Today, June 2, 2014, Chinese the world over celebrate Dumpling Festival (端午节). It commemorates righteousness and love for country and people, virtues sadly lacking today. (http://gintai.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/happy-dumpling-festival-%E7%AB%AF%E5%8D%88%E8%8A%82-%E5%BF%AB%E4%B9%90%EF%BC%81-2/)
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| Hamyook Chung containing melted pork, egg yolk and sticky rice |
Craving tongshui or sweet broth (糖水) and wanting to meet as many Cantonese residents as I could, we followed Ah Giu, our cook, on a culinary tour of Orussey Market.
At our first stop, my heart sank as the famous tongshui stall was closed. The stall holder was celebrating the dumpling festival. Not to let our spirits sink, Ah Giu suggested we patronize the famous porridge shop. Along the way to the shop, we passed by eating shops you wouldn't imagine existed in Phnom Penh: they were as Cantonese as any culinary corner of Hong Kong could be.
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| Chives cakes |
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| No tongshui today!! |
They were selling chives cake, soya milk, wantan noodle, and ... the famous kap tai chook, a rice porridge peppered with entrails of pig and enriched with crunchy octopus. Each small bowl cost us $2 but it was worth the expensive price we paid. (For a lengthier account of Cantonese food and porridge, read http://simply888here.blogspot.com/2014/02/hong-kong-day-22.html.)
Ah Giu introduced me to Cantonese residents patronizing or making a living around Orussey Market. I was thorn among the roses as obviously Ah Giu was a regular among the womenfolk here. My Khmer vocabulary also grew as I memorized pretty lady, nice dress, beautiful hat, and other attention-catching phrases.
The highlight of the day was of course eating the humble dumpling, representing the doughty human spirit. Each year, Ah Giu's cousins send out a registration of interest to their relatives and friends to indicate the number of dumplings they wished to order. I was fortunate to be invited, and so I could lay my hands and taste buds on two of the best hamyook chung ever encountered. (Incidentally, Mr Li had bought from the local supermarket several dumplings made in Taiwan and when I tried them this morning, I could feel the difference between heaven and earth - the imported variety used dried ham (replacing the delicious fatty pork) that tasted like leather, egg yolk that felt like antacid tablets being crunched, and sticky rice that had a constituency not unlike thick glue.)
Another shop sold mung bean dumpling. The only shop in Phnom Penh to do so, the owners have raised several generations of families just selling these delicious dumplings.
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| Delicious mung bean dumpling |
The best dumpling and traditional Cantonese food can be found in the most unlikely places in Southeast Asia if you know where or how to look. Phnom Penh can offer surprises!
