Glutinous rice mixed with soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil, combined with Chinese lap cheong sausage (lop cheung — dried, sweet, fatty pork sausage), dried shiitake mushrooms, and chicken — wrapped in lotus leaves and steamed. The lotus leaf imparts a specific, delicate, hay-and-smoke aromatic to the glutinous rice during steaming — one of the most distinctive and evocative smells in Chinese cooking. Lo mai gai is a dim sum standard and a demonstration of indirect aromatic infusion through the wrapping medium.
**The lotus leaf:** Dried lotus leaves (he ye) must be soaked in warm water for 1–2 hours until fully pliable. If the lotus leaf cracks or splits when folded: insufficient soaking. A properly soaked lotus leaf is deep olive-green, pliable, and already beginning to release its characteristic aromatic. **The glutinous rice:** Soaked overnight (Entry TH-14 principle). Steamed until 80% cooked — it will complete its cooking inside the lotus leaf parcel. **The filling components:** - Lap cheong: sliced on the diagonal — its characteristic sweetness (from added sugar and rice wine in the curing) and rich fat content will infuse into the rice during steaming. - Dried shiitake: soaked until soft, sliced. The soaking liquid (strained) is added to the rice seasoning. - Chicken: thigh, diced, marinated briefly in soy, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, cornstarch. **The wrapping:** 1. Lay the softened lotus leaf (or two if small, overlapping) flat. 2. Place a portion of glutinous rice in the centre. 3. Add the filling components over the rice. 4. Cover with additional rice. 5. Fold the lotus leaf over the filling — producing a sealed parcel. Tie with kitchen twine or the stem of the lotus leaf. 6. Steam over vigorous water for 30–40 minutes. Decisive moment: The aromatic of the lotus leaf during the final 10 minutes of steaming — the characteristic hay-and-smoke aroma of the heated lotus leaf should be perceptible above the steamer from this point. This smell indicates that the leaf is at temperature and the aromatic compounds are infusing into the rice. If no lotus leaf aroma: the steam was insufficient or the parcel was sealed too tightly.
Fuchsia Dunlop, *Land of Plenty* (2001); *Every Grain of Rice* (2012); *Land of Fish and Rice* (2016); *The Food of Sichuan* (2019)