Dim Sum

A Dim Sum favorite. In Taiwan we had "Jongzi," or "Ba Tsang" as we say in Taiwanese, which is sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves - traditional fare for Dragon Boat Festival. My grandmother made the absolute bestest, most delectable Ba Tsang ever! They were loaded with fatty pork, shiitake mushrooms, chestnuts, and fresh bamboo braised in soy sauce, and dried shallots - all seasoned with a touch of Five Spice powder. My first taste of this Cantonese version using lotus leave

If you like fried food (and, well, who doesn't?) then spring rolls are for you. Don't shy away from this dish if your experience with spring rolls has been those tiny, greasy, and almost filling-less abominations you often get as freebies with your meal at a Chinese fast-food joint. The real deal is deliciously savory, not greasy (if cooked correctly) and highly addictive. Deep-fried shrimp & pork spring rolls are one of the most typical Chinese iterations, although, dependin

This is the staple steamed pork and shrimp dumpling that you'll find at every and any dim sum restaurant around. In Mandarin it's called 'Shao Mai' and in Cantonese, 'Siu Mai.'  It's relatively easy to make, especially after your first attempt (aren't most recipes that way?). The fresher the shrimp, the better, and if you can find 'Shao Mai' wrappers at your local Asian market, well then, fantastic! Otherwise, regular square wonton wrappers will do - just trim off those squar

This recipe is my take on a very common Dim Sum dish, consisting of fresh shrimp wrapped in rice noodle rolls, which are then steamed and served with a light, sweetish soy sauce. You can make the rice noodle rolls yourself if you like, but it's a tricky proposition and time consuming if you're a novice, so I just buy the rolls premade from the 99 Ranch Market (most Asian markets will stock this in the same section where they have their other rice noodle products). Just make s

Stuffed bell peppers are de rigueur in the pantheon of Dim Sum fare. Oftentimes the stuffing consists of shrimp paste, but I prefer a combo of shrimp and fatty ground pork. The key to the filling is to have a paste-like versus crumbly texture, and I use a food processor in pulse mode to achieve this.