Dimsum day part 1 - easy dimsum

...and there goes my diet. I caved because I'd been working late nights working on the proposal. So today, I treated myself to dimsum. I think I will have to pay dearly for this "excursion". 


But! On to dimsum... It is single-handedly the kind of thing that will make you feel like you've pigged out quite a bit. It's certainly not the kind of thing for single consumption. Plus, because they're all "bite sized", well... if you don't watch it, you may end up overeating...


OK! Now that those dire warnings are out of the way... Below are recipes for simple dimsum, simple meaning all you have to do is to throw everything together in a steamer and call it a day. The dimsum itself isn't a one dish meal. It's actually several dishes. So, you can combine the recipe below with the congee and twice cooked rice recipes and the spring roll recipe (sans chili sauce) for a full dimsum meal.


Alternatively, you can also use this recipe to make some wontons/pot stickers for your noodles, and the pork to accompany your quick stir-fry.


I'll discuss the more "complicated" ones later on (because I'm at a cafe and I don't bring my bible for pao's/steamed buns).

The ever creative omelets

They are something REALLY simple to make. I love omelets. They're also really versatile in that you can stuff whatever you want in it, vegetables, cheese, smoked meats... They can deliver a ton of flavor too, depending on how you season your omelets. Plus, you can make it as you want it. My mother was the first person who taught me how to make omelets. I got more practice because my cousins like omelets and I was the one in charge of making them.

Below is a recipe for smoked salmon omelets. The idea came from bagel and lox. I'm not sure really what happened when I created this, but I think I wanted to do something with my smoked salmon and I wanted something spicy and sweet and still be something savory at the same time.

Going Dutch!

It's not what you may think. Although, yes, you have to make this yourself, unless you live in my vicinity. Anyways... let's start with a bit of a history lesson... Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch for a good 3.5 centuries. It is this colonization that gave somewhat of a European flair to otherwise "humble" Indonesian cooking. It was the stuff that gave birth to my favorite cookies, "Lidah kucing" (literally, "Cat's tongue") and pineapple pastry and breads and other goodies for the rice table like the rouladen (don't worry, I'll give you my favorite recipe of the rouladen in a bit).

On the flip side, it's also the colonization that made my family shed all its "Chinese" language capability. My grandpa was educated in Dutch school. He spoke better Dutch than he did Chinese. To this day my family is like this: Chinese descendants who couldn't speak Chinese to save their lives, yet live every single day observing a bajillion Chinese traditions and custom and swear by them too. Go figure!

This recipe is suitable for breakfast or brunch. Now I'm not sure what the original Dutch recipe is like, but this recipe is very "famous" in Indonesia. We, of course, eat it with sambal (by now that's a given), but not just sambal, the other kind of sambal, the sauce kind...