- If you've been to any Chinese restaurant, you've probably had these.

They're a popular dish in China and a key part in Chinese New Year.

- That's all true Yia, but what's up with the snack?

This is how we eat dumplings.

- [Yia] Bring it on.

- Okay, Peter, today we're doing dumplings in the Linney Studio at Lynhall.

Pretty easy concept.

You know, you have your dough, stuffed with meat or some kind of vegetable.

I'm really familiar with it, because growing up, ate a lot of my mom's steam bun.

But Chinese dumplings, they're whole thing.

- Dumplings in China are probably the most popular food.

You can find them everywhere in China.

- Are they hard to make?

- High level, it's super simple.

You make the dough, make the filling, make your wrappers, wrap them up, boil them, and then we eat.

It definitely takes a little bit of skill in the beginning, but, I think anybody can learn.

- Let's break this down.

The word dumpling is a broad term.

It doesn't just mean one specific food.

There are two main types or shapes of dumplings.

A crescent shape, Gao And a more pouch shape, Bao.

Dumplings are very regional.

Shanghai is famous for its soup dumpling called Xiao Long Bao.

Har Gows are filled with shrimp, their skin is mostly transparent and folded like a clam.

My favorite is Shumai, which is open on the top.

The crescent shaped dumplings Peter makes are called Jiaozi.

They're served boiled, steamed or fried.

What kind of dumplings are we making today?

- A pork, napa cabbage and shrimp dumpling.

I am gonna have you chop some napa cabbage.

I'm gonna start working on the scallions and the ginger.

You know, dumplings originally were used to stretch meat.

You know, dumplings originally were used to stretch meat.

So, we would use whatever vegetable was available to us to kind of stretch out the protein that was more expensive.

Napa was more widely available, and that's kind of what we use.

- [Yia] Where originally is your family from?

- [Peter] I was born in Tianjin, China.

It's a city outside of Beijing.

Both my parents were from Tianjin as well.

Tianjin is really known for their dumplings.

There's a restaurant in Tianjin called Bai Jiao Yuan, and that translates into a hundred fillings of dumplings.

- [Yia] Oh wow.

Okay.

- And that was kind of one of my favorite restaurants to go to as a kid.

(upbeat music) - [Peter] We have some dark soy, ground pork.

- [Yia] Then we have light soy.

Then you're adding a little water there.

- Yeah, so it thins it out a little bit more.

Again, like, the stretching of the meat, you know, you're using less meat then, per dumpling.

It also kind of emulsifies the meat.

The mouthfeel gets a little bit better.

We'll go in with some seasoning, some salt, some sugar, and a little MSG.

and a little MSG.

- [Yia] The good stuff.

- [Peter] Let's get that shrimp in there, add the vegetables and bring this all together.

- We could totally ghost this.

(laughing) - Please, no.

I think we're ready to make some wrappers.

- [Yia] So we have this beautiful dough here.

Most people would just like buy the wrappers, and then just go at it, but, not you.

- Nah, not me.

Yeah.

We do it the traditional way.

It takes a little bit longer, but the product comes out a little bit better, I think.

- [Yia] So, water, flour, - Little salt, and time.

- And then time.

And a lot of elbow grease.

- A lot of elbow grease.

- I mean, this is the kneading process - Absolutely.

Absolutely.

- Okay.

- So, first we're gonna cut it out into long strips, roll these strips into like a cylinder.

- I feel like I'm back doing Play-Doh.

- Feels kind of like that.

And now, we'll pinch little dough balls.

- Okay.

So, this is the part where I get a little weary about.

- [Peter] Hold it in between my thumb and my index finger in my left hand, and then you'll just pinch it real fast.

Yeah.

It's one swift kind of a movement.

- Okay.

See, yours is a lot prettier than mine.

How did you pick that up.

- At home, growing up, it was a lot of learning from sight, just following my parents.

When you screw up, your mom kind of tells you what to do.

- It's every Asian mom.

(laughing) Right away, we can see, yours are like in a ball shape, while mine looks like smashed up already.

- [Peter] So, from this step, we're gonna dust it evenly with flour.

- Okay.

- And we're gonna roll it lightly.

- Okay.

- On the bench.

And then this, it makes little circular shapes.

Some of them resemble some circular.

- Yeah, yeah, this one's good, it looks good.

- It's like one out of 15, that's not bad.

- I don't know what this is, it's like a chicken nugget.

- Look, we are loved no matter what shape and size we are.

- [Peter] So, after you get to this step, I'm just gonna use the base of our palm and flatten these out into little disks.

The more circular you have, these shapes, the rounder your end wrappers will be.

- Yours all look the same, while mine looks like a kindergarten Play-Doh project over here.

- Hey, at the end of the day, we're just gonna fill them with meat, so, - Yes, yes.

It's about what's on the inside.

- Hey, exactly.

Yeah.

Dumplings metaphor for life.

All right.

Let's start wrapping.

I'm gonna give you a little rolling pin here.

