MAKING A MESS

Something reminded me of the customer at an Indian restaurant explaining that they'd have many more customers if they didn't add spices to everything ....

Something else brought back the memory of 肉圓 ('yiuk yuen'; meat rounds), pronounced ba wan in Hokkien. Shiitake mushrooms, pork, bamboo shoots, shallots, and a touch of five spice powder inside a toothsome glutinous cooked starch glob -- sweet potato and rice flour dough, nearly three quarters sweet potato, the remainder rice powder, mixed with water and gently steamed till thickened before enveloping the pre-sauteed filling and steaming the dumplings for ten to fifteen minutes -- served with a sweetish hoisin based sauce.
But they're great, truly great, with chilipaste.

It's a textural thing. And, to my mind, requires a crushed roasted peanut garnish.

Strictly casual food.
In Taiwan.

Because of a tiff that year between the Philippines and Taiwan I wasn't able to fly to Taipei from Manila then, so I didn't have them until along time afterwards.
They aren't hard to make, and the idea is simple.


There are recipes and articles elsewhere on the internet, so there's not point in giving instructions here. But they are worth hunting down.



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