Dim Sum-level Lo Mai Gai, at home (糯米鸡)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 14 тра 2024
- Lo Mai Gai, sticky rice chicken! This classic dim sum item consists of a small mound of lard-seasoned rice, stuffed with a saucy, umami rich ingredients and chicken.
0:00 - How to best do Dim Sum at home
2:12 - The day before, soaking stuff
2:53 - Steaming the Rice
4:47 - Preparing the Filling
7:23 - Assembly
9:27 - Steaming and Freezing
10:26 - What are some other Lo Mai Gai fillings?
SOURCING
Long grain sticky rice should be pretty easy to find - it's basically the default sticky rice in South China and Southeast Asia:
www.sayweee.com/en/product/Th...
www.amazon.com/Thai-Sticky-Ri...
Bamboo shoots:
www.sayweee.com/en/product/Ar...
www.amazon.com/Choy-Sliced-Ba...
Lotus leaves unfortunately not on Weee:
www.amazon.com/Dried-Lotus-Le...
INGREDIENTS
Makes six Lo Mai Gai.
* Long grain sticky rice (长糯米), 400g
* Dried shiitake mushrooms (冬菇), 8g
* Dried shrimp (虾米), 8g
* Dried scallop (干贝), 8g
* Extra water for pouring over the rice when steaming: 1-2 cups
* Seasoning for the rice: salt, 1 tsp; chicken bouillon powder (鸡粉), 1/8 tsp; MSG (味精), 1/8 tsp; melted lard, 60g
* Chicken - thigh or leg - 60g of meat
* Marinade for the chicken: salt, 1/4 tsp; sugar, 1/4 tsp; cornstarch (生粉), 1/2 tsp; chicken bouillon powder (鸡粉), 1/8 tsp; white pepper powder (白胡椒粉), 1/8 tsp; soy sauce (生抽), 1/2 tsp; dark soy sauce (老抽), 1/4 tsp; toasted sesame oil (麻油), 1/2 tsp
* Bamboo shoots (竹笋), 40g - canned is also ok
* Reserved mushroom/seafood soaking liquid, 1/2 cup for frying the chicken
* Reserved mushroom/seafood soaking liquid, 1/2 cup for frying the filling
* Prepared sauce for frying the filling: salt, 1/2 tsp; sugar, 1/2 tsp; cornstarch (生粉), 1/2 tbsp; MSG (味精), 1/8 tsp; chicken bouillon (鸡粉), 1/8 tsp; white pepper powder, 1/8 tsp; soy sauce (生抽), 1 tbsp; dark soy sauce (老抽), 1/4 tsp; toasted sesame oil (麻油), 1/4 tsp; reserved mushroom/seafood soaking liquid, 1/4 cup
* Dried lotus leaf, 2
PROCESS
The day before, wash and soak your sticky rice, as well as the with the shiitake/shrimp/scallop.
To make the sticky rice, drain, then steam it for 30 minutes - checking every ten minutes. At the 10 minute mark and the 20 minute mark, drizzle over one cup of water bit by bit, flipping the rice as you go. You may not need to add any more water at the 20 minute mark if you rice already looks white and moist.
Remove the rice from the steamer, let it cool down. Mix with the 'seasoning for the rice'.
Squeeze and mince the mushrooms, the shrimp, and the scallops - reserving the soaking liquid. Debone your chicken - if using bone-in - and cut into six ~10g hunks. Marinate the chicken, set aside. Dice the bamboo shoots, if using.
Fry the chicken over a high flame, and once it visually looks about 'done' (~30 seconds), add in the 1/2 cup of reserved mushroom/seafood soaking liquid and swap the flame to medium. Let it reduce away into a thick sauce, ~6 minutes. Remove the chicken.
Fry the mushrooms, seafood, and bamboo shoots over a medium flame until fragrant, ~1 minute, then add in 1/2 cup of reserved mushroom/seafood soaking liquid together with and spare sauce from frying the chicken. Let it reduce away, ~6 minutes. Add in the 'prepared sauce for frying', cook for 1-2 minutes until reduced and thick.
Fold the lotus leaf into quarters, then soak in 80C water for 30 minutes (it might be convenient to do this step earlier).
