They are very tasty and you can eat them both for breakfast and at anytime else. They can be steamed or fried, can be with meat or with vegetables or both and they are not just a Chinese specialty. In France and Italy, they call their species for
Ravioli, in Russia they are called
Pelmeni, and in Poland and other eastern European countries; they are
Pierogi.
In Germany they have something like it called Maultaschen, and I could go on like that for a while, I think.
This is about the Chinese Dumplings:
“Jiaozi”. These dumplings are very common in the Chinese cuisine, where especially the northern provinces enjoy them throughout the year, and elsewhere to special occasions.
During the Easter break 2010; the Mortensens went on a school exchange trip to China's Romantic Capital of Hangzhou, joining our head of Chinese language; Mr Yu and 17 students from year 9 to 11.
We visited a college there and our students were accommodated in private homes to develop their Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese), and we had an apartment on the campus.
Every morning a friendly young woman - Ms. Yu- who took us to the schools cafeteria for breakfast, picked us up. It was a huge room with mounted tables and chairs and designed to feed the around 3 thousand students, who was studying there and lived there in dormitories.
At the time we got there, only the teachers who also lived on campus, was there for breakfast. We had to line up in front of a little hole in a big glass wall, which separated the eating area and the kitchen, where they gave out the food. Just like in a bank or at the post office. Behind each of the food stations, stood 4 women in cooking uniforms serving the hungry masses the food they asked for.
When us two “Gweilos” got into the line together with Ms. Yu, a lot of giggling and whispering began among the women around the food trays, and as Catriona came up infrot of them, all of them gathered together with the head and their ears close to the hole, so they could hear what she would like. With some help from Ms. Yu, she managed to get an overview of what was available, and she started ordering, and every time the ladies said the word in Chinese and Catriona tried to pronounce it after them.
This was a source for some great entertainment for the ladies behind the counter, as they stacked the named items unto her tray. When she seemed to have finished they asked “Jiaozi?” and pointed on the nice looking dumplings on a tray at the back.
Both of us know these dumplings from our China adventures before, and for sure these “Jiaozi’s” should be on the tray for a decent Chinese breakfast.
As it became my turn al the smiling faces once again peeped through the little opening in the glass wall, and as the word “Jaoutzhe” came out of my mouth, they nearly all fell backwards in a huge laughter attack, but pulled themselves together and dumped a huge portion to my tray.
I felt somehow embarrassed, but what; I could only try again to pronounce that word by listening to Ms. Yu at my side and carefully watch her lips while she once again very slowly said; “Jiaozi”.
Whatever; the ladies had decided that I needed some of the other stuff they had in their pots, and soon I stood there with a huge mountain of various unspecified food items on the tray, ready to walk to one of the tables, where Catriona and Mr. Yu and his family already sat, and very experienced maneuvered their breakfast into their mouth with chopsticks, while Catriona were still chasing one of her “Jiaozi’s” around the plate with hers. Before I could leave from the food handout spot, one of the ladies presented me a kind of round ball on a plate and made it clear that I really should taste this one, so that also found it’s way onto my tray, and I was ready to begin my own battle of finger artistic and chopsticks.
The breakfast was indeed very tasty; even I couldn’t manage all of it. The “Jiaozi” went down first, then some kind of omelet with chives, some bread with herps and finally the tennis ball sized ball, they ladies had insisted me to try. It was some kind of sticky rice ball, with some sweet bean paste inside in the middle, and the outside was covered in sesame seeds, which stuck onto t
he sticky surface. It was very nice and a good sweet finish. But man, was I stuffed. I decided that the next morning I would insist only to take what I chose myself, and then less of it.
As we all left, all the happy faces behind the glass wall was again all stuck through the hole, laughing and waving.
Very friendly people those Chinese.
This turned out to be an ever-returning ritual. Every morning when we came for breakfast the same kind of show, just that they now knew what we liked, and even if we were a bit late and all the Jiaozi’s was gone, they’d save some for us on a tray behind, where no one else could see them, and then when we came, they proudly took them out and shoveled them onto our trays.
On one of those late days, we happened to be the last ones havinv breakfast, and just after we'd got our portions, all the staff from the kitchen came out, and started to line up them selves, as we'd done.
Now it was they turn to be served and have their breakfast.
As a part of the cultural exchange program, we were going to make dumplings from scratch one of the days we were there. So that morning we got meet in the meeting room by a bunch of year 4 students, who should help us doing the shopping in the supermarket for all the ingredients, and then later back at the school a section of the cafeteria was transformed into a kitchen, where we all –our 35 students and another group from Auckland in New Zealand – were going to produce a huge amount of “Jiaozi’s”. That was very interesting, and on that day we could eat as
many as we liked, and even then there was so many left, that we tried if we could pay back our depts to the kitchen staff, by offering them the leftovers. They just laughed. Some of them tried our deformed Jaiozi’s, and kind of signalled back, that they were good, but again; they are very friendly those Chinese!
It is not really like it was meant to be. I cannot get those two sides to grow very long and hang down below the chin like a decent "Fu Manchu". Maybe I should go to the locay africa hair extension shop and ask for advise or even some help.
Then when done with all that stuff; meet up with some friends and head for the nearest “Glühwein Bude” – the German word for a stall where they sell Mulled Wine, which is the part of Christmas Fairs’ I recall the best- and then just stand there with a warm mug of Glühwein between your hands, joking and doing small talk, and watch how the crazy Christmas busyness passes by. And then have another “Glühwein”, and this time with Amaretto added as a kick-starter. Hours can pass like that with an accumulating amount of mugs in front of you, meaning longer and longer strings of words to make a sentence.
