Nancy

One rare holiday break when the hot bitches were all home and sitting around Nancy's dining room table, her dad walked in to catch up with us and lamented that Nance still didn't have a boyfriend. And I lol'd because this bitch has some of the best credentials and the widest community.. but that's Asian parenting for ya *shrug emoji.* Nancy identifies as Chinese American. I met Nancy on my first day at my new high school because we sat next to each other in English. My favorite detail of that story is that seats were assigned by last name, so in any timeline where my dad did not move us at the last minute thus giving me about 2 days to process that I'd be starting at a new high school I knew nothing about... I would not have been seated next to Nancy as an after thought to the English teacher's roster. I'm pretty sure almost nothing Nance does surprises me because she's always been our smartest cookie with the biggest smile.

Not sure when I became aware, but I was aware Nancy loooovvveeessss mac and cheese. But I made her give me a list of childhood foods anyways... and I, of course, went with the mac and cheese. Her Indian grandma used to make it for her and she'd always order it off the kid's menu at Macaroni Grill - I suppose it's not a dish an Asian bebe would likely learn from her parents.

So her dumplings are my attempt at seamlessly blending mac and cheese with pork and chive dumplings because she also LOVED dumplings. Classic American with traditional Chinese. Heavy creamy heartiness with tummy-warming savoriness. But I didn't want to be explicit about it. This isn't like making mac n cheese and making pork n chive filling and then mixing it all together. I wanted it to be a pork and chive dumpling at its core, but I wanted it to cue mac n cheese in a subtle way. I needed it to be cheesy but not aggressively so (partially because Nance's fiance doesn't like too cheesy). And I needed it to be convenient and hand held, aka not messy, because I was taking them to a park picnic event. 

So I started with the wrappers. Typical wheat wrappers but with a cup of shredded cheese. After kneading and resting, the cheese was actually quite well incorporated. I was envisioning somewhat of a gooey mess but got a supple dough instead.

The filling was ground pork and a bechamel sauce with more cheese hidden within. Seasonings were oyster sauce, ground ginger, white pepper, mustard powder, and nutmeg. Instead of a monster bundle of chopped raw chives, I charred a bunch of chive flowers to take the edge off and lend a smokiness to the cheesiness. As much as I love the classics, there are few things more intense than the smell of reheated leftover pork n chive dumplings.

The final thing that I deliberated over a few days was how to cook it. I didn't want limp cheesy dough from boiling or steam-frying. I also couldn't bake them like mac n cheese without drying out the skin, so I shallow fried them to crisp up and finished them in the oven to cook the filling. And topped with just a tiny bit more cheese so it could still be an easy finger food.

As I inhaled the deep fried porky cheesy fumes in my kitchen, I thought this was a pairing that just made sense. It's meat and cheese, milk and char, a garnish of greenery, spices that amplify without fighting both. I usually try to pick an "intellectual" topic to blurb about in relation to my dumpling, but there's nothing and everything cohesive here. The history and origins of mac n cheese is a fun topic that I've absorbed bits and pieces of here and there, and I don't want to extend as broadly as the ~history of dumplings~. I think the reason why I was so satisfied with this outcome is that it felt so... Chinese American. That I reminded myself that in addition to doing this for fun and mining content from my people and challenging myself to combine things I would never come up with on my own, I was curious if I would find some thread of identity x food in my friends that I didn't know before. I haven't really because I'm not having extended conversations afterwards - do I start forcing this on my friends next tho?

Things I would do differently: I dunno, maybe more cheese? Honestly I was 99.9% proud of myself for these dumplings. Would make to sell. Slide into my DMs.

Nancy's complete list:

mac & cheese

pork & chive dumplings

cheetohs as the snack of choice if parents allowed junk food purchases

haw flakes

Boston Market meal when mom was too tired to cook - mac n cheese + rotisserie chicken + mashed potatoes + cornbread

cici's pizza for all you can eat pizza on Fridays (including chocolate dessert pizzas)