2011-03-03 "Helen's Taiwan Food" @ Chez Buddha

One of our blogPAL, M.Wang, emailed us and suggested to try the ba-wan (肉圓) from "Helen's Taiwan Food" (aka 王家肉圓).  M.Wang has read my post on 2011-02-10 "Ba Wan" (肉圓) @ Chez Buddha , and thought I should give HTF a try.

After a few email exchanges, M.Wang, while at work, text me to call his dad, Ringo, to arrange a time for pickup.  Helen's Taiwan Food actually offers more than ba-wan (肉圓).  From my understanding, Mommy Wang (Helen) also makes dumplings (水餃) and pork nuggets (肉羹), just to name a few.  Helen and Ringo are in the process of compiling a product list of and will be released as soon as it's ready!

PORK NUGGETS (肉羹)

While speaking to Ringo on the phone, he shared some of the products available, and as soon as I heard "Rou Geng" or pork nuggets, I quickly asked him for an order.  At $10/bag, it's pricey.  But given that not many places offer such a product, I guess there is a market.

 Ringo suggested to cook the nuggets from frozen, so I did.  I separated the cooking in two pots.  One to cook the nuggets while the other to make a simple soup.  Because I don't have the right ingredients for a classic soup, I just used whatever I had at home (chicken broth, cilantro, and deep-fried shallots).

The nuggets were good, and unlike T&T's, these had the "crunch" that we're looking for.  The nuggets are meant to be in soups, stews, or dipped with sauces.  The individual sizes of the pork nuggets were on the smaller side when compared to the ones we've had off the streets in Taiwan.  We'd order this again.

BA-WAN (肉圓)

While Guo Hua (國華) sells Luo's (羅家肉圓) at $11 for six (average $1.83 each) and Lin's (林家肉圓) at $13 for five (average $2.60 each), Helen's Taiwan Food sells their ba-wan at $15 for six (average $2.50 each).  Yes, these weren't cheap.

Ringo and M.Wang suggested to cook the ba-wan in one of the two ways: microwave or pan-fried.  Knowing me, I did both!  Hahahaha!  From frozen, I let a couple of ba-wan sat to defrost at room temperature for about an hour.  I cooked one in the microwave for about two minutes on each side.  At the same time I pan-fried another under medium-low heat until both sides were crispy.

 The skin was light, thin and Q.  The pan-fried one had a bonus of being crispy too.  The filling was nice, however, it's missing the bamboo "crunch" and fragrance.  Ringo said Helen's a very picky chef, she did not put any bamboo in this batch because the bamboo qualities weren't up to her standards, however, the next batch will have bamboo.  Personally, for the price, I think a little shitake mushrooms would be nice too. 

 Ba-wan must have both of the above sauces, and these were included in the order.  Many places locally would only give you the sweet sauce (on the right), however, the sweet sauce is usually added after the garlic soy sauce (on the left) then topped with cilantro.  The garlic soy sauce (chopped garlic with diluted thick soy) was pretty straight forward, similar to the dip we would use for our Pork Belly with Garlic Soy Sauce (蒜泥白肉), see pictures here and here.  The sweet sauce was bland, I had to add some sweet chili sauce on my ba-wan for more sweetness.
 
Thank you M.Wang for the referral.  Both the ba-wan (肉圓) and the pork nuggets (肉羹) were, so far, the best I've had in 604.  Both Buddha Boy and I look forward to try more products from Mommy Wang's kitchen.
To order or to learn more about Helen's Taiwan Food, please email Ringo at wasun88@gmail.com.