13 June 2010
What is the best dish in Chin Family? Which dish is sought after that all friends, relatives and people who are willing to pay for my mother to prepare during Dragon Boat Festival? There is only one dish to do justice to this special occasion, rice dumpling. Proudly introduce our family’s Ah Ma (Maternity Grandmother) Rice Dumpling. This recipe passed from my well respected, kind Ah Ma, who doted me a lot, to my mother and subsequently to my sisters.
The rice dumping is filled with glutinous rice, dried shrimps, chestnut, mushroom, salty egg yolks, pork belly and Chinese sausage. You will find most rice dumplings in the market do not have Chinese sausage. It was I, the Chinese pump young, fine and handsome glutton who suggested adding Chinese sausage in rice dumpling.
The story was in Singapore more than twenty years ago. I was an extremely naughty kid and I was so angry with my mother that she did not bring me to the zoo to see my favorite animal, hippo. I love hippo very much because they are just extremely fat, aggressive, lazy and cute animals that always open their mouth wide open to be fed, just like me. She was busying preparing rice dumpling with my grandmother that time. I extremely did not like Mrs break-her-promise and I wanted to have my revenge. I saw bundles of Chinese sausages that were used for cooking fried rice for lunch and I decided to dice them and mixed with the pork belly and others ingredients, which were soaked with dark soy sauce, and not easily to be recognized by my mother. Three hours later, the rice dumplings were fully cooked, and I was the first one to try the rice dumpling. I almost fainted because I did not want to try the rice dumplings with my special “ingredient”, and I really thought that they were tasted terrible. Mrs break-her-promise threatened me by saying: “no rice dumpling, no hippo”! I was so upset and I forced my mouth open and taste it. When I tasted the glutinous rice, it was not as salty and rich in taste as those in the market. It was plain, almost approach to plain but with a tiny bit of saltiness within the glutinous rice. The fillings were tiny bit salty and the favour was not strong. However if I ate both together, the rice dumplings was awesome. Both fillings and glutinous rice harmonized together very well. The Chinese sausage brought a tiny bit of sweetness to the fillings. The rice dumplings were a bit salty yet a bit sweet. The taste overall was light favour and the rice dumplings which were made by my mother and grandmother were really truly different from those in the market. Those found in the market were generally quite salty and rich in favour. They were tasty but if you ate them more than two at the same time, you would grow tired of their taste. My grandmother’s recipe was really different. I found myself eating more than four rice dumplings at the same time and I never actually grew tired of their taste. They were a bit plain but were tasty. Her recipe was truly magically. Now I know the reason why my parents’ business associates, relatives and friends wanted my mother’s rice dumplings badly.
After that incident, my lovely grandmother added Chinese sausages into the recipe. and the recipe will continue to pass on………
Note: After I ate my rice dumpling, Mrs break-her-promise told me: “Dear son, after you ate four rice dumplings, please look in front of the mirror and you will see a hippo!”
It is not easy to get the Best Uncle award which is awarded by my favourite niece annually. I had to make this little three-year-old beautiful and chubby princess a happy lady. I promised her to get a toy lappy but I took more than six months to fulfill my promise to her. I am too busy with work, photography and study. I always travel around this world for projects and field services, and study in Singapore at the same time. I promised myself to complete my course by end of this year so that I can concentrate Allez Cuisine and photography next year. My niece was treating my gorgeous Macbook as her lappy. I guess I had to get her a lappy before she destroyed it. Coincidently the store where I got her lappy was in Paragon, where my favourite café, Pasticceria Confetteria, Cova was located.
Pasticceria Confetteria, Cova was founded by Antonio Cova who was a pastry chef of the Great Conqueror, Napoleon I. The first Cova was opened beside the famous La Scala Theatre in Milano, Italy. Chef Cova was an expert in pastries and coffee. Soon after the opening of Cova in Milano, the café became the talk of the town. Politicians, professors, musicians, actors and writers went there to meet up to discuss their work with the tasty pastries and coffee. A branch was set up in Singapore more than a hundred years later.