In terms of Christmas Fairs’ –or say markets- Germany was indeed outstanding, where there were several “Weihnachts Märkte” in each city –obviously depending of the size of the city- and in what I call my German hometown; Dresden, there was quite a few in the different areas of the city. Other great Christmas Markets I know and have been to, is the one in Nuremberg maybe the most impressive, also in that way that the backdrop of this old city covered in a cold cover of frosty snow, kind of add the right mood to the whole thing.
It is only that silly thing when I attend these Hong Kong Christmas Fairs’; I do not get into any kind of Christmas mood, I guess I need the cold, the darkness in the evening and the snow.
I'm really doing my best, but i have some problems by getting the beard to be long at the ends, so they can hang down from my chin like the real Fu Manchu beard. Maybe I have to cheat and go to one of these shops who do hair extensions, and ask if they could do a beard extension instead!
It was still quite early in the morning, and the weather had decided to show it self from one of its better sides -speaking of Scotland- than the day before when we had arrived by bus from Edinburgh. That day it had been raining cats and dogs from a heavy clouded low grey sky, which seemed to rest on just on the roofs of the buildings.
The adventure of Glasgow pubs started at “Sloans” on Argyle Street. And now it starts to be a bit curious, as also the establishment claim to be the oldest in the town. It is a nice establishment, hidden away in a passage from Argyle Street, and has an outdoor beer garden area, two more floors over the bar, where the upper floor is a fantastic ballroom form the late 18 hundred. We went up the amazing staircase to have wee look inside, and what a great location.
At the bar is always a good place to start, if you can find a spot. This time of the evening it was not a problem, as only one guy was sitting there, so we joined him a the high stools. Not even a half pint later, we were in a conversation with him and the young man behind the bar. ”Was the Scotia Bar really the oldest in town, and was it in fact haunted, as it had said in the brochure from the Tourist Centre?
So this was my 24 hours of an Island camp for this time. I would love to have stayed for another day, but couldn’t spend the time there because of other tasks to finish before Friday.
Our group of year 9 was on a small Island in the bay outside Sai Kung, where they were sleeping in tents, cooking under open sky, and then taken on hikes in the j=hills, mountain climbing and kayaking. It is all organized and run by a company called “Asia Pacific Adventures” and their team of highly qualified outdoor educators, takes the students through all the adventures.
Denmark is known world wide for lots of different things, and some, which I do not want to name here at all.
With it’s about 1 and a bit million inhabitants is Copenhagen the -by all means- biggest city in Denmark and it has a real flair of capitol and metropolis alike, just in a much smaller scale than you will find it in London, Paris or Rome.
One of the biggest attractions is the little Mermaid at Langelinie. Not that it is that big, no in fact it is tiny, and once before I was there, I heard how some other tourist in a low voice told each other, how pathetic small she was, sitting there on a large rock at the edge of the water.
Only because we did have a hotel close by, we went there to have a look at this “Little Meta Mermaid”, live on screen from Shanghai.
And the first stage of my own private Fu Manchu?
This was a source for some great entertainment for the ladies behind the counter, as they stacked the named items unto her tray. When she seemed to have finished they asked “Jiaozi?” and pointed on the nice looking dumplings on a tray at the back.
The breakfast was indeed very tasty; even I couldn’t manage all of it. The “Jiaozi” went down first, then some kind of omelet with chives, some bread with herps and finally the tennis ball sized ball, they ladies had insisted me to try. It was some kind of sticky rice ball, with some sweet bean paste inside in the middle, and the outside was covered in sesame seeds, which stuck onto t
he sticky surface. It was very nice and a good sweet finish. But man, was I stuffed. I decided that the next morning I would insist only to take what I chose myself, and then less of it.
Now it was they turn to be served and have their breakfast.
The Fu Manshu style MOustache!
Well I got home and to bed and slept very well, but I had this odd dream; I dreamt about the french impressionist painter Claude Monet, and that he was joining the fabulous Mr. E in the band; Eels. They played together in a new music video on a Junk boat on the lake in Monet's famous garden in Givernhy in France.
I can only explain it this way; The "sun breeze" mixture had been influenced by a recipe from a famous druid from somewhere in Saxony in Germany. I know this man and his amazing ability to create magical stuff, and so the ingredient of his mixtures must in some way have found it's way to Hong Kong, and now is the secret of the magic of the "Sun breeze" cocktail, served on entertainment Junks on Victoria Harbour.
Friday night and it was spend on a Junk trip on Victoria Harbour, between what is called; "the Island and Tsim Sha Tshui", or just TST.
We was apointed to meet a the pier in Causeway Bay at 6:45 PM to get out and ready for the dayly Light Show, which kicks off at 8 PM, and involve all the major buildings on both sides, and it includes laser show and every possible light design you can magine on the buildings.
Today is the 5th day of the MO, and today it is the day where people can do their bid or the MOst outrageous MOustache, and on which individual who can do the best effort growing it.
I was sure that this was going to be the start of a good and frequent football season with training every week, like we’d been used to the year before.
Yesterday a colleague of mine told me that there was only 30 working days left before the Christmas break. So today it must be 29 days, right?
They do something special at Christmas time, but it hasn’t at all the same hysteria and complete Christmas maniac around it like in the culture I come from. And I am not sad about that, and do not miss it a bit.
By the way; these photos are from last year, there is still no Christmas decorations anywhere.
Day three of the MOvember; it is starting to feel like sandpaper on my face.
This is how it looks from our roof top and that is very pretty, I admit, but the problem is that the biggest part of the year, you cannot stay up there because of the heat and if it is not that, then it can be rather cold in January and February. But now you can actually manage to stay up there for some time, and enjoy the view and the sun.
No, there is not really anything to see yet, and I guess there will go some days before it is going to be interesting, but a concept is a concept, so here is the days MO shot.
