Pork Belly Presentation.

I wouldn't expect pork belly necessarily to have crackling, either. But I wouldn't have bothered with this dish. it screams "LOOK AT ME!
I'M A FANCY CHEF!", and has little respect for the basic ingredients. way too many ingredients, and confusing flavours and styles.

I love crackling but I wouldn't expect it unless stated on the menu. That sounds like a clash of flavours though, and it's kind of weird to say "a" spring onion rather than just spring onion.

Oh wait, I read that wrong, it's describing the salad as a whole? So "A spring onion, mint, chilli and coriander salad.

Is it fair to say that Pork belly should always be presented with crackling ?
Or are there variations in certain menus with which this is left out.
Example: Would you expect there to be crackling in this menu -
PORK BELLY. Slow-roasted pork belly with grilled chorizo, tiger prawns, a spring onion, mint, chili and coriander salad with a Thai dressing, and aioli.?

No it wouldn't expect to see pork cracking as its wasn't listed.
There are no rules saying they must go together :)

I don't expect pork belly to have cracklings unless specified. There are lots of other ways to cook it, notably braised with Chinese master stock.

That menu description sounds a real mishmash, especially the addition of chorizo and ailoli to what otherwise reads like a South East Asian dish. Where is it from?

There's a lot going on in that menu, wouldn't the flavours clash?
Whoops, edited to say as the meat was roasted I'd probably expect crackling.

Yes.
Yuk. I hate chorizo, not fond of prawns, nor coriander leaves (although the ground seed is OK), and I hate garlic, so no aioli.

But yes, crackle is half the reason for pork belly.

I baked some pork belly strips so I got the crackle, cut them into 1 1/2 in pieces and tossed them in a sticky Asian sauce before serving, served them on rice with veg. They were yummy and Mr got his crackling lol. Next time I'm going to braise them, and do the same but there will be no crackling.

Farriers Masterton. The pork was uneatable.

On Princess ships, they shout about the 'Curtis Stone' dishes, one of which is pork belly.

Last year, it was served with crackling - but they rarely got it right.

This year, no attempt at crackling.

If a recipe states to cook as it is written then just do it, the end result determines whether you like it or not regardless how you present it.

Pork Belly should be presented with nice edible skin that comes come it.

It does not matter whether it is like crackling or 'if it is not', as long it is bite-able and edible and very nice.

Some methods includes pin or spike pricking the skin prior to cooking which has real great effect.

To go on about cracking is when one is doing a nice Rolled pork roast with that nice lovely wrapped skin 2/3 to 3/4 around it, YUM !

Here is A very nice Chinese one which is highly recommended to try.
Cantonese Roast Pork Belly


Serves: 8 servings
Ingredients
• 1.5kg slab of pork belly
• 2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon five spice powder
• ¼ teaspoon white pepper
• 1½ teaspoons rice wine vinegar
• ½ cup coarse sea salt
Instructions
1. Rinse the pork belly and pat dry. Place it skin-side down on a tray, and rub the shaoxing wine into the meat (not the skin). Mix together the salt, sugar, five spice powder and white pepper. Thoroughly rub this spice mixture into the meat as well. Flip the meat over so it’s skin-side up. Let it dry out in the fridge uncovered, for 12-24 hours.
2. Preheat the oven to 185 degrees C. So, to do the next step, there’s actually a special tool that restaurants use, but we just used a sharp metal skewer. Systematically poke holes ALL over the skin, which will help the skin crisp up, rather than stay smooth and leathery. The more holes there are, the better, really.
3. Place a large piece of aluminum foil (heavy duty foil works best) onto a baking tray, and fold up the sides around the pork snugly, so that you’re creating a kind of box all around it, with a 1-inch high border going around the sides.
4. Brush the rice wine vinegar on top of the pork skin. Pack the sea salt in one even layer over the skin, so the pork is completely covered. Place in the oven and roast for 1 hour and 30 minutes. If your pork belly still has the rib attached, roast for 1 hour and 45 minutes.
5. Take the pork out of the oven, turn on the broiler to low, and position the oven rack in the lowest position. Remove the top layer of sea salt from the pork belly, unfold the foil, and place a roasting rack on the pan. Place the pork belly on the rack and put it back under the broiler to crisp up. This should take 10-15 minutes. The broiler should ideally be on “low” so that this process can happen gradually. If your broiler gets pretty hot, keep a close eye on it and be sure to keep the pork as far away from the heat source as possible.
6. When the skin has puffed up and gotten crispy, remove from the oven. Let it rest for about 15 minutes and then slice.

Cheers