Eating dangerously: pork belly stew Tung Po Rou

I made some pork belly stew Tung Po Rou according to the recipe enclosed below, only skipping the spinach. The dangerous part is that the pork belly was five days past its expiration date. It smelled very little so I decided to give it a try. I made sure the recipe called for prolonged cooking in order to kill whatever might already be living in the pork. I recall reading that before refrigerators eating unfresh meat was a normal practice and that spices were used not so much to add flavor but rather to cover the unfresh smell. So I am now eating it. It doesn't taste off, in fact it's quite good, and I hope to still be around tomorrow.

Pork belly stew Tung Po Rou

1 1/3 lb pork belly
2 scallions, crushed
1 inch piece fresh ginger, crushed
6 T soy sauce
1 cup Chinese rice wine or sherry (substitute with apple juice)
4 T rock sugar (I used brown sugar)

1 bunch of spinach, washed and drained
1 T oil
1/3 t salt
a pinch of MSG, optional

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan and put in the pork. When the water returns to a boil, remove the pork. Cut into pieces 2 inch long and 1/2 inch thick.
Put the scallions, ginger and wine in a pan. Add the sliced pork, and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce heat and pour in the soy sauce. Cover and simmer until the meat becomes tender. If the juice evaporates too much, you may add a little water.
Stir in the sugar. When the sugar has completely melted and the pork is glossy, remove from the heat.

Heat the oil, add the salt and spinach, and stir-fry quickly over high heat. Just before removing from the stove, season with MSG. Put the meat and the sauce on a serving dish and place the spinach along one side.

(recipe from chinesefood-recipes.com)