Getting Started
Woke up craving dim sum after watching street food videos last night. Grabbed my dusty bamboo steamer from the back cabinet – thing looked like it hadn’t seen sunlight since last Chinese New Year. Checked the pantry: sticky rice bag practically empty with just two cups left. Whatever, improvising’s half the fun anyway.
Prep Chaos
Soaked those rice grains for three damn hours while prepping fillings. Sliced Chinese sausage crooked as hell ’cause my knife skills suck. Fried diced shiitakes with garlic until the kitchen smelled like heaven, then tossed in dried shrimp that looked suspiciously old. Added soy sauce till it looked right – measurements are for pastry chefs, not hungry people.
Critical flavor step: Marinated pork belly overnight using Ma’s trick: spoon of oyster sauce, white pepper tsunami, and sesame oil drizzle. That fat soaked up flavors like a sponge. Fried it crispy before mixing into the filling.
Assembly Madness
Layered soaked lotus leaves in the steamer like some sort of edible origami. Spread half the soggy rice, dumped all the filling chaos in the middle, then buried it under remaining rice. Splashed chicken broth over everything because plain water’s for amateurs. Covered the whole mess with more leaves like a flavor trap.
Steamed that bad boy on high heat for exactly 38 minutes – timer be damned, I judged by smell. Kitchen turned into a sauna zone. Peeled leaves back to reveal this glistening rice mountain. Poked chopsticks in to check doneness: grains clung together like best friends but weren’t mush.
Results & Dirty Secrets
Scooped into bowls while burning my fingers. That first bite? Umami explosion. Savory pork fat mixed with sweet sausage, chewy mushrooms doing backflips on sticky rice. Keys were simple:
- MSG-haters can bite me – oyster sauce & dried shrimp are magic
- Fat = flavor (skim that grease later if you’re fancy)
- Lotus leaves aren’t optional – they make it smell like dim sum heaven
Burnt my tongue scarfing it down standing by the stove. Realized why restaurant versions taste flat: they skip the lard-fried pork belly. Messed up my kitchen good though – sticky rice glued to counters like cement. Worth every damn rice grain.