Megan H

As I'm currently writing this from her living room in NYC, I'm taking a moment to appreciate revisiting long distance friendships that are always like old times. Megan identifies as Taiwanese American, and I met her at some point in high school. She was too cool and sporty for me, and on her birthday she probably had the record number of balloons, baked goods, cards, and locker decorations because for everyone else's birthday, she would bring baked goods and a very thoughtful, perfectly handwritten card. Dunno when we broke the social barrier, but so happy to we can always fall into the same rhythm when we reunite again.

Lu rou fan, or Taiwanese braised pork rice bowl, was also on Lyd's list for good reason because pork belly is the best cut of meat, and I'll take no questions at this time.

My immediate instinct was to find a way to mash up lu rou fan with strawberry shortcake because as soon as I saw it, I unearthed a memory of making strawberry shortcake with/for (?) Megan. At one point in high school, I was aware this is a preferred dessert for her. And honestly, the mash up really came together quickly because this isn't the first time I've done pork belly and fruit.

So Megan's dumplings are roasted strawberry braised pork belly in gluten free rice-based wrappers as a nod to the fan (rice) of lu rou fan. Nancy joined us for dinner, and we folded dumplings together the way you really should before eating them together.

These guys were just boiled and instead of a dipping sauce, we ate them with pinches of pork floss. 

Pork floss is my favorite thing to see on trendy menus. I've probably already mused about eating buckets of the stuff with a spoon in front of the TV. It's made by shredding cooked pork and then frying it with a mixture of spices and soy sauce until it's all browned and soft and fluffy. Sometimes oven drying or dehydration steps are included to help dry it out. It's kind of incredible to watch at the manufacturing level - just pounds and pounds of meat tumbling with seasonings. You can do the same with other meats or fish - anything that shreds I guess. So mushrooms? Textured soy? It can be done.

Aside from eating it straight of the container, you can truly put pork floss on anything. Congee is classic. Breads, yes definitely. In sammiches, on eggs, recently I topped some acorn jelly with it. It's basically like it's own seasoning since it's so delicate in texture but assertive in flavor. I didn't think it would stand out enough if melded all together into the pork belly filling, so I used it as a garnish, which can look like a cop out... until you realize in a lot of ways it functions or succeeds as an umami salty and sweet garnish.

Things I would do differently: maybe just roll the entire dumplings in pork floss to serve.

Megan's complete list:

rou song (pork floss), esp ones from Tainan or the kind that has seaweed in it

lu rou fan

shumai from Hong Kong in Durham

lots of Japanese (not Korean) seaweed

strawberry shortcake

castle cake (chocolate cake + oreo whip), esp for breakfast