Meme's Birthday Dinner

Meme and I, taken at a restaurant on 5 January 2011. She is such a doting mother- and grandmother-in-law. Love her to bits.

Last Saturday, we invited Pepe and Meme over to have dinner. It was Meme's birthday and she wished for some chinese food. After doing so much for our family since we moved here, I was naturally more than happy to accede to her request. Originally, I had planned on cooking a few dishes to eat with plain rice. At the same time, I was toying with the thoughts of doing something even more authentic. So I thought maybe I could prepare some dim sum, namely siew mai (steamed meat dumplings wrapped in wanton skins).

I wanted the siew mai to be perfect for her, for she so deserves it. So a few days before the actual day, I made a small amount of siew mai, just to ensure that I have gotten it right.

Siew mai wrapped and placed in the steamer, ready to be steamed. The 4 corners of the wanton skins are usually cut so the top is leveled. But I left them as they are.

Now steamed and piping hot. I served 3 to my food critic, and afterwards I had to control Christophe from entering the kitchen to steal more siew mai so I assume they turned out great.

The trial was a success, even the boys loved them. So we decided to change Saturday's menu to siew mai and chinese fried noodles.

A big tray of fried noodles, topped with china cabbage, bean sprouts and spring onions. Next to it, the siew mai presented in a bamboo steamer.

A day before the dinner, Christophe and I went to the Asia shop to buy and top up the ingredients we would need. The bamboo steamers weren't in our shopping list, but steaming the siew mai in them would not only complete the taste, but also the authentic look of any variation of steamed dim sum. Besides, they would also up my siew mai steaming capacity by 100%, so why not?

A close-up of the siew mai with different toppings - crab stick, mushroom and plain. Meme's first comment after taking the first bite still rings in my ear, "ausgezeichnet!", which means "excellent". Can you imagine how relieved and delighted I was upon hearing it?

I supposed my noodles was good too, just that the siew mai were better, so it had to take a backseat and let siew mai be in the limelight?

Both Pepe and Meme were game enough to try out the chopsticks. Pepe's handling of the chopsticks is correct (i.e. parallel to each other), except that he needed to use more strength to grab the siew mai, obviously, a muscle part that was never used in his culture.

After dinner entertainment - Wii boxing. We all had a good laugh at the grandparents in action.

It was a relaxing evening. Now the question mark in my Chinese New Year dinner menu is replaced by a full-stop.