Cooking (A Soliloquy)

I feel exhilarated from today's cooking efforts. I had a strong urge to cook, so I made:

• Madhur Jaffrey's Chinese-style egg flower soup. This recipe is an old favorite of mine.
  
• Also her "Delicious Stock" recipe with dried black mushrooms, carrot, lettuce, and bean sprouts. I anticipate making nyaeng myun with it.
• Mulled red wine. Last time I used merlot, pomegranate juice, dried cherries, sliced satsuma, sugar, and mulling spices. This time I used cabernet sauvignon, orange juice, sliced satsuma, sugar, and a more orangey mix of mulling spices. This version is less tart.
• Kimchi mandu filling. I used firm tofu, mild kimchi, some oyster mushroom, enoki mushroom, green onion, garlic, salt, pepper, sesame oil, and raw egg. I plan to stuff my dumplings tomorrow. I didn't have the energy to do it today.

I looked at a Vietnamese cookbook today. "Banh chung" is a special dish for Tet (Lunar New Year), just around the corner. It is basically a rice and meat "cake": a layer of rice, a layer of mung beans, a layer of pork, a layer of mung beans, and a layer of rice. The whole thing is parceled up in a rectangle--traditionally in banana leaves--but in this modern cookbook, foil and cling wrap. The packet is then simmered in a pot of water for 4 hours. The last step seems really intriguing to me: what is happening in that packet as it is being simmered? The ingredients are already cooked before they are assembled... do they get even more delicious?