homemade vietnamese gio lua (vietnamese luncheon meat)

just the weekend passed, mcduck made a delish rice noodle / viet ham (VLM vietnamese luncheon meat)... it was so delish... i just couldn't stop adding another piece and another (of the VLM)... at 7-8 bucks a roll, mcduck was rationing the portions... so i decided to have a hand in making my own...
after much research on the internet, and tweaking several recipes, i decided to make it with chicken thigh instead of the usual pork or chicken breasts...

approx 2kg of thigh cost about $20... i didn't bother cleaning up the sinew... i left the little bits of fat for moisture...
the rest of the marinade ingredients were in my pantry already... my recipe went like this:
2kg chicken thigh, diced into small pieces
5 tbsp fish sauce
4 heaped tsp chicken powder
2 tbsp sesame oil
4 tbsp veg oil
1 tsp pepper
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp tapioca flour 2 tbsp baking powder
*mix everything together and let it stand for an hour or several*
then i processed the meat in the food processor...
in 4-5 heaped tbsp of meat each time... processed for several minutes... rested between processing

until the meat became abit glossy and not sticky to the spatula... the meat became elastic...
i wrapped the meat in bamboo leaves and Al foil...
a note on the leaves -in the authentic version, banana leaves should have been used, i used the dried bamboo ones... had to be boiled and washed (v dusty and dirty)... cos i used the leftovers i had in the freezer, the leftovers from the time when i made sticky rice dumplings... i guess using the fresh banana leaves would be less work & more fragrant...
packed a bowl with the meat...
packed it on the lined bamboo leaves over Al foil...
rolled...
rolled...
tied both ends...
rolled over with Al foil, tightly...
rolled over with a 2nd sheet of Al foil... tightly again...
stringed, packed and lined up in my fish kettle...
covered with boiling water and simmered for an hour...

an hour later... after checking with the meat themometer (with internal temp 80 degrees cel' and beyond)... it was safe to be taken out...
and let cooled...
then came the unwrapping...
wow... it looked promising, liked the one from the shops...

and it tasted like that too! now i can have as much VLM as i want and not get told off! plus i will have 2 extra rolls waiting in the freezer for a rainy day...