I’ve always liked the idea of eating food with my hands. Being able to pick something up and eat it without mess is a luxury most of us overlook. It’s easy, convenient, and can be mobile when needed. 


I’d imagine pretty much anybody could make these. They’re really simple and I got most of the prep out of the way hours ahead of time. The hardest thing here is cutting everything up, and that’s one of the easiest things to do! While it is a bit time consuming to cut things, it’s well worth the effort in the end.

When I made these, I only had reduced sodium soy sauce in the fridge and they came out a little more bland than I had expected. A little extra salt really brought the flavor out. If you’re making these – make SURE you are using regular soy sauce and not reduced sodium. 

This was actually my first try using fish sauce. The fish sauce had been sitting in my fridge for well over 3 years. I wasn’t sure if it goes bad or not (because this stuff smells absolutely rancid), but I checked online. Supposedly the longer you have it, the better it gets…well I wouldn’t have guessed by the grossly overwhelming smell. But fear not! The fish sauce works well with everything, and deepens the flavor quite well. 

They came out absolutely great! They’re not overwhelmingly fishy or anything, it’s got a great deep flavor from the pork and a slight hint of sweetness from the five spice in the aftertaste. If you like Asian style flavors, I’m sure you’ll love this one

THE PREPARATION

  • 1 pound ground pork 
  • 1 pound shrimp 
  • 2 medium red bell peppers 
  • 3 medium green bell peppers 
  • 4 stalks green onion 
  • 1 large egg 
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil 
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce 
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic 
  • 2 teaspoons fish sauce 
  • 1 teaspoon five spice 
  • 1 teaspoon rice vinegar 
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper 
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

THE EXECUTION

Stage One

1. All the prepping is going to come first. Make sure your shrimp is well drained of any excess water.

2. Peel all the shrimp and make sure they are dry.

3. Cut all your shrimp into thirds. We will be mixing all of it with the ground pork.

4. Let all of your pork go into a plastic bag. 

5. Add your shrimp to the ground pork in the bag.

6. Chop 4 stalks of spring onions, making sure they are relatively fine. 

7. Add all of your spices, spring onion, soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, and egg to the bag of pork and shrimp.

8. Mix the ingredients very well, making sure that all the spices and sauces are completely covering everything.

9. Make sure all air is out of the bag and roll it into a log.

10. Let it sit in the fridge to marinate for 2-3 hours.

Stage Two

1. Preheat your oven to 375F. 

2. Begin the prep. Chop your red bell peppers into quarters. 

3. Now chop your green bell peppers the same way. 

4. Spoon the marinated mixture onto your pepper quarters. The bell peppers won’t always come out in even quarters, so you have to do your best here. I don’t mind the offset of different size peppers and quarters, I will just eat 5-6 of them and call it a day.

5. Put them in the oven for 35 minutes. 

6. At 35 minutes in, I flipped the tray around and let them cook for another 5 minutes. 

7. Let them cool for 5 minutes and serve!

In total this makes 19 pork & shrimp bites, each being: 104.82 Calories, 6.25g Fats, 1.6g Net Carbs, and 9.79g Protein.