#ChineseFoodiesofIG: Matthew Murtagh-Wu, The Real Dumpling King
Mandy Yin, chef-owner of Sambal Shiok Laksa Bar in London (@sambalshiok)
This is part of an ongoing series of interviews I’m doing with my favourite Chinese foodies that I follow on Instagram. Come and follow the #ChineseFoodiesofIG hashtag on Instagram and leave a comment showing your support for these talented folk!
Where are you from? Where are you really from?
Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. My father was sent to the West Coast for boarding school in the 1960s. He's from Hong Kong. His parents were from Zhejiang and Jiangsu province and immigrated to Hong Kong in the 40s. My mom's ‘Canadian’, and by that her parents were British expats and she was raised in Victoria.
What does Chinese food mean to you?
Chinese food has been and always will be many things to me. At this point in my life, it has become my muse and medium of self-expression. It is an endless wellspring of inspiration for me. I live, breathe, think, study, and eat Chinese culinary traditions and techniques. I'd like to think of myself as a ‘student of the game’.
Share a food memory:
My dad would sometimes cook on Sundays and my grandma would drive over. She would come up the back steps and I remember the sound of the chan banging the wok in the kitchen as he cooked and the rustling of a plastic bag up the back stairs. That meant she brought something. It was always classic home style dishes from her home province of Jiangsu – bok choy fried rice, lion’s head meatballs, kaofu, sweet beef and onions. I will never forget this. She would sometimes leave containers filled with her cooking on my porch and message me later to tell me she left me something for dinner. Some of my best food memories were wrapped in a used grocery bag.
Top three dim sum:
Cheung fun with yao tiu, dried shrimp, and green onion with the sesame paste/hoisin dipping sauce
Chicken feet
Ham sui gao
