Our New Years' Eve....If you remember my quest for dumpling wrappers from the previous day...you will be happy to know that a team of experts..in the form of our tutor's brother and housekeeper, showed up to teach us how to make wrappers. We had invited our friend Roger and his wife and gamely made our own dough and filling based on internet recipes when we got the call that help was on the way. They showed us how to roll the dough and lent us a rolling pin for the occasion. We rolled the dough into a big tube, cut off one inch segments, rolled these into balls and rolled these balls into circles with the rolling pin...then exactly the right amount of filling was put inside with chopsticks, sealed and presto..a dumpling! They stuck around long enough to supervise me cooking them: we put them in boiling water and gently stirred them..once they boiled we added a cup of cold water and waited for it to come bake to a boil, repeated this twice and they were ready to eat-- we ate it over the dough yet to be made into wrappers..Turning the evening into one long food fest.
A 5 jiao coin is hidden in one of the dumplings...whoever finds it is the luckiest member of the family for the year..Helen, through persistent dumpling eating, was the winner.
The kids all wore their Chinese finery, but Sophia was not content --she also donned her "Cinderella dress" . All evening on TV we had on the New Years' Eve spectacular, which all Chinese families watch apparently..kind of like Dick Clark. We had a feast with all the foods I researched and could prepare in my tiny kitchen...after the dumplings, we had fish, fried noodles and 2 vegetable dishes. At the end of the meal we had a plate of mandarin oranges (with the leaves attached makes them a symbol of prosperity and fertility(!) other fruits and different kids of Chinese candy we had picked up in the market...topped off by ice cream Roger and his wife had brought all the way from Walmart on the bus. Shortly after the kids went to bed, there were fireworks at midnight somewhere in town..not sure where..
In the morning, the kids checked their Hong Bao (red envelopes) which actually contained cash this year.
We also left out for them a bunch of tang 糖 -- candy -- the international language of holidays for children..each also got some red underwear as well...which Thomas pronounced as "weird and freaky"..
Happy Year of the Rat to all our friends and family....
1 comment:
Dear Ann, Micheal,Thomas, Helen and Sophie, Thank you so much for the Chinese New Year Surprise! Happy Chinese New Year! Yesterday I went in the MeMe and Molly's preschool to make lanterns and today head to Megan's school to make paper dragons....plus lots of other activities today and tomorrow. Making dumplings with the family is so much fun and the homemade wrappers taste so wonderful...worth the effort. Congratulations Helen on finding the coin....you and your family are so lucky. Thank you again for sharing your experiences while living in China. You are fantastic people and great friends. Sincerely, Kay
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