  • Lee Kum Kee Chicken Bouillon

I've also included some other Chinese kitchen essentials, used in many of my dad's other recipes.

  • Pearl River Bridge Superior Light Soy Sauce
  • Dried Lily Flower
  • Kadoya Sesame Oil
  • Shaoxing Cooking Wine

These links are affiliate links, which means that if you use our links to purchase these ingredients, Amazon pays my family a small amount for the sale - at no extra cost to you. If you use these links, we really appreciate the support!

Instructions

Prep

15 minutes

Total

30 minutes

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this recipe!

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Step 1: Rehydrate wood ear fungus

The first step is to give those dried wood ear fungi some life! Submerge the wood ear fungus (1 oz) in a bowl of water for 5-15 minutes.

If you're in a rush, you can use warm water. Microwave water for about 45-60 seconds, and submerge the wood ear fungus in the warmed water. The rehydration process should take about 4-5 minutes.

Step 2: Prepare pork

Now, we'll cut our lean pork (2 oz) into thin slices, and then into thin strips.

Place the pork into a bowl off to one side, and add cornstarch (1.5 tsp), water (0.50 tsp), and salt (0.25 tsp). Using your finger, mix it into an even slurry. Then, mix and massage the cornstarch slurry and pork with your hands for about 20-30 seconds.

Coating the pork with cornstarch helps keep it tender and juicy when we cook it.

Step 3: Cut vegetables

As we did with the pork, we'll be cutting our cabbage (8 oz), celery (2 oz), and carrots (2 oz) into thin slices, and then into thin strips.

When the wood ear fungus is rehydrated (it should feel more like a jelly fish), we'll also cut that into small strips.

Step 4: Prepare eggs

Crack your eggs into a bowl and add a little bit of salt (to taste). Beat with your fork until bubbles form.

Step 5: Heat wok, cook eggs

As with most Chinese recipes, we need our wok to be really hot before cooking. Set the stove to high heat and heat the wok for 3-5 minutes. When it's ready, it should just be starting to let off a little bit of steam/smoke.

Add canola oil (1 tbsp), and spread it around the surface of the wok. Mix your eggs for good measure, and slowly pour it into the wok, covering as much surface area as you can as you pour.

We'll cook the eggs for 2-3 minutes in total, and we're aiming for a soft, omelette-like consistency. Occasionally lift the wok from the heat, and tilt the wok around to spread the egg around.

Halfway through, using your spatula, carefully separate the egg from the wok, and flip. Cook for another minute, and then set the egg aside on a plate.

Step 6: Reheat wok, add oil, cook pork

Add more canola oil (1 tbsp) to the wok, and wait about 1-2 minutes for the wok to heat up again.

Then, add the pork to the wok, constantly moving and stirring the pork. The pork will turn white when it's cooked through, and that's when you can set the pork aside.

Step 7: Cook vegetables

Since there's already oil in the wok, we don't need to add any more oil.

Pour all of our vegetables into the wok and cook for about 8-10 minutes. We don't need to be "fast-handed" as my dad says - be gentle as you stir and move the vegetables around to be cooked evenly.

Important

Don't overcook the vegetables, otherwise we'll lose the all-important crunch factor, and the vegetables will release too much water.

We're aiming to cook at higher heat for a shorter amount of time.

Step 8: Add flavors, pork

Since a lot of the taste comes from hoisin sauce, we don't need to add too much flavoring to the vegetables themselves.

About 4-5 minutes in, add chicken bouillon (0.50 tsp) and oyster sauce (1 tbsp) to the wok, and stir. Shortly after, add the pork back into the wok, and mix everything together.

Once the vegetables + pork are ready, plate them.

Step 9: Prepare the Moo Shu Pork wraps

Almost there! We just need to cut our eggs into slices, and warm up our tortillas.

To warm the tortillas, you can either throw them on a wok or pan for 60-90 seconds, or microwave them for 30 seconds. Both methods work fine, but heating them via stovetop is slightly tastier.

When you're ready to eat, using a knife, lather the tortillas with Hoisin sauce, and load up the tortilla with the vegetables and pork.

Enjoy!

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Frequently Asked Questions

Enjoy!

This was one of the most popular dishes at my parents' old restaurant!

Now, hopefully, you can create your own memories with this dish with your loved ones.

Also, I cordially invite you to eat with us and learn more about the dish, Chinese culture, and hang out with our adorable son.

Cheers, and thanks for cooking with us!

Feel free to comment below if you have any questions about the recipe.

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We started Made With Lau to celebrate Cantonese culture and honor the legacy of our wonderful parents, Jenny and Chung Sun Lau.

Our hope is that these recipes and stories help you spread the joy, love, and nostalgia that I felt growing up.

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