PRESIDENTIAL PORK AND LEEK DUMPLINGS, STEWED OFFAL, AND MUSTARD

An article on the BBC website quirked my interest and my appetite. Albeit indirectly. It mentioned an incident that occured last December, when Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had lunch among the masses, proving that he ate normally, and like every one else.

 Quote: "The meal of six pork and leek dumplings, two side dishes of mustard greens, and a stew made of pigs liver and intestines ... "

習近平的午餐. Photo: AP. Via BBC.

First reaction: Those dumplings look awfully doughy and dense.
On second thought, I realized that of course they do, they're not really dumplings.



Northerners are wheat eaters, consequently the meal-time starch will necessarily veer toward steamed bread (饅頭 'maan tou'), rather than rice or noodles. Dumplin skin is merely a thin wrapping.


The BBC got it all wrong. Those weren't dumplings -- 蒸餃 ('jing gaau') or 水餃 ('sui gaau') -- but buns (包子 'baau ji'). Had they been dumplings, the filling would likely be chopped small cabbage, chives, or scallion, that was mixed with the meat; what every one knows as "water dumpling" (水餃 'sui gaau'). Sui gaau are extremely tasty, especially when made with gau choi (韭菜). While gau choi can indeed be translated as "leek", and often is, that is quite utterly incorrect.
They are lovely fragrant thin jade-green garlic chives.
Which are frequently paired with pork.
Delightful.


菜肉包 CHOI YIUK BAO

The combination of garlic chives (韭菜) and minced or shredded pork (肉絲 'yiuk szi') will be mostly found in dumplings made by people who are not from Lingnan (嶺南 'leng naam'). The nearest commonly found Cantonese equivalent to what Xi Jinping ate that day is the meat and vegetable bun found at small eateries which is called a 'choi yiuk bao' (菜肉包). It is not at all chopstick-size, but a handful. Like it's close relatives the gaibao (雞包 chicken bun) and the charsiu bao (叉燒飽 barbecue meat bun), one of them is enough for elevenses, with a beverage.
It is, in fact, a snackypoo.
Only casual eating.
Not a lunch.

The vegetable and pork dumpling (豬肉水餃 'chu yiuk sui gaau'), when pan-fried, yields the typical American potsticker (鍋貼 'wo tip').
This too is a lovely snack, but not lunch.

豬肉大蔥包子、炒肝、芥菜。

What Xi Jinping actually had on that day was plate of six meat and leek buns (6個豬肉大蔥包子 'lok go chu yiuk daai chung baau ji'), plus one bowl of soupy sauteed liver (1碗炒肝 'yat wun chaau gon'), and a side of cooked mustard stalks (1碟芥菜 'yat dip gaai choi').
Truly a great man.




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