Banh Bot Loc (Vietnamese Clear Shrimp and Pork Dumplings)

My mom actually comes from a family of 9 children and never got past the 6th grade in Vietnam because in order to support the family, she had be in charge of selling our family’s meat and butcher stall a local market near our family’s house, Cho Nhat Tao near Nguyen Tri Phuong and Ba Hat street in District 10 of Saigon. The 6th grade! I think I was busy skateboarding, listening to 80′s new wave and playing nintendo at that age.

For those who have never been to Vietnam, some of the best foods are not in restaurants, but at food stalls in markets or make shift restaurants along the street where they make one or two items and make it with pride extremely well. It was here where she learned her cooking skills to cook for the entire family. She taught my uncle and aunt how to cook and now the both have restaurants in Hartford.

So when my family was over a few weeks ago, it was good to cook with her and learn a new dish because most of the time I’m always calling her about certain recipes or techniques. We decided to make banh bot loc which is another central Vietnamese specialty made of tapoica flour which becomes clear and translucent when cooked. While the shrimp and pork filling in these dumplings are similar to many Asian dumplings, what sets this apart is its characteristic chewiness. While it shouldn’t be jaw-numbing, the chewy and sticky consistency is a textural delight that we love.

There are two major variations of this dish. One is that each dumpling is wrapped and steamed in banana leaf. The other is to boil the dumplings sans banana leaf. The banana leaf certainly adds a nice aroma to it, but is certainly more time consuming and requires a totally different method of preparation compared to without banana leaf