Darn you, dumplings

I haven't expressly talked about it before, but one of my favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants in Macau is this place, Peking Dumplings (missing a few vowels on the sign, but whatever):

It's convenient (just a block away from Senado), cheap (20 boiled dumplings cost 18 MOP, about $2.25 US), and pretty authentic - I've seen them hand-wrapping the dumplings and they even make their own fresh soy milk. Last week, I stopped by after work to get some take-out dumplings for dinner, and I decided to also get some non-cooked dumplings for later, figuring I could cook them at home for lunch the following day or something like that. Something to note that will become important for the following paragraphs: these dumplings were fresh-wrapped, never frozen, so I just put them in the fridge.

On my first attempt a few days ago, I just used a thin layer of hot oil in the pan (it's supposed to be a non-stick pan, but at this point I think the non-stick coating has worn off). The outsides crisped beautifully, they smelled and tasted delicious...but the inside filling wasn't fully cooked. I didn't realize this until I looked more closely at the last dumpling and saw some of the pork still looked pinkish, but by then I had already eaten six. Oops. In any case, I didn't get sick, so I figured I was ok.

My second attempt tonight also involved just oil, but I kept it at a lower heat, figuring that would help cook the insides more without charring the outsides. You would think that frying in hot oil for 10 minutes would cook just about anything, but nope, same problem. Lovely-looking crispy dumpling skins on the outside, stubbornly pink-ish filling inside. I even opened one up to check the inside, saw it was pink, and put it back in the pan, but the meat still didn't cook! I opened each of the six dumplings to check, but they were all like that, so I just ate the skin, scraping out the filling and setting it aside to separately cook more later.

Before my final attempt with the last five dumplings, I Googled "How to pan-fry dumplings" and the first few links all suggested the same thing: Fry until one side is golden, add water and steam for a few minutes, then finish frying until it's as crispy as you want it to be. This sounded somewhat like what I remember Mom doing at home (in a cast-iron pan), so I decided to give it a go.

The result? Perfectly golden, crispy outside, and...only slightly more cooked inside -_- Susan came to check on me and complimented how they looked on the plate, but then ran to get her camera so she could photograph me dissecting each dumpling and eventually frying the filling (which I should note is still slightly pinkish even though I know it's fully cooked). Seriously though, I don't understand why this is such a problem...I've made potstickers before just fine (my roommates from summer 2006 can vouch for this); these dumplings are very tasty when fried at the restaurant, and the point still remains that I was cooking them for over 10 minutes!

Gah. Maybe next time I'll just boil the heck out of them.

I know I've been MIA...

...but there's lots to come, I promise! A quick rundown:

1) Singapore part 2 (including mini-Yale reunion #2!)
2) Food: Brian and Mari's first time at hotpot, GRBs, SE Asian food carnival, spicy noodle shop and other favorite places
3) My own cooking attempts (Dumplings fail; beef + broccoli was ok!)
4) The necessity for fashion police in Macau =P
5) Ongoing events at the ELC/teaching fairy tales
6) Upcoming stuff: Macau Food Festival, Top Restaurant play

In the meantime, an encouraging sign (at the bottom of the stairs =P)

These are a few of our favorite...

Having just passed the three-month anniversary of our arrival in Macau, I thought I'd write some more about the places we like to go and the things we like to do...namely, the restaurants at which we like to eat. Many of these are hole-in-the-wall restaurants that don't really have English names, and we usually don't know the Chinese names, so we've just given them our own nicknames, which sometimes make our conversations sound rather strange to people who don't know what we're talking about.

1) The "phallic noodle shop" aka Fei Chai Nam Mei Sek (肥 仔文 美 食)
Eve introduced us to this little gem in Taipa during our first week - it's a great place to get some savory shrimp wonton noodles (they use real shrimp!), stir-fried beef and vegetables over rice, and they also make a pretty good bowl of congee. The price is a little more expensive than some other places, about 30 MOP (about $3.75 USD) for a dish, but the portions are generous and they always throw in a free bowl of soup. We recently found out that the restaurant itself is only open for dinner, but you can call in for lunchtime takeout.

You might be wondering, "So far this sounds pretty normal...why the name?" The answer:

*drum/cymbal crash*

2) "Place of deliciousness," aka Sun Yick
The nickname came from Brian, although the rest of us would agree. About three blocks from our apartment in the Costa area, this restaurant is an eatery that's very popular with the locals. The dishes here are more expensive, about 60-70 MOP each, but they're big because it's all family-style service, and the preparation/seasonings are top-notch. What makes it more fun is that all the names on the menu are rather metaphorical, so even Chinese customers tend to just point to the photos. For example, one dish says something like, "If you walk quickly, you'll get around the world." It's actually pig's feet.

