At the table
Eat the coated pieces and the vegetables underneath with chopsticks or a spoon. Let each bite cool first.
Pork ribs contain bones and may have small bone fragments. Eat around them carefully; the steamer and food may be hot.
The vegetable base, chili level and garnish vary. Similar baskets also come with other meats; order the specific version you want.
GET TO KNOW THE DISH
What goes into it?
Explore some key ingredients below. Preparations may use additional seasonings and ingredients.
The vegetable base, chili level and garnish vary. Similar baskets also come with other meats; order the specific version you want.
Typical ingredients
Recipes vary by restaurant.
How does it taste?
Savory and gently spicy, with chili-bean paste and Sichuan pepper.
- Chili heat
- Texture
- Tender bone-in pork with a moist grainy coating and soft vegetables.
- How it’s made
- The seasoned pieces are coated in ground rice and steamed over potato, sweet potato or taro. Ginger, chili-bean paste and ground Sichuan pepper flavor the coating.
The vegetable base, chili level and garnish vary. Similar baskets also come with other meats; order the specific version you want.
A CONNECTION TO PLACE
Origin & regional roots
Associated with Chongqing.
About this regional connection
Chongqing: Associated with Wanzhou, Chongqing.
Ask if they have it first
请问你们有排骨格格吗？
Do you have this item?
A LITTLE SOMETHING TO READ
Story & history
Goat meat is an early chapter of Wanzhou ribs gege
This account describes a tradition or story, rather than an established historical fact.
Local tradition recalls that early Wanzhou gege mainly used goat meat: the hilly banks of the Yangtze around Wanzhou suited goat raising. Today, the name also covers pork ribs and pork intestine steamed in the small bamboo baskets called gege. In a gege restaurant, the baskets rise in a tower over one stove; cooks track each basket’s place and steaming time before serving it. Wanzhou added the gege preparation technique to its district-level intangible-heritage list in 2020. A serving of ribs gege sits within this broader local practice of stacking small steamers and serving different meats.