Chicken Wings and Dumplings

Sometimes I do fun things and forget to blog about them. Like this-- Asian cooking class through the Nanjing International Club. It's a monthly thing, but this is the first one I've been able to attend. Both other ones I was sick :( I'm sick all the time here too, if you didn't know. But that's not the point of today. Today is about the cooking class. It was actually a happy mistake that led us here. Apparently we usually meet in a meeting room and the chef will just do like a mini demonstration then cook it in the kitchen and return. Today though, they messed up and when we showed up for the class at the Westin hotel, they didn't have anything set up. So we got to go into the massive kitchen and cook. 

I personally love the hustle and bustle of hotel kitchens, so it was cool to be in one again. 

The chef showed us how to make Chinese-style chicken wings and dumplings. Here's the ingredients:

 

 The chicken was a demonstration, and the dumplings were very hands on.

The finished product--I don't really care for meat on the bone, so I didn't have these... plus, eating wings with chopsticks was pretty funny to watch :)

 If you look to the far left of the picture, you'll see dough that kind of looks like rolls. That's the dumpling dough. We started by rolling it out into a long log, about an inch in diameter.

 Then, you pinch off little dough bits and roll them into circles.

 Press it with your hand to start the flattening process, then use a rolling pin to make it more circular in shape--but not too thin!

Then you pinch them shut... it is really an art form, clearly one I have not mastered as show above. 
That's the finished product before cooking... let's just say we're not experts on pinching dumplings into beautiful works of art. Here's a little video I took of the chef schooling us on the art form:

Fruit and Nut Market

One of the things I enjoy about the international club are the explorer walks. In April, we went to the fruit and nut market. We met here at the TV tower and walked about half an hour to the market.

 Along the river, through the rain... we still went.

 This is the area where the market is located. Looks kind of dumpy, but it's all part of the China experience, right? :)

 You can buy all sorts of dried spices, beans, grains, and fruits.

 Rows and rows of vendors... most selling the same things. Lots of nuts.

 And ginger. Massive quantities of ginger. Back home, you get like 2 inches of ginger for $3, but in China you get a pound for that much!

 And purple potatoes and blue eggs.

 Look at that Chinese cinnamon. Huge sticks! This is actually a picture from the vendor where something funny happened. Behind the red bags is a bag with some white stuff in it. I think it might be candied ginger. I went to reach for a piece to smell, and a little mouse came squirming out of the bag! I screamed, drawing more attention to the foreigner. Needless to say, I didn't end up purchasing anything that day!

This is the view from the bridge near the market. I think it looks kind of like Seattle's space needle. It puts into perspective the distance we walked too.

Plum Blossom Festival

I joined the Nanjing International Club to have things to do with other English-speakers outside of work. Each month there is an explorer walk and they have been really fun. In March we went to the Plum Blossom Festival at Purple Mountain. It was a gorgeous day to be outside!

 There were about 20 of us from all around the world--US, Africa, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Canada... probably a few other places as well. We went on a little hike up the mountain through the blossoming trees.

 There was a nice pagoda at the top of one of the mountains which had a view to the city down below.

 Here's me with the blossoms :)

 There was also a pathway that was lined with these massive animals carved out of stone. They were doing some sort of construction/renovation so when we got to the end of the path we just had to turn around.

Here's the view down to the city. Surprising, it doesn't look that smoggy... or maybe I'm just jaded ;)

Sweet as Sugar

Isn't this cool?

 These ones are pretty neat too, but the rabbit was made especially for me :)

 I probably should have taken more pictures, but I was so caught up watching him make the rabbit out of sugar that I just stared in awe. Our Explorer Walk for the Nanjing International Club for March was at Purple Mountain for the Plum Blossom Festival. (I'll be posting pictures of that next). Towards the end of the walk, we came across a few booths and this man was just sitting here waiting for a customer. I had seen stands like this before, but no one was ever paying him to make anything. So, I thought it'd be neat to see (and the other 20-some foreigners who went on the walk). I asked the cost, 5 yuan, and then I got to spin the spinner to see which zodiac animal he'd be making. You can kind of see the spinner on the right. 

 Once you spin, the artist begins to make your design out of melted sugar using a spoon and a spatula. He takes a big spoonful of the melted sugar and starts artfully drizzling it on the marble slab. It took him under 2 minutes to make my rabbit. One the design is completed, he puts a little sugar on the bamboo stick and attaches it to make a lollipop so to speak. Then, he carefully lifts it up using the spatula. Surprisingly, it tastes pretty good too! Once we had all gotten pictures, Joanne and I enjoyed every last bit of the burnt sugar.