Meat Balls For Alberto

I like to use these meat balls in a lot of the dishes I cook. They are so convenient. They come fresh, ready-prepared in vacuum sealed packages from the supermarket, and they instantly add taste, texture and “meat” (pun intended) to any dish. I add them to noodle soups, rice vermicelli soups, tau kwa (pressed tofu) dishes, fu jook (bean curd stick) dishes and many, many more. Even instant noodles, with an additional egg. Yum!

I actually prefer these meatballs anytime over the ubiquitous fish balls that are so very common in Asia. They have “more bite” with a “springier” texture than fish balls. And they come in nice ¾” bite-sized pieces, which also make them great for skewering into sort of meat ball satays, then cooked over a BBQ or under a broiler, and either basted with teriyaki sauce, served with salsa or dipped into piquant chilli sauce. There are increasing varieties of them too – beef balls, chicken balls, sotong (squid) balls, beef and mushroom balls, chicken and mushroom balls, sotong and mushroom balls, and even tofu and fish balls.

Here’s a dish that appears regularly on our family’s dinner table – a mixed dish of meat balls, cubes of teriyaki tau kwa (pressed tofu in teriyaki flavor), cubes of fish tofu, different types of mushrooms, carrots, long beans and red chilli. I like this dish a lot!

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