My recipes for homemade Chinese dumplings
In this post I’m sharing my own recipes for six different dumpling filling recipes, which I’ve developed over the past few years.
Bringing my worlds together through food
I cooked a feast of “normal” home cooking style food. This is comfort food for me – the flavours of local Beijing. There was something so special about sharing the taste of home with the people who are my new home. I felt homesick and at home all at once. It’s been a good day.
A year away from China
A year ago today I said goodbye to China. Sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s been so long! I still feel connected to China and leap at any opportunity to talk about China. Here are some things I miss about Beijing, but ALSO things I am loving about Sydney. It’s important to acknowledge what I’ve lost while also appreciating what I’ve gained.
Reflections of China
One of the things I appreciate most about my new life here in Sydney is that there are lots of moments that remind me of China – meals at Chinese restaurants, snippets of Chinese conversation with classmates, hearing Mandarin spoken about me almost every time I’m out in public… It really helps me on the days homesickness lifts its head.
YOUR favourite Chinese food
When I wrote my “foreigner favourite” Chinese food post I didn’t expect it to be so popular! So I asked people which of their favourites I’d missed. While I wasn’t able to include all of them, here are some of YOUR favourite Chinese dishes.
Chinese food – foreigner favourites
These are dishes foreigners learn to order soon after arriving. I’ve avoided highlighting them as many miss out on the other awesome food in China. But I give in – they are pretty yummy, and many of you who have left China miss them.
Dunhuang – history in a desert oasis
Dunhuang is an oasis town in northwest Gansu province surrounded by deserts – Gobi to the East, Taklamakan to the West. It is also ringed by mountains – giant “megadunes”, rocky San Wei mountains, and snow-capped Qilian mountains.
My favourite liangcai
Most Chinese meals begin with cold dishes. They are pre-cooked and can therefore come to the table quickly, giving patrons something to nibble on while waiting for the main dishes to arrive. Sadly, many foreigners aren’t very familiar with liangcai.
Some more Chinese food favourites
I introduced you to some favourite Chinese food in an earlier post. Apparently I made friends around the world hungry and homesick – hopefully in a good way! Here are some more dishes – with love to ex-China friends all over the world.
Some Chinese food favourites
When expats first arrive in Beijing, we learn a list of basic dishes to order in every Chinese restaurant. Some people don’t get far past this list of foreigner favourites, but there’s so much more out there! Here’s a few of my favourite dishes.
Afternoon errands in Beijing
The toffee fruit vendor chatted to the jian bing vendor, saying “Wow! She speaks pu tong hua [standard Mandarin Chinese]. Like my grandson. He can’t speak our dialect. We speak our dialect to him but he doesn’t pick up much.”
China Travel 2012: Beijing with the family
My family came to Beijing to celebrate my 30th birthday with me – my parents, my sisters, my brother in law and his brother. They arrived in four different lots, and so they didn’t all do the same things in Beijing, but it was still a really great time!
Stories From Tanya 