Here comes a flock of swan
All of who dash into the pond
Bingo! It’s dumpling!
As immemorial Chinese food, dumpling possesses a dearly long history for more than 1800 years. It was first created as herbal tonics by a traditional Chinese doctor named Zhang Zhongjing. Having developed for several centuries, this ancient tonic has already become an ordinary daily food which can be cooked in multiple ways, such as boil, steam and fry. Moreover, you can put candies, tomatoes, or any edible ingredients you want into dumpling. The most common Chinese dumpling is boiled dumpling with Chinese cabbage and pork stuffed. The procedure is as following:
1. mix 250g of flour with water
2. wait for 1 hour
3. make it into 60 dumpling wrappers
4. mix 300g of Chinese cabbage with 250g of pork.
5. add 30g of green onion, 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 the mixture on the dumpling wrapper, make it into dumpling.
7. repeat step 6 for 60 times.
8. put all the dumplings in boiled water, wait for 10 minutes.
video: Making dumplings
Nowadays, people do not have enough time to cook for they have numerous works to do. Instant frozen dumpling appears. Cooking dumplings becomes convenient and fast. What’s more, you can store them in the fridge for several months. In China, you can find more than 10 different flavors in supermarkets: celery and beef, leeks and pork, corn and vegetable, seafood, and so on. At the same time, dumpling chain stores are available to public. Accessing Chinese traditional food gets much easier nowadays.
Figure 1 Well-packed instant frozen dumpling can be purchased in any convenient store or supermarket.
Dumpling is an important part of Chinese food culture. At New Year Festival evening, people perpetually have the family reunion dinner. Dumpling, which symbolizes good luck and big win, is an essential part of the dinner. Here comes a custom of making dumplings during a festival or a significant moment for special circumstance; Cook mixes coins or salts with stuffing into dumplings. Person who eats the dumpling with extra stuffing is going to get symbolized luck accordingly. Chinese people also believe eating dumplings will bring them a harmonious coming year. To me, 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 make me feel amusing and comfortable.
Figure 2 alluring Chinese dumplings are made delicately by hand.
When I was a little child, my parents always bring me to visit my grandparents’ home every week. Grandma is absolutely a proficient cook. At most of the time, she will prepare a great deal of delicious food — roast chicken, grilled beef steak, fried pork, braised fish, baked shrimp and so on — to welcome us. But the most attractive thing to me is watching my grandma making dumplings. Her deft fingers can rapidly transform square dumpling wrappers into pretty and elaborate dumplings. It was actually a miraculous experience to see a stack of dumpling wrapper to be changed into a plate of dumpling, and then being boiled to become appetizing food. It is magic! Mother invariably helped grandma. They cooking together as well as talking together: talking about weather, about friends, about life, about my father and me, about every thing. I stood beside them, listening peacefully, enjoying: enjoy the mystery of making dumpling and the harmony of the family.
The first time I tried to cook dumpling was about 8 years ago. It was a complicated work. I have to mix the flour, mince pork, make dumplings and boil water. I was puzzled, disappointed and almost given up, but at last I succeeded. It was my mother who encouraged me and taught me everything about it hand-by-hand. What I gained from her is not only the method to cook dumplings, but also the never-give-up spirit. There can be miracles. You can achieve if you endeavor to accomplish.
Cooking is always considered to take place at home or restaurants. I never thought of that cooking can be a sweet memory of friend until that summer.
Figure 3 hand-made dumplings by my classmates and I during the agriculture practice.
In China, all high school students should participate an activity called agriculture practice. We will have to stay on farm for two weeks, learning knowledge about agriculture and study how to plant, weed, and even grafting. During this fortnight’s time, we also have some events, for instance, agriculture knowledge contest, farm sports meeting and dumpling making. We sat around the table, scrambling for the dumpling wrappers. Chopsticks were fighting in the plate full of stuffing. We competed with each other, in speed, in dumpling size and appearance. Boys were always clumsy-handed and awkward. Their dumplings seemed like stone or irregular polyhedron. We betted these dumplings would fall into pieces in the cooker while boiled. At last, we made dumplings in various strange styles and shapes (see the right bottom corner of the photo). The kitchen was full of joy and laugh. Dumplings inevitably become to be the bond of our joy. Those days I spent with my high school classmates are my most precious memories.
Figure 4 dumplings mede by my classmates and I in strange shapes.
Since I arrived in Atlanta, I can seldom see dumplings but generalized pizzas, hotdogs, chips and vegetable salad instead. Once I found the dumplings at the dining hall. I was so exited that I ate more than 10 dumplings in 5 minutes! It is a kind of taste of my hometown. Though the flavor is quite different, it can still remind me something, my grandma, my mum and my friends. Dumplings piled my thoughts with nostalgia. It is the thing I cling so desperate to some reminders of the past.
I miss China, my family and my friends.
I miss Chinese dumpling.
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