My Chinese Husband Taco 蝦豬餅

Hi, I'm back! Literally and figuratively. I have to confess, I have been back from Beijing for a month already. But I have been so beguiled with all sorts of reading and only until this week that I have finally realized how strong this addiction has become and how much it has interfered with my life and cunningly lured me away from updating my blog! 

Putting a stop to it, I am writing this post at 6 in the morning. 6am! Have I managed to redeem myself now? I don't know if me waking up so early today has something to do with my binge eating yesterday night, which has left me bloated now, OR is because my subconsciousness finally mans up and tells me to not let something so dear to me slip away i.e. leave my blog still hanging there in hiatus.

Ok, a little about my Beijing trip. The trip has brought me blessings and curses. Met some really nice, funny people, polished my Mandarin, to an extent that there is now a tendency for me to curl my tongue right up when I pronounce the very last word in every sentence- I call that the Beijing accent. ;p Oh, the curses, I gained 7 pounds in five weeks. Nothing much. Will share more about my trip later when I have shed some pounds. 

Now back to this Chinese Husband Taco. This is one of the delicacies (my favourite!) I tried in Tai O and mentioned in my previous previous post. I did not fully make this name up, the Vendor really created the name "蝦豬餅", pronounced as "Ha-ju-bang" in Cantonese, they simply bestowed upon it the big title: HUSBAND. See the evidence below.

The name "蝦豬餅" isn't just a gimmick. In as short as three Chinese characters, almost every ingredient used in this Chinese taco is listed out here. "蝦":shrimp paste, "豬":pork and "餅":roti. Poor lettuce, didn't quite make it to becoming our Chinese husband model.

My Chinese Husband Taco

(Serving: 2, we're talking about 2 tacos per person here)

Ingredients                                 

- 4 pieces of roti,

- half a bowl of minced pork,

- a bowl of chopped lettuce,

- about 1 tablespoon of light shrimp paste (LIGHT, not the usual one, otherwise it will turn out too salty and you won't be able to taste the shrimp)

Instructions

1. Wash and drain the lettuce. Roughly chop the lettuce. Gently pat it with tissue paper to make sure the lettuce isn't too wet. 

2. Over medium fire, stir-fry the minced pork for 2 minutes. Spoon in the light shrimp paste. Give it a toss, mix well and fry until the pork is fully cooked. Set aside. There is no need to add salt here since the light shrimp paste is quite salty already. 

3. Use a pan and slowly heat the roti on both sides, 2-3 minutes for each side. 

4. Assemble- spread over two big spoons of pork and sprinkle a handful of lettuce on each roti. There you go, in just about five minutes!