| Budget meals are different from the premium ones, and they are the food to fill up your break time on the go because you have limited time. There are good and not-so good meals out there. You can say everyone of it is not perfect, but these budget meals sometimes are the best ones that fill up your empty tummy for good measure.
7 Eleven has several of them under the Hotta Rice branding, and they were really budget meals that filled your tummy. There are some that were hot sellers that have been retired, and there are those underappreciated dishes that could be something worth a second round of a good meal, and then there’s that Pork Siomai... |
Siomai or Siomay, is an Indonesian steamed fish dumpling with vegetables served in peanut sauce. It is derived from Chinese Shumai. It is considered a light meal that is a type of Chinese Dim Sum, but is cone shaped. It is traditionally made from pork but frequently substituted with tenggiri fish meat for halal reasons.
The one 7 Eleven have is the Pork Siomai with none of the above described details, but it is a pork dumpling, also without any of the sauce that you’d expect when you open this little tub of light meal. There’s nothing special about something that doesn’t have the bells of whistles of an actual Siomai dish.
Pork Dumpling
It is made of pork hence the name, and they’re six piece inside resting on top of the rice ready to be heated on the microwave. There are no sauces or not having any veggie in them as the standard pork siomai, which is sold as a street food dish is a slightly glamourized version of that street adopted food cuisine.
A Hotta Rice meal is simply that with less flair compared to the Big Time Meals, and the Pork Siomai is considered a shelf warmer or shelf cooler in most 7 Eleven Stores as the last one to fly off and be devoured. Before, the Hotta Rice Meals were diverse and it is understandable why supply and demand was challenging this past two years.
Steamed Goodness
It would be impressive to have this steamed, but it is also made for you to just heat it up in a microwave oven. But for this, adding citrus calamansi and a dash of soy sauce would be enough to make it taste better than just a dried out siomai for lunch. Since it is a budget meal that’s the reason why this is a strip down dish.
Light meal means it’s for someone on the go, and definitely a straightforward meal without the hassle putting any ingredients or having something prepared for extra time, and that is the reason it was a Hotta Rice that is worth your short time.
Overall simplicity can be found on the minimalism of the dish. It’s a no frills, no thrills kind of dish and that’s how a Hotta Rice rolls. But with the lack of choices for a budget meal is not enough to have just a Pork Siomai, and let’s hope 7 Eleven expands and bring back some of the previous discontinued dishes in the future.
- Food Quality: 4 out of 5
- Affordability: A
- Overall: No Soy Sauce Included
Pork Siomai | Retailed at: ₱ 65.00 Pesos [$ 1.74 AUD | $ 1.22 USD]** As of 13 June 2022***
** - Currency Converter via Google.com
*** - UPDATED AS OF 13 JUNE 2022
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