Happy New Year!
Last night I went with one of my students to his school to spend the evening with his students. He teaches at the Tianjin Institute of Technology and majored in architecture. When we got there all of the students were already there making dinner. It was so cute to see them. They were all freshmen and I have been teaching doctorate students for so long, I forgot how refreshing people can be at that age. They were so silly and free express anything they wanted to say. My students are usually reserved and hold up a guard at first, because they are quite timid with their words, but these guys were fun and very eager to just enjoy themselves without any worries of what it looked like to others. I really liked that.
It is Chinese tradition to eat dumplings to bring in the new year.
So I got a little dumpling 101 last night. I learned how to make the dough. This was hard for me to imitate at first because I am a lefty and they were all righties, but I got the hang of it. I took a tiny chunk of dough squished it and then took a small wooden roller over the dough back and forth with one hand while constantly rotating the dough to make a circle. For some reason most of my wrappers came out square, but they still worked. For some reason in China if you are a lefty people think you are very clever, because they believe you are ambidextrous. I acted flattered the first 100 times I heard it and now I just tell them that I can't use my right hand for anything.
After the wrapper is made it gets filled with the pork stuffing. It looks a little gross now, but tastes oh, so good!
The filling of the dumplings is not an easy task. There are so many little folds! First you put the stuffing in and then start at one end and then crease it closed with pleats a zillion times. I think I did one that was almost perfect, almost.
They were soo yummy!
This is a sweet dumpling that we had for dessert, but did not make from scratch. They were very, very sweet!
It is Chinese tradition to eat dumplings to bring in the new year.
So I got a little dumpling 101 last night. I learned how to make the dough. This was hard for me to imitate at first because I am a lefty and they were all righties, but I got the hang of it. I took a tiny chunk of dough squished it and then took a small wooden roller over the dough back and forth with one hand while constantly rotating the dough to make a circle. For some reason most of my wrappers came out square, but they still worked. For some reason in China if you are a lefty people think you are very clever, because they believe you are ambidextrous. I acted flattered the first 100 times I heard it and now I just tell them that I can't use my right hand for anything.
After the wrapper is made it gets filled with the pork stuffing. It looks a little gross now, but tastes oh, so good!
The filling of the dumplings is not an easy task. There are so many little folds! First you put the stuffing in and then start at one end and then crease it closed with pleats a zillion times. I think I did one that was almost perfect, almost.
They were soo yummy!
This is a sweet dumpling that we had for dessert, but did not make from scratch. They were very, very sweet!