Dinner with friends

The biggest thing I love about Asian food is its communal sharing of dishes. An array of dishes are prepared, everything is thrown into the middle of the table and then everyone just digs in.

Cooking at the table adds another dimension to the experience, especially when friends have been gathered together for a catch-up dinner party. Instead of constantly losing the host to the call of the kitchen, the stove (or a portable gas burner) is transported to the dining table, bringing with it hands-on conviviality, up-close sights, sounds and smells, and the only time you'll get to eat straight from the fry-pan with dignity and decorum intact.


Crispy dumpings

M and J were the perfect hosts, commencing proceedings with truly the most delicious pan-fried dumplings I've ever had the pleasure of eating. Pork mince, marinated overnight with soy sauce, green onion and grated ginger, had been enclosed in gow gee wrapped, cooked quickly in boiling water, and then pan-fried for a minute or two in a little peanut oil.

The dumpling skins were as soft and slippery as silk, but for the bubbled edges that were golden, crunchy and crisp. These were dipped in a vinegar and soy sauce mixture, the acid cutting through any notion of fattiness and easily enabling a second helping or two (or three).


Vegetables

Dinner was bo nhung vi, a Vietnamese dish of beef pan-fried in butter and then wrapped in rice paper sheets with noodles, vegetables and herbs. Crunchy beansprouts, spears of cucumber, slices of tomato and wedges of pineapple and laid on top of the cooked beef and mattress of rice noodles. A few baby leeks, sweet and vinegary, are added with lettuce leaves and a generous handful of mint leaves, then tightly wrapped up in rice paper and dipped in nuoc cham dipping sauce.

The sweet slightly acidic pineapple pairs brilliantly with the thin slices of caramelised beef. It's a meal to linger over, relishing each zingy mouthful in between conversation, as you catch up with friends.