The process of making rice dumplings are painfully tedious. From washing the leaves, to cutting the meat, braising the mushrooms, chopping the dried prawns, dicing the sugared winter melon, frying the shallots, cleaning the dried chestnuts, .... to bundling them up in a pyamid and finally boiling them for hours. It is a few days of preparation and hard work.
Every year, mum will go through the trouble to prepare some home-made mama brand rice dumplings for us... as we refuse to eat any rice dumplings bought outside. There was a period of almost 5 years that I didnt eat any as I was staying in Beijing. The rice dumplings sold in northern china are totally different and not to my liking. Without fail for this year too, mum had prepare the rice dumplings, except that it is even more valuable because she literally risk her new eye to make them.
Mum went for cataract surgery about a month ago, though the doc gave the go ahead to cook, she still feels uncomfortable from the steam, heat, irritation from the shallot gas and pressure from bending her head for too long. Still, she insisted on doing EVERYTHING on her own, refusing any help from us. I suspect that she thinks I am incapable of cutting the meat or shallot to the exact size needed.
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| Captain Mama in action! |
She will cover her new eye with a hankie and put on sunglasses for a bit more protection.
This is the face of a dedicated mum, grandma, aunty, sister and wife. She will remember exactly who likes it with more fatty meat or lean meat, who likes it with more chestnuts, who likes to top it with fried shallots and who likes nonya ones instead of the normal "bak" ones...
If you managed to get hold of Captain Mama's rice dumplings, make sure you finish every single molecule of it... for it is priceless. No amount of money can buy you such dedication.
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