This post is sequel to another. If you haven’t already, please read Hunan Smallgoods Part 1 “Gifts to please a Chinese woman”.

Armed with the crumpled lap cheong wrapper in one hand, I locate this shop in the quieter section of Cabra.

At first it looks like any other Asian grocery store, but then you notice the large red tubs behind the glass displays and the numerous jars filled with Chinese delicacies.

A middle aged lady with short salt n pepper hair looks up from her calculations. I learn later that this is Mrs Lam, the owner.  She looks over her reading glasses and asks ” Can I help you?”.

“Umm… my mum sent me” I stammer. I wave the empty packet in the air, as if that would automatically explain everything.

To my rescue Mrs Lam spends the next 10minute walking me through tub after tub of sausages. I am amazed by the variety and even more amazed at the quality of the products. When I tell her this, Mrs Lam quietly confesses that her husband and sons make all of these products. She could hardly contain her pride. They have been making and refining their recipes and techniques for the past 20 years.

By far, Lap Cheong (Chinese salami-like pork sausages) is what most people come here to buy. Traditional lap cheong ($20/kg) contains quite a bit of fat but is SO yummy (fat=flavour). Hunan have started making pork lap cheong’s in 4 different amounts of fat. Mum doesn’t want the completely no fat ones ($35/kg), so i settle for 250gm of the second one up, the lean reduced fat ones ($26/kg).

Next I need to get dried beef jerky ($41/kg) in sate satay and curry flavour. There is also an exotic five spices flavour….i’m tempted….but mum likes hers spicy, so i refrain. I tell Mrs Lam its for gifts and she expertly repacks them in gift bags….gotta love a commercial grade plastic bag heat sealer!

Although some of the products look quite odd in their dessicated state, they are delicious and mouthwatering once steamed. My mum likes to add lap cheong into our rice cooker whilst cooking rice. It flavours the rice nicely.

Lap cheong is one of those distinct ingredients that can transform a mundane dish into an exciting one even with the smallest of amounts. My sister puts it in her fried rice. I find that i like it most with sticky rice or crammed into steamed pork buns (bun bao) where it has the chance to infused the tightly packed minced meat, shitake mushroom and boiled egg within.

Mrs Lam ensures that no human hands come close to her products

Grades of dried scallops, any recipient of this gift will be pleased