Squeeze the excess liquid out from the lotus leaf, and cut the leaves into quarters along the crease. This will give you six wrappers, plus an extra two in order to patch up any broken leaves. Weigh your sticky rice, and divide into six portions. Oil your wrapper, place half of one 'portion' on, together with one piece of chicken and 1 tbsp of sauce. Make a dome with the other half of the rice, lay it on. Seal the sides, shape with the leaf, fold in the leaf like a Christmas present, then roll it all up.
Steam the Lo Mai Gai on medium for twenty minutes.
To freeze, wait until they come back down to room temp, then lay flat in a plastic bag. To re-heat, don't thaw - steam from frozen, ~30 minutes over a medium flame.
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So, lo mai gai. Being one of the “simpler” dim sums items, it’s quite straightforward but still relatively labour intensive. In order to make your hard work worth it, here're a few more notes to help make them.
1. Which sticky rice to use. Generally speaking, long grain sticky rice is the go-to rice from central to south China when it comes to sticky rice products. Short grain sticky rice is more common in the north and it’d be stickier. You can use short grain if you can’t find this one, maybe just spray water once when steaming so that it doesn’t get too soft or soggy.
2. Sticky rice needs soaking. Some people online use rice cookers to make sticky rice, which is a fine route to go if you want to be lazy (final texture will be softer and a bit less even). But no matter what, you should soak your sticky rice for it to unleash its “textual potential”, even just two hours before tossing it into a rice cooker. But of course, steaming sticky rice should be the way to go as it yields evenly cooked rice with clear grains and great texture.
3. Seasoning the rice. You do need some lard to enrich the rice so that it has a nice fragrance and keeps moist. If you’re vegetarian, we’d suggest a mix of peanut oil and ghee. Now I’ve seen people online adding some sort of darker color sauce to the rice, which seems to be the Malaysian way of making lo mai gai (the one that’s usually steamed in a bowl). However, the Cantonese one does not have a sauce mixed in with the rice, the color on the rice itself comes from lotus leave. Imagine brewing tea and how tea leaf flavors and colors the water, lotus leaf flavors and colors the rice during the slow steaming.
4. Wrapping. Lotus leaf has two sides, usually a browner side and a greener side. When wrapping, the browner side should be the outside and the rice should be wrapped within the greener side. For one lo mai gai, a quarter from a piece of lotus leaf should be enough. Using too many leaves would make it difficult to shape and the result would look clumsy. Don’t be afraid of breaking or leaking, just be gentle and shape it with your palm and the sticky rice would stick together.
5. Fillings. Besides the sauce with shiitake and dried seafood as the major flavor component, you can be creative with what you put on top of that. Abalone, sea cucumber, roast meat, lap mei cured meat, pork belly, or even some nice melty cheese. Just remember, the final 20 minutes steaming is only “heating stuff up” and not cooking, so do make sure everything you put in your lo mai gai is cooked and seasoned.
6. Storage. As always, put them in airtight bags and freeze. Try to finish them within three months as they don’t have any stabilizers and the rice may end up being too dry.
That’s all I can think of right now, may add some more later if we can think of other stuff or see other questions. Meanwhile, enjoy lo mai gai~
-Steph
Because I have used some of those exact brands of sauces I can recognize them from your video even though I can only see part of a label flying by and I can go to a Asian store and buy them. Other people who've never seen them before have no clue what you flashed by. Please hold bottles of sauces or other products on screen showing the full front label for at least 2 seconds so people can pause the video and remember what they look like and recognize them later at the store, it will make it much easier for people to shop for ingredients.
Thank you for the videos, Chris and Steph! If you're interested in a shortcut for the sticky rice or just another upcoming cooking/baking channel, Sheldo's Kitchen is worth checking out. He did a video on mango sticky rice recently and showed a microwave method as a 1-hour alternative. I've made sticky rice 3x now that way, and if I were to make this dim sum I'd probably try adapting that method. Interested to know your thoughts if you try it out. I think it's a good lazy alternative and might give more even results than a rice cooker.
How about roast duck filling and duck fat in the rice?
