If someone invites you to a Chinese New Year party, you should go. If no one invites you to a Chinese New Year party, you should have your own. For some, wrapping traditional dumplings by hand with family and friends is simply tradition. For others, it is a unique and delicious experience.
Eric Miller and Lin Wang of Dallas have been throwing their annual Chinese New Year party for eight years. Originally from China’s Jiangsu province, Wang notes that making dumplings on Chinese New Year is particularly prevalent in Northern China, where the weather is cooler.
Their guests this year were a diverse group of about 20, and everyone loved making and eating the dumplings.
“Dumplings appear in different countries and cultures in different forms,” Wang says. “So everyone can see something relatable. Understanding other cultures through food is probably the easiest way, and the most interesting.”
Before the guests arrived, Wang and Miller were making a traditional dumpling mix that includes ground pork, Napa cabbage, green onion, ginger, salt, sesame oil, soybean sauce, and raw egg to hold everything together. For vegetarian guests, they also made a dumpling mix with dried bean curd, celery and yellow chives.
The married couple usually just buys dumpling wrappers from 99 Ranch Market. But Zhen Hua, Wang’s 78-year-old mother, is visiting from China this year, and she insisted that the wrappers also be made from scratch.
Kneading and stretching the dough into a tube, Wang notes that it takes real physical effort. “All my cousins are experts at making dumplings,” he says. “They would be laughing at me.”
But he keeps rolling tubes that are then cut into pieces for the next phase, flattening the dough into dumpling wrappers with dough rollers. This new step is particularly challenging for some guests, who struggle to make the wrappers round without making them too thin.
From there, it is time to put the dumplings together. Everyone has to take a turn. It is important to not use too much filling. This is good advice for a novice because the dumplings must be properly sealed so they do not leak when boiled.
The basic idea is to spoon some filling onto the center of the wrapper and dab the edges with water. Then you fold it and pinch the corners shut.
As hundreds of dumplings start filling up the counters, it is clear that there are levels to this. For Hua, this is an effortless activity. But some of us are lucky there is no ugly dumpling award this year.
Meng Zhao is originally from a part of China that is so far north that he could actually see Russia. He has a unique technique that looks more like rubbing his fingers together, and his dumplings are absolutely stunning.
With four pots on the stove, Wang starts cooking dumplings. As the water comes to a boil and the dumplings rise to the surface, he adds a cup of cold water. This keeps the dumplings from breaking apart. After repeating this process two more times, the dumplings are cooked.
Batches of steaming dumplings start making their way to the table in quick succession. Guests pour dumpling sauce on them and scarf down at least twice as many as they would probably get at a restaurant. Everyone keeps saying these are the best dumplings they have ever had.
Wang guesses that 250 dumplings were made, and the guests ate over 200. With a shape that resembles ingots, an early form of Chinese currency, the dumplings are meant to symbolize wealth and longevity.
“When you put it out on the table, it looks like you have a lot of gold and silver,” says Will Chi, who grew up in Grapevine but whose parents are from Taiwan.
“We should just celebrate all the holidays” of every culture, Miller says, toward the end of the party. “You don’t have to be religious about it, but you can still be on the periphery and see what it’s about.”
