Aug 26

Aug 26 Shanghai Cooking Class - Dumplings

As mentioned in the previous blog post, we love the food of China so much we decided to take two cooking classes while there. We learned how to make traditional Sichuan dishes in Chengdu and dumplings in Shanghai. We had our first soup dumplings in Australia of all places.

After our escorted tour ended in Shanghai we decided to stay an extra night to fit this cooking class in. We called a cab and got our first experience with not knowing how to speak and read the language. We took a cab to an apartment building and then had to find the right apartment. After some roaming and random doorbell ringing we found were we needed to be. Our instructor was a mom and daughter duo who opens their home to tourist. Our class was small with just one other family of four.

We learned how to make the fillings of fried pork dumplings plus the steamed soup dumplings we were so curious to learn about. How does the soup get into the steamed dumplings? I also got to practice using my Sichuan cooking skills folding these dumplings. Tim found out it wasn’t that easy.

I was most excited to learn how to make soup dumplings. If you haven't ever tried this type of dumpling it is essentially a meat and onion filling with a broth. I always wondered how the soup got in them. Well we found out that the soup is actually frozen soup cubes that melts once you steam them. Genius. It was so simple. You have to work quick once the filling is made.

The way to eat a soup dumpling is to dip it in black vinegar and then devour the whole thing in one bite. Taking a small bite of it will just allow for the soup to escape and run down your hand. Watch out, the soup inside stays hot!