COMMENTARY, Sept. 8 -- It's fascinating how getting older sometimes means getting more honest with yourself; there just isn't enough time for bull and baloney.

This candour extends to how I eat or, rather, how I prefer to eat. There were years, for instance, where I'd avoid ordering siu mai - those perfect parcels of prawn and pork - in favour of more intriguing items when dining at a dim sum restaurant.

Perhaps pan-fried cheong fun rice rolls in XO chilli sauce? Or those collagen-rich "phoenix claws" paired with fragrant fermented black beans?

Surely some steamed lotus paste buns with salted egg yolk will satisfy, with their pleasing, oozing lava drama?

Siu mai, on the other hand, with a folded yellow wantan wrapper forming a pocket ...