Personal favorites include the 空 心 菜 tublers and the stir-fried beef dish shown below, as well as spiced pork chop chunks (排 骨) and the giant curry chicken bun (look on the menu hehe)

The metaphorical menu

Yumminess

3) Dumpling Town (which is the actual name)
Sadly, I realized I have no photos of the food from this place (yet), but that's because every time I've been, it's difficult to prevent people from attacking the plates long enough to take a snapshot =P Hidden in a back alley off Senado, this gem is a bit expensive (18 MOP for a plate of 4-8 dumplings), but the extensive variety of options makes it worthwhile. My personal favorite is definitely the "satay chicken dumpling," with its unusual triangular shape, tender bits of chicken, crunchy celery, and thick, savory gravy inside. Other recommendations: the steamed "carrot" haw gaw (the skin is just a bright orange, but there are whole shrimp inside) and fried chive dumplings...all of these go well with their freshly made soymilk =D

4) The "spicy noodle shop" (the Chinese name means something like "Crossing the Bridge")
Just earlier this week, Susan and I were going to take Austin to Dumpling Town, but unexpectedly found it closed. We wandered down the street and saw a lot of locals in a basement restaurant, so we decided to try it out. We all got massive bowls of noodles and meat, with varying levels of spice. On the menu (center bottom), they offer "little spice," "medium spice," "Szechuan spice," and a few other options including "extra spice" and "crazy spice." There is actually a sign in the restaurant that they are not responsible for what happens if you order the "crazy spice." Knowing my own limits, I got the "little spice," but Susan went for "medium spice" and Austin almost went the whole nine yards, going for "extra spice."

My bowl...

Austin looking rather rueful at his very, very red bowl

The menu

Even better, we found out this place was a chain, and there was a branch just a block from our apartment! I haven't been there yet, but Susan ended up getting takeout a few days later and I'm sure we'll be back at some point because a large bowl of spicy soup sounds like the perfect dinner to warm up on a chilly winter day!

So yeah, there are some of our favorite places (so far)...I'm sure I'll be adding more to this list in the future ;-)

SE Asia Food Carnival

This afternoon on the way home from dance class, I get a text from Amy about a food festival near the Three Lamps district. After a quick shower, I headed over to check out the dinner possibilities:

What I found initially didn't seem like much: a short street lined with yellow-and-red stalls selling fairly standard southeast Asian items like chicken/beef satay, but there were a few interesting options. I sampled a few things and bought some mixed veggie noodles to take home for dinner - here are a few of the highlights:

The (very crowded) street

Fried...stuff. I didn't try any of this, but it sure smelled tasty =P

Inasal - something like chicken satay, but more of a roast chicken texture, flavored with lemongrass

"Tea fruit soup," presuming I read the characters correctly

I walked around Three Lamps a bit more for grocery shopping (they have the cheapest fruit/vegetables, but the quality is more variable than Sanmiu), and thankfully I re-discovered what I jokingly call "The Steamery," because most of the goods are steamed rather than baked. The ELC director, Kim, introduced us to this place back in August during orientation, but Three Lamps is such a maze of alleyways that I've only been able to find it once on my own since then (this would be the second time). It's great because they make fresh man tou (the Chinese equivalent of white bread) and BBQ pork buns, but also red bean bun, shumai, sticky rice, and other yummy stuff.

While this food festival was a bit disappointing, I'm really looking forward to the Macau International Food Festival, set to start next week...keep an eye out for another report of deliciousness!

Hotpot, GRBs, and Hac Sa

Thursday night, Susan/Austin/I were at the office pretty late, so we decided to go out for dinner with Mari and Brian in Taipa. We were all really hungry, so we opted for a all-you-can-eat hotpot (火 鍋）place, which was made even more fun by the fact that Brian and Mari had never had hotpot before!

Getting super-excited

As usual, Susan and I managed to decipher enough of the menu so we didn't end up ordering anything too bizarre, and we got a good mix of vegetables/meat/noodles. One side of the pot was clear soup and the other side was supposed to be Thai spicy-style, but Austin and Susan agreed it wasn't spicy enough (which was true, compared to the Szechuan style we had at Little Fat Lamb the first time we took Austin), so they even asked for more chili pepper to put in. The following semi-amusing conversation ensued:

Brian, eating some vegetables from the Thai side and turning bright red: Yikes, this is really spicy?
Susan: Really? Lemme try!
*Susan eats a piece*
Susan: Uh, this isn't spicy at all...

All in all, though, it was a really good dinner for only about $10 USD each. Afterward, Susan and I took Mari to the Royal Supermarket next door to show her where to find frozen 湯 圓 (glutinous rice balls, aka GRBs) that she had loved so much in Singapore. She didn't end up buying all of these, but she got some peanut and red bean ones to try cooking at home. Later that night, Susan and I got text messages proclaiming her success and the state of her happy stomach =P

Mari gloating over her GRBs

Friday afternoon after work, Sam/Susan/I headed to Hac Sa beach, where we were meeting with the MPI ETAs and some English teachers from Xinjiang. The Xinjiang teachers were in Macau taking training courses at the Bell Center where Emily works, so she was showing them around Macau on a rare free afternoon. We just hung out there for a couple hours, chatting over snacks on the beach, playing a few games of charades, and attempting to throw the one guy into the water (apparently it's an annual tradition). The teachers went home around 5 PM, but we ETAs stuck around for a few more hours just talking since we haven't had much time to hang out together recently. so it was nice to catch up on stories of everyone's recent travels and vent a little about work as well.

The Xinjiang teachers, who were (understandably) super-excited to be at the beach

Weekend agenda: Lots of grading/lesson planning, church and dance as usual, and we'll see what else comes up =D