My Wu Sek Spare Rib (無鍚肉骨頭)

The first time I made this dish was at my age of 18, after I tried it in a Shanghai restaurant near my home.  I then guess what should be put inside.  Of course, at that time, my cooking experience was very shallow and didn't know what to put.  Then luckily just at the same time I watched a TV special by Mrs. Lee Tsang Pang Chin - I learned so much from her about various dishes.  She even told some basic skills which the other chefs didn't - just hot wok cool oil!  At that time, she already knew hot oil is not good for body - trans fat!  Isn't it something?  OK, since then I made this dish for my family as it's very good for eating rice.  Also at that time frozen spare ribs was not expensive.  Like the portion (around 1 kg) was just HK$10 (US$1.25).  Now it's not expensive either HK$41 (US$5.4) for 1kg something as shown on the above left photo.  Actually nowadays it's quite hard to find a whole uncut spare ribs.  I was so glad that the shop's lady opened a fresh box of spare ribs (and it's from Austria) and she also chose a lean one for me, but this one should be at least with some fat; otherwise it's not with the fat aroma (酥香).  So the first step is to pan fry the spare ribs (a whole one or at least cut into 2-3 big pieces, because this way it will store the juice inside when shimmered).  Note no oil in the pan - in Chinese we call this step White Wok (白鑊) - that means nothing in the wok but heat it.  Then you will see the outer part turn brown.  Put 1 litre of water or water to cover most of the spare ribs, 2-3 cloves of star anise, 2 soup spoons of soy sauce, 1.5 soup spoons of oyster sauce, 1.5 soup spoons of Shiu Hin Wine (Chinese Yellow wine).  Then shimmer it for 50 minutes to 1 hour at low heat.  Then check if the sauce is left about 300 - 400 ml left (about 1.5 - 2 bowls).   If not, shimmer it until it's there.   Then put out the spare ribs.  This time I will slightly cut the big bones surface and take out the bone one by one.   Then cut the meat in smaller pieces (about 1.25 to 1.5 inches in length) - keep the soft bones within the meat - as that one tastes so good.   Then put back in the sauce.  Take out the star anise.  Put 1/3  to 1/4 cane sugar bar (片糖) and 2-3 soup spoons of Chun Jiang Vinegar (鎮江醋).  Anyway, at that time you need to taste the sauce to your preference but allow the sauce to be a bit not too strong in taste because it still needs to shimmer for another 10 minutes as the vinegar will soften the meat.  Then check if the sauce is thick enough.  If not thicken it with some cornstarch, but don't make it too thick.  Actually originally it needs to put some dark soy sauce but I don't have it and I don't feel like putting it either.  Done - as on the right photo!