THE EVOLUTION OF MY HOITOBO SHANGHAI SOUP DUMPLING SPOON

I have continued to upgrade how I enjoy Shanghai Soup Dumplings.  Here are three spoons I have used, and there have been various other different ones in this evolution.  The smallest on the left is the standard saimin (local ramen) spoon provided by any Oriental restaurant serving this dish, which in China is called Xiaolongbao.

Note the term "hoitobo," which is derived from the Chugoku dialect for people coming to Hawaii from Hiroshima/Yamaguchi.  Local Hawaii residents eventually developed a kind of Pigeon (or Creole) English, which was my mode of speaking from early youth to when I left Hawaii at the age of 18.  I'm living proof that you can grow up with this language, forget it in the process of learning standard American English, and return to it when I worked in the sugar industry.  My older brother lived all his life on the Mainland after going there for graduate school, and never changed his speaking style.  You know he was from Hawaii when you talked to him.  I'm multi-lingual, for I can speak American and Pigeon English.  Anyway, I just purchased this hoitobo spoon from Marukai.

Now, about hoitobo, it means something more than large.  In Hawaii it connotes extra huge, or greedy.  I still smile when I think about explaining my tailor-made vest from Bangkok to an old lady at 15 Craigside, in particular the big pockets on the inside of what I was wearing.  Her immediate comment was, oh, hoitobo pockets.

Now that you've learned a new word today, on to Xialongbao (make that two new ones), a dish I have posted-on numerous times.  Here is an article from five years ago, providing some background:

• Chinese or Shanghai Soup Dumplings come from the region which includes Shanghai.
• However, Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese restaurant chain, first selling this dish in 1972, is now the worldwide leader, with 119 branches in 14 countries.  
• But none in Hawaii.  Perhaps only 10% of Chinese restaurants actually serve them because it is difficult to prepare and takes too long to get to your table.

• 
  Two Din Tai Fungs have a Michelin star, both in Hong Kong, and at Paradise Dynasty in Singapore, they come in the original (which is pork hash), plus garlic, ginseng, foie gras, truffle....and more, each with a different color.
• Forbes called them the world's greatest dumplings, Zagat has said little morsels of Heaven, and the New York Times named Din Tai Fung one of the top ten restaurants in the world.

So yesterday, on the way home, I decided to stop off at Au's Garden and ordered one serving each of Shanghai Soup Dumplings and  pork Chow Fun (beef is the usual meat).  This is a typical Chinese restaurant, and I paid $25, but was generous with the tip because my mental state is returning close to euphoria.  Seems rather expensive, but I froze three of the eight and two-thirds of the Chow Fun.  Those red pieces are ginger slivers in Zhenjiang vinegar.  Note that you need to place the dumpling upside down because the bottom is soft, making a hole into which is poured the cognac.  Is this traditional Chinese practice?  No, the cognac is my enhancement, although scotch would serve equally well.  How much?  I used the whole small bottle for five dumplings.  The large bowl allows you to more easily drink the soup and cognac that leak out.  The Chow Fun also gets infused with this liquid mixture.

I agree with Forbes, the world's greatest dumplings, especially with my enhancements.

Another meal was simple spaghetti/meat balls and salad.  To what 15 Craigside supplied, I first fried twelve cloves of sliced garlic in olive oil, tossed in the meat balls, later added the spaghetti and then a couple of tablespoons of Carnation cream.

I might add that this particular brand of peeled garlic is amazing.  I bought it in April from Foodland, and no mold has formed.  Usually, within two weeks, no matter what you do in cleaning and refrigerator storage, it spoils.  I wonder how much longer this one will keep.

Basil from my herb garden and sliced onions to complement the rest of the vegetables, with truffle vinegar and oil dressing:

The problem with those above two meals is that they are not ideal if you're on a diet.  However, I weighed in at 150.6 pounds two days ago, which means the 25.53 body mass index I was at before the pandemic, placing me to just overweight, had come down to 23.59, dropping me comfortably into the normal weight category.  I could afford to indulge.  (You can check your BMI in the right column under BMI CALCULATOR.)  My high vegetable diet includes meals like the one below of croissant, foie gras pate', blue cheese and a large salad, with wine and beer.

Here is a fascinating video of growing young:

-