Dumpling Night

My sister, Sarah held a small get together on Saturday night where I shared my "mad dumpling skills" with two of our girlfriends, Jessica, and Anne. There were a lot of laughs while we attempted to roll out wrappers and stuff our funny little dumplings. Sophia, my dumpling teacher from Beijing, would have been ROFL if she had seen our collection of ass dumplings. But despite their strange looks, our dumplings tasted pretty great. One of these days I'll get the hang out of folding them correctly. Until then, I guess you could say that I specialize in the making of ass dumplings. To go along with our pile of dumplings, I made up a quick Cucumber Salad, one of my favorite Chinese Salads. It is pretty simple, consisting mainly of chopped cucumber, a little rehydrated wood mushroom, a couple cloves of garlic, and a chile pepper. It's dressed with Sesame Oil, Rice Vinegar, and a little sugar. Delicious! Sarah made a kickin' side dish as well. She made up a plate full of Braised Baby Bok Choy that was out of this world. I wasn't a huge fan of bok choy while I was in China, but Sarah's version was very nicely done. Here's some photos that Sarah took from our little cooking adventure. Enjoy!