@@adriennefloreen I see what you're saying, but there are many products that we use that are available in China (or Southeast Asia) that may not be available elsewhere. And even if you zeroed in on, say, just the United States... some products that are available in Los Angeles may not be available in Chicago! Ultimately, while Donggu soy sauce may be slightly different from Pearl River Bridge soy sauce which may be slightly different than MasterChef or Kikkoman... it's all soy sauce in the end :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified You do not understand, I have a photographic memory and there are a bunch of Asian markets in San Francisco that have no English in the entire store, their vegetables and meat are labeled all in Chinese and their products don't have translated labels like ones at every other Asian market or Asian grocery store in California, so seeing the front of the label or the name of a vegetable in Chinese even for a second makes me able to remember it and recognize it later if I see it in one of these markets. If I don't see it clearly in your video and want it I have to Google it and look at a picture of it to see something to recognize, please show the front of the label of canned or jarred or bagged products and show the names of vegetables you use in Chinese characters.
These are perfect for an office lunch! Make a dozen meal-sized ones on the weekend, steam and refrigerate or freeze. You don't even need to put them in a box or bag (carry them by a string on the bus or train, mad flex). And if you microwave them, the office kitchen will smell a little like lotus leaf... way nicer than someone's leftover fish.
Guys, I think Chris and Steph are in trouble: they didn't say to longyao before frying the food. It's a call for help, we need to do something!!
But really, this looks like a fantastic recipe, and more straightforward than I'd expected it'd be. Do you find there's much lost or changed if the protein content of the filling were adjusted upward from just that single piece of chicken?
Nope not really! Just make sure everything is seasoned and cooked before tossing it in :)
😂
glad i wasn't the only person who noticed lol
haha I noticed that too !
Lo Mai Gai was always my favorite yum cha dish growing up! Coming from a mixed background (Chinese & Mexican), I always described it as a Chinese tamale to my family on my Mexican side. lol Thanks for sharing this recipe! One day I'll definitely have to give it a shot!
I describe them as Chinese tamales to my Mexican family as well lol. My grandfather also loves the tripe dishes which he refers to as Menudo Chino. (Not how I would, but he's almost 90 so...)
It never occurred to me that these and tamales are in the same category!
Eres de Tijuana ?
@@unneomexaenlacocina9380 no, I'm not
I LOVE the flavor that the lotus leaf imparts! 🤤 Thank you for the recipe and instructions! 💖
My favorite dim sum dish by far. It's way too much work for me, but I appreciate knowing how it's done! I've made the filling (sticky rice with Chinese sausage, mushrooms, and chicken) with a pressure cooker before, back when I was first learning how to use my instant pot, and just eaten that straight without the leaves, but it's so true that the leaves impart a unique and lovely aroma on the whole dish.
This channel was such an awesome find. East Asian cuisine is my favorite food. Glad to learn some of the recipes.
I love your video glad to see you’re back
You guys never fail to impress me.
Great video as always. Lomaigai is such a staple in dimsum.
我非常喜歡這一點。謝謝
Only recently did I learn about this dish. Instantly fell in love while simultaneously burning the entirety of the inside of my mouth. Thanks for sharing as always!
Wow, there are very good food from DIM SUM. I like them so much. ❤
Thanks for sharing this video!
I always bring my lo mai gai home. Such a great thing to eat for breakfast - just pop into microwave and you’re all good
Lo, my guy, this recipe looks delicious!
I'm loving all the local products here! Makes me extra confident I can try to make it at home :D
DOGGY!!!!!!!!! So glad you two are making videos in your new place. I feel this recipe will help me use up some of the short grained rice I've stored in my cupboard.
Thank you for sharing your delicious recipe. Love your video.
My kids and I made this recipe using wasubi mold. We have fun in the kitchen.
I'm so happy you made this I've wanted to show my partner these since we are vegan for nearly a decade but the last time I tried making them they turned out terrible!
Thank you!
Yesssssssssssss this along with turnip cake are my faves thank you
I have some dried lotus leaves in my pantry waiting to make some lo mai gai. I'll try your recipe next!
the doggo is so cute. he couldnt wait to dig into the lo mai gai either
I feel like an episode on buying quality Chinese products outside of China would be really interesting. It can be a bit of an art. Nothing is more frustrating than driving out of your way to get authentic ingredients, only to end up with something middle of the road or worse. Frozen dim sum is probably the hardest. I find you have to read ingredients really carefully, especially anything with seafood. (Which is like... half of them.) So many brands stretch more expensive ingredients by adding bream, and you just get absolutely foul smelling dim sum.
I've gotten pretty good at figuring out which products are likely better over the last few years, but once in awhile, my husband is still like, "Oh god, what did you do?"
