Loving Dumplings
Guess what kind of food this expression relates to:
“Here comes a flock of swans
Everyone, dash into the pond”
Bingo! It's the dumpling!
A traditional Chinese food, the dumpling possesses a dearly long history of more than 1800 years. It was first created as an herbal tonic by a traditional Chinese doctor named Zhang Zhongjing. Having developed over several centuries, this ancient tonic has already become an ordinary daily food that can be cooked in multiple ways, such as boiled, steamed and fried. Moreover, you can add candy, tomatoes, or any edible ingredient you want into a dumpling. The most common Chinese dumpling is boiled dumpling stuffed with Chinese cabbage and pork. The procedure is as follows:
1. Mix 250g of flour with water
2. Wait for 1 hour
3. Roll the small pieces of the mixture into 60 dumpling wrappers
4. Mix 300g of Chinese cabbage with 250g of pork.
5. Add 30g of green onions, 20g of ginger, 30g of oil, 5g of garlic, 5g of vinegar, 5g of soya sauce, 3g of salt and 2g of monosodium glutamate in it, and stir.
6. Put some mixture on the dumpling wrapper and form it into dumplings. (See the video)
7. Repeat step #6 for all 60 wrappers.
8. Put all the dumplings in boiling water for 10 minutes.
Video: Making a Dumpling
Nowadays, people do not have enough time to cook, for they have considerable work to do. Therefore, companies produce instant frozen dumplings (See Figure 1). So cooking dumplings has become convenient and fast. In addition, you can store them in the refrigerator for several months. In China, one can find more than ten different flavors in supermarkets: celery and beef, leeks and pork, corn and vegetables, seafood, and so on. At the same time, dumpling chain stores are available to public. In other words, accessing traditional Chinese food is getting much easier nowadays.
Figure 1 Well-packed instant frozen dumplings can be purchased in any convenient store or supermarket.
The dumpling is an important part of Chinese food culture. On Spring Festival Eve, when the Chinese celebrate, they have the family reunion dinners. An essential part of the dinner is the dumpling, which symbolizes good fortune and success. Thus during the festival and other events, the Chinese cook dumplings in a special way. They mix coins or salt into the stuffing of the dumplings, and the person who eats the dumpling with extra stuffing is going to have good luck. Chinese people also believe that eating dumplings will bring them harmony in the coming year. To me, the dumpling is not only an embodiment of fortune, but also a bond of emotion between me and my family or my friends. Cooking and enjoying dumplings can also make me happy and relaxed.
When I was a small child, my parents always took me to visit my grandparents’ home every week. Grandma was an extremely proficient cook. Most of the time, she would prepare a great deal of delicious food — roast chicken, grilled beef steak, fried pork, braised fish, baked shrimp, and so on — to welcome us. However, the most interesting part of our visits was watching my grandma make dumplings. Her deft fingers rapidly transformed the square dumpling wrappers into pretty and elaborate dumplings. I found it a miraculous experience to see a stack of dumpling wrappers change into a plate of dumplings, and then be boiled to become an appetizing food. It was magic! My mother invariably helped grandma. They cooked and talked together about topics such as weather, friends, life, my father, me, and every thing. I stood beside them in silence, listening and enjoying: enjoy the mystery of making dumplings and the harmony of my family.
The first time I tried to cook dumplings was about eight years ago. It was complicated work. I had to mix the flour, mince pork, make dumplings and boil water. I was confused, disappointed and I almost gave up, but at last I succeeded. It was my mother who encouraged me and taught me everything about it step-by-step. What I gained from her was not only the method of cooking dumplings but also the “never-give-up” spirit. She taught me that miracles could happen and that I could achieve anything through hard work and perseverance.
Cooking typically takes place at home or in restaurants. I never thought that cooking could be a sweet memory of friends until the summer of 2007.
In China, all high school students must participate in an activity called “agriculture practice”. They have to stay on a farm for two weeks, learn about agriculture, and study planting, weeding, and even grafting techniques. During this two-week activity, we also participate in some events such as agriculture knowledge contests, farm sports meetings and dumpling making. In this latter activity, we sat around the table, scrambling for the dumpling wrappers. Chopsticks were fighting on a plate full of stuffing. We competed with each other, in speed and the dumpling size and appearance. Boys were always awkward and clumsy with their hands, so their dumplings looked like stones or irregular polyhedrons. We all bet that these dumplings would fall into pieces in the pot while boiled. At last, we made dumplings in various strange styles and shapes (see the right bottom corner of Figure 2). The kitchen was full of joy and laughter. Dumplings inevitably became the bond that connected our joy. Those days that I spent with my high school classmates are my most precious memories. 
Figure 2 hand-made dumplings by my classmates and I during the agriculture practice.
Since I arrived in Atlanta, I seldom see dumplings but instead, generalized pizzas, hotdogs, chips, and vegetable salad. Once I found dumplings at the dining hall. I was so excited that I ate more than ten dumplings in five minutes! It was a kind of taste of my hometown. Though the flavor was quite different, it still reminded me of my grandma, my mum, and my friends. Dumplings piled up in my thoughts with nostalgia. Dumplings are the one thing I cling to so desperately as a reminder of the past.
I miss China, my family, and my friends.
I miss Chinese dumplings.
Figure 1: http://www.ccic-bpmc.com/uploadfile/product/pdt_upload/200807/20080728032149984.jpg
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