February 17, 2013
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Saturday marks the seventh day of the Snake Year, which is an auspicious day on the Chinese Lunar Calendar. As for the Chinese, each New Year brings on a new zodiac, 2012 was the Dragon year and next year (2014) will be the year of the Horse. How the coming year unravel will remain a mystery. As a tradition within my family, we would visit the Chinese temple and get our blessings for the year. Then, we’ll pay homage to our family fortune teller, Mr. Y, whom we know well. Mr. Y predicts my Snake Year fortune will be not as good as last year’s. He predicts that certain members in my family or friend may depart us. As for myself, this will be a year of luck as well as misfortunes. Well, all that sounded quite ominous, but I think I should have this “wait and see” attitude, before getting too depressed. My way to start the New Year is to visit a Chinese temple, ask for a blessing by the monk and then make an offering. This should be done on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year.
Anyhow, as a gesture to good fortune for the Lunar New Year, W and I made Korean dumplings (mandu/만두) and paired these with rice cakes (dduk/떡) and soup. To start the process, we have got ourselves some ground pork and beef, mushrooms, green scallion, tofu, wonton skins….
Chop all these ingredients into small bits, then squeeze liquid out of tofu…..
All ready to be mixed together…..
Just need a small spoonful for each wrap…..
We made some pot stickers too…..
Condiments for dduk-mandu-gook (dumplings and rice cake soup)…..
Vóilá! The finished product, 떡만두국, dduk mandu gook, let’s eat!!
It took us only a couple of hours to make this, it was a delightful and delicious meal! 맛있었어요!!
Comments (33)
you should sell these yummy dumplings! happy snake year! gong hey fat choy
Very Korean! *haha* Had something like this last week except the Mandus decided to disintegrate in the soup.
I know! I’m a Snake and my fortune is not looking good for my year. Omnious and Caution in everything. The year started out not so great but like you said no need to be depressed yet…things can change if you keep a positive attitude. Yummy dumplings! I just learned how to make Shaaxi noodles. Since I’m in Beijing I’m learning how to work with dough.. noodle pulling class next!
Yummy!
um if i hadn’t read the post i would never have guessed that you made those yourself. they are all identical!!!
@ds0905 - Happy Snake year!! Maybe I should make a huge batch, probably next time around!
@beowulf222 - Oh, probably you had large size mandus! But they are quite filling and great for chilly weather.
@snowjunky8 - Yes, just keep an open and positive attitude! I’m excited for you, staying at such an interesting district in Beijing, experiencing new stuff!
@oxyGENE_08 - Yummy it is!!
@iskrak - Hehe~it took us almost the entire morning
Kung Hei Fat Choy
@CareyGLY - Kung Hei Fat Choy, Carey!
yum! your mandu look great; it reminds me that i should make dumplings again, as i haven’t done so in a long time. it’s interesting how everyone likes to put different things into their dumplings.
Looks delicious! Happy Snake Year!
yum. those dumplings look very nicely wrapped too. i cant wait to see the feast for the 15th day after chinese new year.
kung hey fat choi!!
“It only took us a couple of hours to make this”
— yeah, dumplings are awesome, but they’re labor-intensive as the dickens
@kunhuo42 - Thank you, I’m glad the mandus turned out delicious. That would be nice to see you make wontons, make some shrimp and pork wontons! *nom*
@making_a_comeback_05 - Thank you! Happy Snake Year to you too!
@rudyhou - Hehe, Rudy, thanks for the heads up, but I have no idea what to eat by then! Any suggestions?
@kkc812 - Kung Hey Fat Choi to you too, Kenny !!
@n_e_i_l - Haha~labor intensive is the right word, good thing we only made a small batch!
@CurryPuffy - You’re welcome!
@CurryPuffy -that’s funny, that’s the way my mom taught me to make wontons — to add a little piece of shrimp in with the pork!
I was just passing through but had to pause and say thanks for a great post and let you know that even though I’ve just had a (dull) lunch seeing all your photographs has made me hungry again! Luckily my partner and I are going out to a local Chinese restaurant, one which has a brilliant reputation for providing authentic Chinese food and not a British-ised version) tomorrow night!
The lovely Chinese couple who run my local fish&chip shop (temptingly just round the corner from our house) have decorated their shop for New Year. Very nice it looks, too.
@holeinyoursoul - Thank you for stopping by, I’m glad you like the food porn!
@kunhuo42 - oh man, I miss the wontons my mom used to make. They were just awesome and I’ve never been able to replicate it. It’s a pork and shrimp mixture.
I never know what to make of the fortunes and predictions. It looks like you guys either pounded the ground pork to make it smooth or chopped up the pork yourselves. I really like how the 2 of you cook together.
@ElusiveWords - the way my mom did it was to individually put a piece of shrimp in each wonton so that each got a little shrimp along with the pork!
@kunhuo42 - my mom did the same thing! 3 cheers for our moms!
@CurryPuffy - anything chinese i suppose. from what i know, people would have large gathering with tons of food. no doubt pork plays a big part at the feast.
@ElusiveWords - Thanks, Matt! W told me it was their family tradition to make this every New Year’s Day! It was a fun project, better than eating out!
(BTW, we bought about a pound of ground pork and beef.)
@kunhuo42 - @ElusiveWords - Yes, 3 cheers for our moms! (mom told me to wrap wonton with ground pork and Chinese veggies – Shanghai style. I think the Cantonese style is shrimp+pork