Sweet-and-Sour Pork

When I was in second grade, I opened my lunch box to find a char siu bao (barbecued pork bun) and some soy-sauce chicken wings. One mean girl named Penny laughed at my weird lunch, and all the other bologna-eating children joined in. A couple of weeks later, my mother cooked my favorite dish, Sweet-and-Sour Pork, for my seventh birthday party. The children gasped in amazement as she created a dish they thought could only be made at a restaurant. And boy, it was good—