Monica's dumpling party started late. Paul and I were on time, and as a result ended up learning new things about Monica.
First of all, she has a
erhu and can play it!
(Above: Monica teaches Paul.)
Second, she has a Wii and we could play it! Paul uses his incredible moves to excel at the Dancing with the Stars game. But the boys eventually decide to box instead of dance.
Eventually, more of the actual cooks appeared for this traditional Northern China cooking party, and dumpling preparation truly began..
1. The dough was created with rice flour and water.
2. The filling was prepared, starting with ground pork and minced shrimp.
3.
Cabbage and green onion was diced, and added to the filling mixture (after squeezing out all the extra moisture). Then mixed well with other seasonings.
4. The dough was kneaded and rolled into a thin, long, cylindrical rope.
5. The cylinder was cut into thin disk rounds.
6. Using a rolling pin, the dough disks were rolled flat and thin (maintaining the round shape).
7. Filling was added to the center of the disk.
8. The edges were then pinched and folded together.
9. Voila! A dumpling!
Monica and Julie taught us as well as they could, but their practiced hands still seemed wonderous rolling the rounds and making the dumplings perfectly every time.
Eventually, plates and plates of dumplings were completed and we moved into the next stage.
10. Cooking the dumplings in boiling water. (They are done when they float.)
11. Next, create a personalised dipping sauce. (From the many choices in Monica's cupboard).
12. Eat!
Along with all the appetizers and desserts people brought, it was truly a feast. But still, Julie insisted on drinking some of the water that was used to cook the dumplings. She told a story of a monk to explain the tradition, with the moral if one didn't, one would have a stomach ache*.
I think even if we had drunk the soup, we'd still have a stomach ach because we'd eaten so much!
Afterwards, we played more Wii. It's probably no surprise that despite so many Resort games to choose from we still graviated towards canoeing (most of us being
Toasters). But it was also the one that provided the most entertainment value for how bad we were at it (missing buoys and check points and going in circles). Julie almost wanted to throw her controller into the wall by the end of it :P
* The story sounded pretty improbable to me. But after talking to Angela about it, (us, being southerners, didn't know about these traditions), she thought maybe it was related to how scarce food was in the north. The cooking water would have some starch from the dumplings and would still be nutrious, and thus it would have been bad to waste. Though in some ways it similar to our Winter Solstice traditions of to make
yuan. in other ways this was almost opposite: Ours were a super rich soup and with dumplings that were completely plain.
