Wing On Department Store Cooking Demo & Central Wet Market

On Friday 6 June 2008, went to Wing On Department store and came across a Chinese Cooking class demonstration. Although, the class was conducted in Cantonese a lady kindly translated some of the cooking techniques. Tried some Pork Spare Ribs cooked in Bean Sauce and Salted Plums which was absolutely delicious. Crystal sugar was placed in a pressure cooker and melted over the stove top then black bean sauce, smashed salted plums, Shaoxing rice wine and chopped pork spare ribs were added and pressure cooked for about 13 minutes. After the pork was cooked, the sauce was thickened with a little cornflour, water and soy sauce so as not to dilute the taste. The sauce was left to simmer for a couple of minutes then was served with assorted grains of steamed rice.

After this demonstration, I walked to the Peel Street wet market to buy some ginger, coriander, garlic and cabbage so that I could make some dumplings on the weekend. A huge clump of ginger, small bunch of coriander, 3 cloves of garlic and a white cabbage cost a total of $16 Hong Kong Dollars. Practiced some of my very limited Cantonese and was rewarded with lovely smiles from the vendors.

Continued on to Gage Street as I was on a mission to find out where I could buy dumpling wrappers, as I can't seem to find them in the Wellcome or Park'nShop supermarkets. Found a fresh noodle shop near a much visited fruit stall that I go to and bought a small bundle of wrappers for $3 Hong Kong Dollars.

After this, I then walked to Wellington Street to visit my favourite Chinese grocery store "Wing Woo". A little old man runs a store that looks at least 100 years old. There is a tiny song bird in a wooden cage hanging to the front of the shop and heshan sacks of rice piled high to the back of the shop. Green and red preserved vegetables are displayed in a bucket and assorted duck, chicken and quail eggs are displayed along the front of his shop. This shop is jam packed full of character and history and this is why I love it. Bought some black sweet vinegar to go with the dumplings and some chilli soy sauce for stir-frys.

Today, Saturday 7 June 2008 I made the dumplings and they turned out absolutely perfect except for the fact that I didn't buy enough dumpling wrappers. Now need to make another trip to get more so that I can use the rest of the meat filling.
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