Are you anywhere near Chicago?
@@gregdubya1993 Nope. I'm in New England.
my fave at dim sum , I'm tempted to make'em now ... a big batch ,maybe a double, and freeze ... that's the part I like I had no idea they could be frozen, thanks !
And now I shall learn this because I know my brother and father love their lo mai gai.
it's always translated as "sticky rice with lotus leaf" here in ontario canada
but to me, it's ambrosia of the gods
Yehey! This is one of my favorite dimsum to get.
A most lovely video. Damn near the most complicated thing I've seen. Joyful. had me giggling. My hamburgers have 38 ingredients. And now must eat some. Dim sum ...Love your vids.
this is the video I was waiting for!!!
Omg omg omg!- THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Lo mai gai is my favourite yum chat dish, and due to “the virus” I haven’t been able to have Yum Cha for 2 years!!!!…… I NEED this in my life!🥰🥰🥰👍🏻
Edit: the ones I eat don’t have seafood, and have Chinese sausage instead- so I might try making that substitution🤷♀️👍🏻
My wife had gotten frozen ones from family and we just either steam them or pop in mico wave. It still taste great.
hmmm ours had salted egg yolk and a slice of lap cheong on top of that... really² nice.
now I'm craving it
This was a highlight of my childhood, and perhaps the one thing I miss the most since going vegetarian 15 years ago!
i’ve been thinking about lo mai gai since 2 days ago
edit: a couple of the dim sum places i like in san francisco include pork sausage in their lo mai gai as well, so that’s also something i really like in it
My kids, mostly, do like these and I was thinking of making a batch for their take-to-school lunch before school starts in a month. A recent visit from my in-laws where mom taught me more properly how to make zongzi (or rather the proper wrapping and tying), but they're not crazy about those by comparison.
My mom likes the ones with a salted egg yolk in the middle. Adds a nice richness to it
ooh, that looks really interesting
I love doggie !!! Cutest lil boy
Thanks for another great video! A quick suggestion-- I know putting up an ingredient list for some of the sauces instead of saying it may save a few seconds, but I actually would really appreciate you reading out the list!
Since I often leave the video running while I listen, it would save me from having to run over to my phone, pause the video, and try to read it on my small screen. Reading it out quickly might also be more accessible to other people, like those who have vision impairments for example :)
I love lo mai gai. I think if I make this in stages it can be manageable.
That's my favorite dim sum dish!
Thank you for this, Lo Mai Gai is my favorite dim sum and I've always wanted to make it!
Thank you for a great, informative video. Question... would fresh lotus root or canned water chestnuts be a good substitute for the bamboo shoots you used?
I made these today. It was great! I forgot the step where you brush the oil on the leaf and realized that step is there for a reason!
It sticks huh? Should still be ok though, just some extra lotus leave to munch on, lol.
Sticky rice parcels are not hard to find in urban Australia but it’s impossible to tell how good the filling will be because they’re generally not branded and therefor it’s a bit of a mystery until you unwrap it. The main benefit of making my own would be consistency.
Rural Australia however, it'd be easier to find hens teeth lol
Freaking amazing! Thank you!
oh this is an interesting recipe. i've only eaten dimsum in KL, Malaysia / Singapore but have never actually come across lo mai gai steamed in lotus leaf and without the rice being a darker brown color (cooked with dark soy sauce). The ones served in restaurants here are usually steamed in a ceramic rice bowl or in mini disposable foil pie plates. plus the rice is a dark brown color instead of pale like shown in your video. the meat and mushroom are in larger slices and just mixed throughout the rice instead of being deliberately placed in the center of the rice.
There is however, another dim sum dish called Hor Yip Fan (Lotus Leaf Rice) that is basically what you made in your video
Lo Mai Gai in lotus leaf are very rare in Singapore unless you go to dim sum restaurants, in most coffee shops/food courts/hawker centre it uses those commercial ones that are sold at supermarket while that are some that hand made those items themselves
The most common are the commercial ones from Kong Guan which uses aluminium foil holders & Lim Kee which uses plastic holder that you can steam it with the plastic holder without putting it on a plate
Cheers to you. ...
YES!!!!! lo mai gai is one of my favorites. I like chicken, Chinese sausage and braised pork in mine. Do you have any vegetarian suggestions?