For each one of these, we're going to sprinkle a little bit of flour, push it down a little bit with your off hand, and then from the outside, going into the center, we're going to push and then twist it 90 degrees, push again, and then keep doing that until you get a little dumpling wrapper like that.

- Dude, this isn't easy.

- [Peter] No, it's not.

It's definitely not easy.

- I appreciate you, that's what I'm trying to say.

I appreciate you.

- [Peter] In a traditional dumpling wrapper the outside edges are going to be thinner than the inside.

So that when you press it together, it's the same thickness throughout the dumpling.

- That's the same way with my mom's steam bun.

'Cause like when she rolls them out, she has the inside a little thicker.

So that when she put all the meat in, - Everything kind of stretches and wraps.

- [Yia] Talk to me a little bit more about memories of going out for dumplings, making dumplings.

- [Peter] Dumplings were always made at our house for like happy family event, or something that we're celebrating.

The biggest holiday where you would eat dumplings is Chinese New Year.

- Chinese New Year is an annual festival celebrated by Chinese people all over the world.

It begins with the new moon that occurs in late January or February and ends with the following full moon.

Celebration focuses on ushering out the old year and bringing luck and prosperity in the new one.

Chinese New Year is a time to visit family and to feast.

And at the center of feasting, you guessed it.

Dumplings!

- And then once we have like a good pile like this, I think we can start wrapping.

- [Yia] Wow.

So, what I notice, is yours looks like the planet earth, the circular I have a few like ones that look like south, - Yeah, well, you got a couple of asteroids.

- Yeah.

there's like a South America, there's a Africa, There's definitely an Australia.

- I would say for what is this your first time?

Second time?

- First time, dude.

- I mean, this is great.

Yeah.

I mean, these, we can work with these.

Time to wrap.

Take a little bit of filling, maybe a tablespoon and dot it right in the middle.

And then from here, we'll fold it in half and pinch the top.

Almost like a little cannoli.

Right?

And then, this is how I learned it from my mom, we'll push it in with one hand and that'll form the first pleat, and then push it in again from the other side.

- Okay.

- And then pinch it tight.

- Oh, I see what you did.

(Peter laughing) I feel like I'm, I feel like I'm, (Peter laughing) Voila!

- That will boil fine.

You want to set it off to the side?

- Okay.

This is, can you put it in a special pile?

Yeah.

- We'll do a Yia pile and we'll do a Peter pile.

- Whoa.

- You might wanna try just a little less filling.

- That's what I was thinking.

- You get your filling like, in the middle.

- I feel like a child.

- As in the middle.

Hey, we all.

This is how you grow, right?

- [Yia] Hey, this one's a lot better.

- [Peter] Hey!

Yeah.

- That's awesome, man.

- [Peter] All right.

- [Yia] So Peter, we're coming to the exciting part.

- [Peter] This is the most traditional way that Chinese people eat dumplings.

It's certainly the way that my family eats dumplings.

We boil them three times, right?

So, we'll stir the pot up, so nothing sticks on the bottom.

Kind of get a little cyclone going there.

We'll drop these dumplings.

We'll just drop them all at the same time.

And then we're gonna wait until it gets back to a boil.

Once it gets back to a boil, we're going to pour in some cold water to kind of shock that water, and we'll bring it up to a boil again.

Pour in cold water again, bring it up to a boil one last time.

- [Yia] Third boil.

- [Peter] Third boil.

[Both] Finally.

Finally.

- [Peter] Scoop these up.

And they'll be ready to eat.

- [Yia] Okay, Peter.

Now, most of the time dumplings are on the apps menu.

You know, when you go to Chinese restaurant, but obviously not here.

- No.

Dumplings are the star of the show.

Usually before we have dumplings, we'll have a couple of beer snacks, some like salads that open up our appetites for the main course.

We kind of have this overflowing bowl of dumplings accompanied by just a quick dumpling sauce.

That's kind of traditional in my family.

- Awesome.

I like how I put mine in here with yours.

- I can't tell the difference, can you?

(Yia laughing) - [Yia] Remember we said, it's all about what's on the inside.

So, okay.

What's the proper way of eating dumpling?

'Cause I just go one whole.

- I mean, if you can stand the heat right out of the boiling water, then you know, by all means, go for it.

I like doing that too.

- That's so, so delicious.

- I could eat about a hundred of those.

- The wrapper is so different from any wrapper that you buy at the store.

- It doesn't fall apart on it.

It has some substance to it.

- Absolutely.

I can see why doing it by hand is so much better.

- A little elbow grease and some time, it pays off in the end.

- What does it mean to be able to share your mom's food and just your culture and tradition with people here in the community?

- It means everything.

The fact that I got to grow up with this kind of food to take kind of part of my tradition and my mom's cooking and share it with more people that just brings so much happiness to me.

- It was cool to be able today to stand with you and just kind of start rolling dumplings.

- Yeah.

Anytime you want, come by the kitchen.

- So, see you there.

(both laughing) (bright music) (speaking with mouth full) - You can't really chew and smile at the same time