Imperial Clam Chicken

The past few months have been quite challenging. However, through this difficult time and especially these past few days, I have seen how caring and genuine all my friends are.
Yesterday, some friends told me that they feel sorry that they could not give me birthday gifts while some other feel guilty for not being able to visit me more often before my trip. Even if I have said to them that my birthday is not a big deal, some of them still feel bad.
There is no doubt in my mind that they care a lot for me. Caring cannot be measured by the amount of gift or time or visit or conversation someone would give me. Caring is from the heart, even one tiny word or intention is enough. For example, I have friends that I haven't seen for a decade but no matter how busy we are, we always check on each other time to time and would not hesitate to help each other even from long distance.
Actually just some simple sentences like "hi, how are you?" or "still busy? don't overload yourself with work." are enough to show their care and good intention towards me. Unfortunately, nowadays, some people do not understand the true meaning of caring and just assess the caring of a person towards another person by the amount of gift or time or visit he/she would give to the other person.
So I want to say to all my friends that I know they care for me very much and would like to take this chance to thank all my friends, who have supported me, advised me, cared for me, helped me and stood by my side throughout all these years. Not all my friends live in the same city or country or even continent. But one thing they have in common is that I know that they will always be available for me at any time I need them. To show my appreciation to this true friendship, today I would like to show how to cook the "Chinese Imperial Clam Chicken", deriving its name very likely from the fact that this dish was served to the Chinese emperor. Only good and superior dishes were served to the emperor. In my heart, all my friends are like an emperor who deserve only the very best in their life. By now, my friends should understand how blessed I feel to have them in my life. So enough said, here is the recipe for the Imperial Clam Chicken.

Ingredients:
- Half of a chicken
- Lettuce

Seasonings:
- 2 Tablespoon Clam Sauce
- 1 teaspoon Sugar
- 2 teaspoon Corn Starch
- 1 teaspoon Rice Wine
- 1 teaspoon Garlic
- Few slices of Ginger
- 1 Stalk of Spring Onion (chopped)

Procedure:
1) Mix all the ingredients under Seasonings.

2) Spread the mixture evenly onto the surface of the chicken as well as inside the belly of the chicken.

3) Steam the chicken for about 30 minutes until done.

4) Take the chicken out and cut into pieces. Then place on a plate.


5) Pour all the sauce and set aside.

6) Blanch the lettuce until done. Then place the lettuce on the plate with the chicken. The lettuce, which is a nice combination to eat with the chicken, gives an enjoyable presentation.

7) Boil the chicken sauce that you have set aside (in step #5) with a bit of corn starch solution. Then pour the sauce onto the chicken.

Enjoy it !