To me the toughest thing to swap to make this veg would be the lard in the sticky rice. Perhaps you could swap for peanut oil? I'm a little worried that just using a veg oil'll make it a little greasy... so I'd personally probably just back the oil quantity a bit and/or experiment with cutting the oil with ghee.
Everything else would be straightforward - up the shiitake quantity to make up for the shrimp/scallop, and either skip the chicken or swap it to something else :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I wonder if using one of the oils that solidifies easily in the cold would work. Avocado comes to mind. I am thinking if you throw some marinated eggplant in there it might soak up a little of the oil to help with the greasy issue. 🤔
The Dim Sum joint I go to locally does sticky rice fairly similar to these but with fresh shrimp and small chunks of what I think is lap cheong (or a similar chinese sausage) instead of chicken. Easily one of my favourites.
Oh that would be so good!
Is it in Modesto CA? I'm from there and the dim sum place there makes them just like that.
I love both Lo Mai Gai and Zongzi, and fortunately living in Scarborough Ontario I have many places that sell both. Since my wife and I dont often go out for dim sum any longer we buy the frozen versions. The cost has almost doubled on both over just the past two years so I'm glad to see how to make lo mai gai so I can spend a day making large batches to freeze just like I do with kimchi cabbage rolls.
Oh and is Chris from Queens? I asked because to me he sounds very similar to Richard Dreyfuss, which is pretty cool for the narration of youtube vids.
Salted duck egg yolk is also great in Lo Mai Gai.
The strong rains in the background though -- it hits me (again) that you're in Thailand, and also, those are very much the monsoon/typhoon rains we get here in the Philippines. Ah, the commonalities.
Yeah... rainy season in Bangkok is no joke haha. Luckily there's a good overhang there, so when filming it's just our slippers that get a little wet
Yummmy
I admit I haven't made any of your dim sum dishes yet (because of the aforementioned difficulty level and well, laziness) but bonus points for using the difficulty screen from Dragon Age Origins!
I normally keep a can or bottle of some cheap non-descript lager (3.5-5% ABV) at home (we do not drink lager) for the purpose of soaking those dried seafood items. Works better than water for our purposes. We've even tried it for rehydrating mushrooms and in certain cases it also works better than water.
I would definitely do these with Chinese sausage (lap cheong).
Is there any preference for which side of the lotus leaf (top or bottom) you use as the inside (ie the side touching the rice)? When I do zhongzi I always choose the top side of the leaf (the shiny side) to be side touching the rice as it doesn’t stick as tight to the rice after cooking. Helps with peeling back the wrapping. 😁
I’m going to be very popular in my family if I starting making these lol
Sooooo hungry now 😍😍
I really appreciate this video because I am trying to reduce plastics in my household and making a batch of these will do just that. Thank you.
I have a request. I see videos of Chinese people making a noodle by making a big log and then peeling it like a veggie right into the pot. Can you show us a recipe for that dough? I would really like to try it. It seems less labor intensive in a way and it looks like the noodles are a great texture. Of course, the toppings are endless and that would be your choice as to what you would share. Thanks either way. I have learned so much from you both already. 😊
Here you go, it's one of the three noodles: ua-cam.com/video/NBuUjZLi5WE/v-deo.html
@@ChineseCookingDemystified oh, awesome, thank you!
As a mid-westerner, you had my curiosity with dim sum. But when you said "cheesy"... you had then got my attention.
Never seen these before, but they sort of gove me the vibe of Chinese tamales, and that sounds amazing
I wonder if you could press the rice in the bowl, fill it, cap it, then dump the bowl?
for a vegan version, I recommend swapping the lard with coconut oil and omit the chicken. Still delicious.
The lo mai gai in Malaysia here (not all but the most common I see) is in like a metallic "cup" thing also it does have the sticky rice, chicken, and mushroom. I'm now not sure what's mine here called correctly
糯米鸡 is made of 廚餘！！
Please show how to make Wu Gok (Taro Dumplings)
Add: 1. Hard boiled salted yoke (1/2), 2. 1 piece braised pork belly or short cut can ones. 3. I like also the 'jung ge' small yellow beans 4. Red Chinese Sausage (3 to 4 Slices)
could you say which brands of frozen storebought you like best?
In Vancouver most restaurants would put in a piece of Chinese sausage. I've never been a huge fan but my boys loved them, so I would always call dibs on the sausage. As they got older I faced increased resistance. lol
“How you feeling, dude?”
