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Amyl and the Sniffers

“With this album, we really wanted to show everyone that we’re going for it; we’re giving it a go,” says Amyl and the Sniffers’ frontwoman Amy Taylor ahead of the release of their highly anticipated third album Cartoon Darkness. We sit down with the ARIA Award-winning punk-rockers and go deep on their new sound, their big dreams and the serious business of having fun.

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Sang Choy Bao by Jennifer Wong

Sang choy bao is a dish I love because it is a delicious combination of danger and vulnerability.

Jennifer says…

On a Chinese restaurant menu, sang choy bao is probably one of the dishes that’s easiest to make at home. Sang choy means lettuce, and bao means to wrap. So if you have lettuce, and some saucy and delicious li’l bits and pieces, take a bao: you have a popular Chinese entree on your hands.

Growing up, it’s a dish my dad would sometimes make for us as a treat, frying up minced pork with soy and oyster sauce, tiny cubes of carrot and finely chopped water chestnut, all of it topped with spring onions and sesame seeds. He would even trim the edges of each lettuce cup so they would be a pleasing round shape, identical in size.

Sang choy bao is a dish I love because it is a delicious combination of danger and vulnerability. Here is a piping hot meaty filling (although you could happily make it vegetarian or vegan) dolloped onto a crisp, cold, single layer of iceberg lettuce…which you will now fold together and bring to your mouth. Inevitably, the said piping hot meaty filling will be drawn by gravity to escape.

There is a particular joy to eating something messy. If a Chinese restaurant has ever filled your sang choy bao too generously, you’ll know what I mean: meat juices and hoisin sauce drip down your hands, maybe even your arms. At home, where the responsibility is one’s own, every lettuce cup is an invitation to learn from previous mistakes. And yet. The temptation to spoon just a little bit more of that fragrant filling is too great.

One thing I’ve learned from observing fellow diners who are more elegant than me: if you are offered a sang choy bao with an abundance of filling, eat some by itself first before you bundle up the lettuce wrap to eat. Unless you’re eating at home, where a sang choy bao is basically an invitation to a little mess (or a lot: lettuce not judge).

CHOPSTICKS OR FORK? RECIPES AND STORIES FROM AUSTRALIA’S REGIONAL CHINESE RESTAURANTS BY JENNIFER WONG AND LIN JIE KONG IS AVAILABLE NOW. JENNIFER WONG’S STAND-UP SHOW, THE SWEET AND SOUR HOUR OF POWER, IS TOURING IN OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER. TICKETS AND INFO AT JENNIFERWONG.COM.AU.

Happy’s Chinese Restaurant

Sang Choy Bao by Jennifer Wong

Ingredients
Makes 4

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
200g chicken mince
½ onion, diced
½ carrot, diced
2 shiitake mushrooms, diced
Small handful finely sliced spring onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon fresh minced ginger
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon shaoxing rice wine
4 large iceberg lettuce leaves

Method

Heat half the oil in a wok on high heat, add the mince and stir-fry until it changes colour, then remove and set aside.

Heat the remaining oil in the wok on high heat. Add all the vegetables (except the lettuce) and oyster sauce. Give everything a quick stir.

Add the mince back in, toss it through and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the soy sauce and shaoxing wine just before serving.

Give the lettuce a good shake to remove any excess water, spoon the filling into each cup and serve immediately.

Published in Ed#722