Cooking at home on Chinese New Year!

On the first day of Chinese New Year, we decided not to go out for dinner but instead cook something at home to eat. We both still remembered our experience on Chinese New Year's eve and we decided to play it safe this time around. This is nothing new, as we often cook noodles (instant type especially) or some meat and vegetables. However, for this occasion, we decided to make some dumplings. Afterall, it is Chinese New Year.

In the afternoon, I bought some ingredients from the Supermarket downstairs for the dumplings. Both my sister and I love dumplings, so we decided to try our dumpling making and cooking skills. I had helped my mum make dumplings at home often, but this will be the first time I am doing all this by myself! Wonder if it will turn out good? This will be the real test of our skills, not when mum is by our side!

In the late afternoon, we both prepared the ingredients and wrap the dumplings. It was finger-breaking task, especially when you had not had such practice for such a long time. We could have steamed dumplings, boiled dumplings or fried dumplings. For this time, we decided we wanted fried dumplings. When dinner time came, my sister did the cooking (or frying) while I cooked some rice to go along with the dumplings.

The truth is that the dumplings did not turn out as well as those I am used to at home... physically as well as taste wise. Firstly, they do not look as good... all crumpled and dried out instead of full, fluffy and crunchy. Then the taste... hmm... not so easy to describe but it definitely does not taste like how my mother made them. The meat was too hard and chewy, and not as juicy as I would have liked them. I still felt they were ok but my sister said I failed miserably.

Look at her face below!

Back to the drawing board!

Our family gathering!

While writing about my journey to Singapore, I'll intersperse my writing with posting of my current life back in China. This is so that you can read about my current situation as well. My journey to Singapore was already 2 years back in history. I hope to be able to submit enough articles so that my blog will catch with my current life... There's alot of catching up to do... and I'll probably take quite a few months before I can catch up to my current situation. Bear with me...

Last weekend was a special weekend for us. It was one of those rare weekends where my whole family was together; my sister, my brother and I, together with our parents. Living in the country side, most of us have to stay in the city during the weekdays to be closer to our workplace and as such, we don't see much of each other often. If not for mobile phones, we may not even hear from each other for a long time. Thanks to technology, we're able to keep in contact on a regular basis.

I love dumplings (饺子)!

Dumplings(饺子) is a favorite food in China and it is our family's favorite food too! We always make it on special occassions like these. My mother is good at making dumplings. They are always delicious and since young, she had taught me the art of making good dumplings (饺子)! So this weekend, we bought the necessary ingredients such as pork, vegetables and flour to make dumplings (饺子). Since there are only 5 of us and most of us can only eat about 10 dumplings each or thereabouts, it does not make sense for us to just make 50. We normally make several hundred and either give some to our neighbours and relatives or keep them in the refrigerator for future consumption. In the village, we are a close knit community and normally share what we make with others... and they share theirs with us too. We share the joy with each other too... like if my neighbour's children do well in school, we will all congratulate them... but often, we keep the sorrows to ourselves!

My brother caught a big fish (carp) in the nearby lake and so we had a good meal of dumplings, fish and rice for dinner! It's not just the food, but also the camaraderie... that I really enjoy! I personally had not experience such a family gathering for such a long time as I had been a way for 2 years and did not even have enough money to make it back for two Chinese New Year celebrations in 2009 and 2010.

I had a really great time...