I remember having had some of this delicious rice topper in Japan a few years ago, but had not really thought about obtaining some of it here until I ran across it in the local Chinese Store.
Rousong, also called meat floss, pork floss, meat wool and various other names, is pork that is boiled in sweetened soy sauce with various spices. This cooking transforms the muscle collagen into gelatin and breaks the individual muscle fibers apart giving it a cotton candy like appearance. The end effect is a sweet (not as sweet as cotton candy though) pork flavored fluffy meat product.
There were a couple of different types available at my Asian grocer, I’ve opted to try this one. It does have a USDA label on it. From what I’ve found, most meat products sold in the US are produced in the US, although the package did not specifically say that it was made in the USA or anywhere else for that matter.
If you’ve had Asian desserts before, you may recognize this as a topper to sweet buns and even used as stuffing in certain desserts. I prefer mine simply on a bowl of rice giving the rice a nice round sweet and meaty taste. I’ve only tried it on white rice, but will give it a try on brown rice (although this will require probably more of the floss to counterbalance the stronger taste of brown rice).