Alicia

 Contrary to popular belief*, I'm not actually that well-versed on where to eat out. Restaurant and bar exploration was always a social activity for me. The rest of the time, I can be found eating bowls of popcorn in bed or maybe rice with some kinds of pickled things. Anyways, throughout undergrad, it was often Alicia who got me out to eat. And then in California, it was only Alicia who could convince me to go all the way out to the Sunset for dim sum and Terra Cotta Warrior in search of liang pi. Alicia identifies as first gen Chinese American, and I met her through my freshman year roommate. I can't say it was an instant friendship, and realistically we are probably polar opposites personality-wise. But we have a mutual love for chili oil, as our separate but overlapping heritage demands (...and a mutual hate for everything else). Most of the restaurants we frequented include every Sichuan restaurant in the Triangle Area, XFF in NYC, of course, and every Sichuan restaurant in East Bay.

*And by popular, I'm really just referring to the few friends who ask me for restaurant recs, and often what ends up happening is that I look at my Google maps stars and realize I haven't actually been to 70% of them.

How apt then that as I prepared to see Alicia to make her heritage dumplings, we both got gifts of the Xi'an Famous Foods cookbook. Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province in China and also the longest-serving ancient capital of China. It was the start of the Silk Road from the East, which is why Xi'an food has been touched by influences from the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and India. As a result lamb is common (compared to in other regions of China), and fragrant spices like cardamom and anise are intermingled with chilies and peppercorns from neighboring Sichuan. Cumin perhaps being the most important. Somewhere in my childhood, it was understood that cumin and lamb are culinary partners, and now I know it was introduced to me through Xi'an cuisine.

Alicia spent a portion of her childhood with her grandparents in the countryside of Xi'an where the foundation of everything is wheat-based, everything is served with chilies, and any time there was meat on the table, it was lamb.

So for her dumpling, I seized the opportunity to more or less make Mandy's Xi'an lamb meatballs to stuff in red-dyed wrappers. I have eyed this beautifully juicy recipe for no less than four years.

The filling was 2lbs of ground lamb + all the spices and seasonings from the braising liquid section... sans onion, chicken stock, and bay leaves... and using a five spice blend I had on hand instead of whole anise/cloves. Plus a good handful of chopped pickled chilies. El oh el that I really tried to keep track of how many teaspoons I was adding as I was adjusting, but in the end, I still did not succeed. You'll just have to trust Mandy.

Dipping sauce was Mandy's toasted sesame and peanut sauce... with extra balsamic and several handfuls of cilantro and scallion. 

The visual outcome was a story of what will happen to your bowels if you indulge in too many chilies...

But the organoleptic outcome was basically Sichuan hot pot in dumpling form, transporting me back to my childhood as well. Safe to say that this one was a fucking winner.

Things I would do differently: emulsify the dipping sauce more thoroughly so it looks less tragic.

Alicia's complete list:

mantou with chilies, like straight spicy pepper spread in oil

noodles with chilies

everything with chilies

grandma's shredded potatoes with vinegar

cumin lamb

rou pao mo

chicken flavored top ramen with egg and sometimes tomatoes