Dumplings

As I was walking along a row of shops, heading towards a cafe for lunch, there was an elderly man who was walking from the opposite direction. He stopped and adjusted a basket he had slung on his arm, and as I approached, he enquired whether I wanted to buy dumplings.

Dumplings? I thought, interested.

He put down his basket and showed me the contents. There were 3 varieties - pork & mushroom, pork &salted egg, pork & peanuts.

"Fresh from the steamer," he said, trying to convince me. "See, still warm. Very delicious, I assure you."

I decided to buy a pork & mushroom and a pork & salted egg dumpling. After all, I like dumplings. Also, the man's elderly. Seeing elderly people trying to eke out a living always tug at the heartstrings.

"How much?" I asked

The Pork & Mushroom dumpling was RM1.50. I thought it's cheap. Even the 包 bao sold at my school co-operative cost RM2.00 and those really taste awful. The Pork & Salted Egg dumpling, on the other hand, cost RM2.00.

2 Dumplings. Don't know which is which. The kindly old man did try to tell me how to differentiate, but I wasn't paying attention.

Opened up. I was preparing myself for the filling to be dismal. But lo and behold! Quite generous with meat there! And only for RM1.50 or RM2.00? If I ever see the man again, I'll tell him that he should up the price. Once opened, I caught a whiff of five-spice powder. 

 

Well, I could not find any mushrooms in the Pork & Mushroom variety, but the Pork & Salted Egg dumpling had a piece of salted egg yolk. 

 

 Hmn ... the filling tasted somewhat like Braised Soy Pork. It was not bad, except that I found the meat to be rather dry. I couldn't decide whether it was minced or just a huge chunk of pork. The salted egg yolk was rather hard, though, and I did not really like its taste.

Well, I would say that the dumplings were quite worth buying, except that I could not remember what the man looked like. ;)) And since he sold in a mobile manner, it would be very unlikely to bump into him again.