This siomay (or 'shiu mai') is not new for me. After being dissapointed because I failed to order customized shoes, I was in search for a remedy and then, I saw the siomay vendor. I went up to the seller and asked him to give me ten pieces of them, instead, he gave me eleven. :-)

It's soft and I can smell the fish from the first bite I had. The sauce was cleverly made. Why I said 'clever', it's because the sauce was not all peanuty. I am sure that a large portion of potato starch was in it because the sauce was not thick. Yet, it still gives flavor and fragrance though I'm missing the crunchy texture. Another unfortunate factor: the heat. It was too hot for my taste. Was it an accident in the making of it?

If you need to have simple vegetable dish to accompany your chicken, beef or egg.

Ingredients:

a handful of asparagus, washed and cut into 4 centimeters long; two medium garlic, crushed and chopped; two tablespoons of cooking oil; two pinches of salt; a pinch of sugar

Directions:

Heat the oil in the pan and sautee the garlic till fragrant. Lower the heat,add the asparagus, the salt and the sugar. Mix well. If you have sesame seed oil and/ or oyster sauce, you can add them at this point. Cook for 2 minutes (if you want them a bit softer, another minute time of cooking), turn off the heat and take the asparagus quickly from the pan to prevent further cooking of the asparagus.

Serve quickly.

Note:

Sometimes, people like using the tapioca flour and water to thicken the sauce. In this case, mix the sesame oil, oyster sauce, salt, sugar, tapioca flour and one tablespoon of tapioca flour. After the garlic is fragrant and you put the asparagus, this mix should come last. Stir quickly till the sauce thickens and turn off the heat.

This way of cooking is good for pak choy, bok choy, kailan and other greens. Time of cooking may vary.

If you need more fat in the dish, substitute the oil with butter.

Asparagus is one vegetable that you don't find fresh very much. The canned version usually has lighter-colored asparagus and they work well for cream soups. In well-known supermarkets or fruit shops, you'll find them but not on everyday basis and the tips are usually battered and sticky because the shop had kept them too long.

To choose a good bunch of asparagus is easy. First look for the freshest tips. The fresher they are, the solid the tips look. Second, green stems are good signs for freshness. Do not be satisfied to buy the wrinkled stems which color is lighter as an indicator of hard, woody and unedible stems.

Wash the asparagus under clean running water and by using both hands, bend each stem on both sides until the stem breaks at a point. The area where it breaks is actually the border of the edible and the unedible part. Discard the woody stems and the asparagus is ready to use.