Har Gau, 蝦餃, Shrimp Dumpling

Har Gau are made of shrimp filling and a near see through starch skin. So there are two major parts that a small dumpling is made up off, the filling and the skin.

The Filling

In any dumpling, the inside is where the flavor comes from. It is protected by the outer shell, and therefore isolated from whatever type of cooking style the dumpling is exposed to, aside from the simple fact that it is being cooked. In Har Gau, the fillings are made of full shrimps, usually around 1/4 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. It is no longer a Har Gau if the fillings are mashed, in this case it is another type of dim sum called Pak Fa Gau or Hundred Flower dumpling. Har Gau’s ultimate goal is to ’show off’ the freshness of the shrimps, it is used by traditional cha lau to show off the freshness of their food. Shrimps are consider fresh if you can taste the sea water, smell the ocean’s aroma, and the meat are chewy in a crispy manner. Now remember, ocean aroma doesn’t mean ’salty’, putting shrimps into a bowl of salt water for a night would only aid the bacteria which would ultimately turn the possible chewy meat into a mushy disgusting experience.

The Skin

Har Gau’s skin is another piece that allows the char lau to ’show off’ their chef’s skills. There are several factors related to the skin that must be considered before ranking a Har Gau. The skin must contain the shrimps yet allowing the orange color of the shrimps to be viewable, therefore the skin must be thin. The skin must have a clearly folded pattern, where it indicates it is hand made. Lastly, the skin must be able to hold the entire content in the air. there are usually two pointy corners on an Har Gau, it is the end points of the Har Gau wrapping process. If I hold one of these corners with my chop sticks, the skin should be strong enough to contain everything within for me to pick it up from the Jing Loan and put it in my bowl, and later into my mouth.

Extra Knowledge

When shrimp are mashed into a paste and cook, it is called Pak Fa. Pak Fa have dozen of usages, one most popular usage is wrapping it around a crab crawl. This is called Pak Fa yeung Hai kim, Hundred Flower stuffed Crab Crawl, usually fried and therefore crispy. Another one is to wrap the Shrimp paste around a piece of sugar cane. This is called Tze (chair) Ha, Sugar Cane Shrimp. These two are traditionally not considered Dim Sum, but recent years they have slowly pop up in the dim sum menu, so let’s count them as Dim Sum as well. However, one of my personal favorite dim Sum involving Pak Fa is rarely found anymore. It is the Jing Pak Fa Kau, Steam Hundred Flower Ball. This is a simple dim sum that requires pure shrimp mashes, it has to taste like shrimp and not flour with shrimp meat. The dish contains two to three balls of Pak Fa, depending on the price of the dish, steamed. Once the balls are fully cooked, the dim sum chef would add a crystal clear sauce with small strips of egg white within the sauce to the dish. At this point the dish is ready to be eaten.

Suggested Places

The best Har Gau I have tried are from Hoi Sing, Sea world, in New World plaza, Hong Kong. Too bad this restaurant no longer exists.