Peanut Dumpling Thingies

Beside one of my favourite coffee vendors in Banglamphu is a woman who sells peanut dumpling thingies.  I’m not really sure what exactly is inside of these, but she told me peanuts, so let’s go with that (although, if I let the truth be known, they certainly taste like there is much more than just peanuts inside of them).  It’s a pretty interesting process watching this vendor make her peanut dumplings.  I kind of bought some initially because it was so cool to watch her make her peanut dumplings and they looked so pretty in their little plastic to-go containers.  The first time I bought dumplings from this woman, she recommended the type which is pictured up top.  I didn’t love them.  The texture of the dough was just too chewy for me, and I didn’t love having it in my mouth.  I also didn’t realise that there was a little baggie of deep fried garlic which was meant to be dumped on my dumplings before consumption.  My rule of thumb is that if I don’t have a reasonable idea of what it is, I don’t eat it.  But after my Laos adventures, I was more aware of what deep fried garlic looks like, so when I went back to this peanut dumpling lady to try her other kind of dumplings, not only was I wise to the fact that she included some leaves of lettuce and coriander with the dumplings (for a reason– they should be eaten with the lettuce and coriander), but she also included a little baggie of deep fried garlic, so before eating dumplings version numero deux, I dumped that deep fried garlic all over them.  I also grabbed a few extra tiny red chilies from her before leaving her stall, and this action was actually met with a nod of APPROVAL.  I have to say, I still don’t LOVE the texture of the dough wrapped around these dumplings, but eating them with the chilies and the deep fried garlic and the lettuce and coriander made them taste a LOT better.  Like, a lot a lot.