Chinese Club Makes Dumplings
By Angel Zheng
On Friday, January 24th, 2020, Chinese Club hosted a celebration in regards to Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) starts on Saturday, January 25. This festival celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar. China’s calendar is very different from the calendar used in America because the Chinese calendar is based on the movement of the moon, whereas the American calendar is based on the sun’s movement. Every year represents one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals, with 2020 being the year of the rat.
Chinese Club organized a dumpling-making event after school. “For the dumpling event, we’ll have everything that we need to make a dumpling; also, basic utensils such as chopsticks and bowls,” asserts Timothy Du. To make dumplings, start with the dumpling skin (a flat, circle-shaped piece of dough) and add in a spoonful of filling. The fillings can either be minced pork or beef, which will be wrapped inside the dumpling skin. After that, the finished dumpling will be cooked in a rice cooker on top of a portable electric stove, brought to school by Jiayi Chen and Du.
The whole room was divided into different sections in order to increase the productivity in making dumplings. One area worked on kneading the dumpling dough on a cutting board and rolling it into a long log. The log-shaped dough is then cut into pieces with a cutting knife, and the pieces are slightly flattened using the palm of a hand. Then, Ms. Sun uses a rolling pin to simultaneously roll the dough pieces while shifting the dough so that each side is flattened, resembling a flat circle. The flat pieces of dough are then transferred onto a bamboo tray, and taken to another section of the room, where they will be wrapped up with delicious filling inside.
Once the dumplings are filled, they are then transferred to a different section of the room where Ms. Sun prepares the rice cooker. She pours some hot water into the rice cooker, and heats it up by adjusting the portable electric stove to the right temperature. The dumplings are boiled for a couple of minutes until soft. A large, slotted ladle is used to take the dumplings out of the rice cooker and onto a plate. Because there were so many dumplings made, some students stored a few into a plastic cup to take home and enjoy.
The entire dumpling-making event lasted for a little more than an hour. Finally, the event wrapped up and everyone started to clean up the room. While some students swept the floor, others cleaned the desks and stored away the supplies for making dumplings. Once the room reverted back to how it was before, everyone said their goodbyes to each other and went home. However, the memories of making dumplings after school will be an interesting event that no one will soon forget.
Say cheese! (From left to right) Kevin Cabiya, Hailey Jimenez, Ms. Sun, Solei Jimenez, and Emily May smiles for a group picture. Chinese Club arranged a dumpling-making activity on Friday 24, 2020, and invited everyone to participate. “I think Chinese Club should be open to everyone,” stated Yvonne Yao. Photo donated