Jinhu Rice Dumplings Introduction
The owner, Li Hui-jing, began her business of selling meat dumplings by chance. She often made dumplings for her child, who loves them, and due to their authentic taste, her neighbors started recommending them. Initially, she sold them from her home, and later moved to set up a stall at Kouhu Market. "Jinhu Meat Dumplings" are wrapped in bamboo leaves, using long glutinous rice with fillings that include dried shrimp, pickled vegetables, mushrooms, potatoes, salted duck egg yolk, and pork. The preparation involves dicing pork shoulder, frying it in oil, then adding oyster sauce, rice wine, and special seasonings (without artificial flavors) and slow-cooking for one hour. Dried shrimp are washed and fried, mushrooms are simmered in a special marinade to absorb flavors, and potatoes are cooked until tender in the marinade. The glutinous rice is stir-fried with the marinade and mixed with the pickled vegetables, potatoes, and dried shrimp. The mixture of braised pork, mushrooms, salted duck egg yolks, and glutinous rice is then wrapped in bamboo leaves and boiled until cooked. Li Hui-jing notes that there is a difference in handling new and old glutinous rice: new glutinous rice requires a shorter soaking time and cooking time (about 30 to 55 minutes), while old glutinous rice needs a longer soaking period and takes longer to cook (approximately 1 hour to 65 minutes). This is all based on experience. The unique feature of Haikou meat dumplings is the addition of pickled vegetables, while the biggest highlight of "Jinhu Meat Dumplings" is the braised pork. "Jinhu Meat Dumplings" only sells meat dumplings and does not offer vegetable dumplings.
