Chili on My Siomai

u r the... apple OF my eye,
mango OF my pie,
palaman OF my tinapay,
keso OF my monay,
teeth OF my suklay,
finger on my kamay,
blood in my atay,
bubbles OF my laway,
sala OF my bahay,
seeds OF my palay,
clothes in my ukay ukay,
calcium in my kalansay,
calamansi on my siomai,
inay OF my tatay,
knot on my tie,
toyo on my kuchay,
vitamins in my gulay,
airplane OF my Cathay,
star OF my sky,
hammer OF my panday,
sand OF my Boracay,
sultan OF my Brunei,
highlands OF my Tagaytay,
MOLE on my Ate Guy,
baba OF my Ai-Ai,
voice OF my Inday Garutay,
spinoh OF my Popeye,
sizzle when I fry,
wind when I paypay,
tungkod I'm when pilay,
feeling I'm when high,
more shoulder I when cry,
wings I when fly,
chilli on my siomai,
prize when I vie,
cure tons my "ARAY!",
to who tons my "WHY?",
foundation OF my tulay,
truth behind the lie,
the life after I...
In, you're my FRIENDS short
habang buhay

Recently, pork siomai (the ready-to-cook kind) has been on the family weekly menu. No matter how I love the shrimp- and sharksfin- variant, we have to settle for pork (since it’s the only one Alex prefers).

However, the siomai which are available in the supermarkets do not come with chili. We just dip it on soy sauce and calamansi. For Alex and Cae, they’re not missing anything. For me, it means a lot, something is indeed missing. Is chili available in the supermarkets too? There isn’t any in Shopwise and SM and other local supermarkets. I searched every condiment section in vain. The closest I managed to buy was Lee Kum Kee’s chili garlic sauce but it didn’t satisfy me.

The internet girl that I am, I can only slap my forehead a million times for failing to Google it. Of course, what is Google for? After typing “chili sauce,” I was given more than a million links to chili sauce recipes. But no, that wasn’t what I wanted and was looking for. How dumb of me, the correct keywords were “chili for siomai”. That’s when I realized it wasn’t chili sauce after all, but chili paste! So silly (pun intended)!

So this is how siomai experts do it:

Chili Paste:

• 1/8 kilo Chilies (Siling Labuyo)
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil (sesame oil would be nice, too)
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

Simplest version of chili sauce would be to chop chilies well and fry them in oil, sesame or vegetable oil, never olive oil if you want it to have an Asian taste. Combine chopped chilies and minced garlic then simmer for around 20 minutes or till most of the water has evaporated. Add oil, simmer and stir well.

Thank you, thank you food bloggers. Bless you (burp).

 

(Special acknowledgment to photos.the-protagonist.net/.http://pamski71.multiply.com/dimsum3.jpg for the image)