“Pretty lo mai gai.”
I know J Kenji has it in his book, but can we get a nice Chongqing pork recipe? Or any additional recipe with napa cabbage? Napa is so good.
We called these ho yip fan 荷叶饭 in Malaysia . Our Lo Mai Gai looks like a completely different dish 🤣
I had the luck to visit a dim sum place with my Macanese friend, and he ordered this saying it was his favorite birthday treat. Since then, I've been obsessed with Lo Mai Gai. I'll spend 15 minutes hunting for it at any Asian market I visit.
Geez this recipe looks complicated but premade Lo Mai Gai are EXPENSIVE... and I go through them far too quickly.
The lotus leaves might be hard to source in the U.S. but trust me they're worth the flavor. It's sort of like the flavor of brown rice tea.
Our local Chinese supermarket in Dallas, Texas, is 99 Ranch. They sell ready to eat dim sum including Lo Mai Gai, but in the grocery area or frozen area I can't find lotus leaves at all! It's like they hoard all of them just to make their LMG, leaving none for the customers!
@@matthewharper8933 it’s usually with the dried goods, not frozen. Maybe that will help?
are canned bamboo shoots ok, or do they have to be "fresh"? and how do canned compare to fresh?
could you use banana leaves in place of the lotus?
my local grocery recently got some frozen packets of this, tried it but it was so lacking compared to the dim sum places.
Why does the sesame oil go into the marinade after everything else has already been mixed?
What's a good replacement for the lard for anyone who can't eat pork? Beef tallow or peanut oil?
What's the difference with machang or zongzi?
I want to make a vegetarian version of this, what could I use instead of lard? Would vegetable shortening work?
This might be a weird question, but for the inner sauce, could you make it with gochujang?
0:38 yeahhhh i tried making bao at home once. it really is super hard :c
The ingredients are completely different but the process is very similar to what you would do if you were making tamales, even the lard in the rice (masa in tamales) is similar.
We stock up on frozen dumplings when we go to the Oriental market. I wi look next time to see if they have Lo Mai Gai
they're great. steam em in a bamboo steamer alongside the other dumplings from frozen :D
I find it interesting these are called Chinese tamales where I am from, in no small part because some are basically just tamales but with rice instead of corn. We do get something closer to this in most dim sum restaurants, but bakeries and the sorts do just make a rice tamal. I am guessing the reverse, making a lo mai gai but using corn, should be posible and taste just as good.
What, no salted egg yolk in the filling? That’s the best part!
I've never seen them made in leaves. In Malaysia they're just made in aluminium foil tartlet cups.
Having a younger american relative, I can’t stop from hearing “Low, My Guy”
Ngl, having made dim sum before, those frozen brands actually get ridiculously good for being, well, frozen. Couldn't believe it when I first tried it.
Does it matter which side of the lotus leaf is the inside?
😋😋😋
I explained these to my friends as Eastern Asian tamales and they all immediately understood.
I absolutely adore all the different types of steamed stuffed sticky rice.
I like taking short grain sticky rice, a little sugar (very little), and then you wrap it around sliced banana and a little sweetened condensed milk, wrap the whole thing in banana leaves and steam.
Once they're steamed, let them cool and then slowly grill it while still wrapped in the banana leaf. Amazing dessert or snack.
Chicago's Chinatown has a store called "Dim Sum House". You can buy all of your dim sum favorites in their raw frozen state. My son and I usually go twice a year and we spend at least $100 each time. My last three pork buns got freezer burnt :( That's my cue to go back!
I feel I should make these, and tamales at the same time, and freeze both batches for snacks or meals later....
0:30 I absolutely love dim sum, but I've always told my friends "You'd have to be a complete masochist to wanna make a full dim sum course at home from scratch." And the reason why dim sum is so hard and so labor intensive at home, yet restaurants are able to get food out so quick is because most of the restaurants that serve traditional dim sum are typically restaurants that also specialize in banquet cooking. They typically have highly trained chefs, typically a lot of them, that get up at the early hours of the morning, and they prep and cook, and that's all they do until 2 p.m. when some restaurants stop serving dim sum. And they cook a lot more and faster as they have to get as many items out as possible as fast as possible on those carts from the moment those doors open up until after lunch.
We buy them frozen. Great for a quick lunch.