Week 26 - Tianfu, Beans and Jiaozi

Feb. 19, 2015

    Another lay-in to kick off the morning. I didn’t really have a plan other than enjoy the day. Jess and I made made the snap decision to swing down to Tianfu Square. It’s in the middle of the city, and has a large statue of Mao. Honestly, we were just looking for something to do that wasn’t inside the apartment. It was a good hour walk there and back. Apparently we weren’t the only ones with the idea of visiting the Square. So we wandered around once there taking pictures of some of the more famous things in the area. Then it was back home, for a relaxing evening. I made the decision to try cooking up the beans my father sent me. It’s kind of a long process so it required some prep work. I really hope it turns out well. Beans were such a staple in my life back home, it’ll be nice to have some comfort food. Enjoy the pictures of Tianfu square!

Feb. 20, 2015

    Today was pretty much a stay inside day. Jesse and I went for a quick jaunt to the outside to grab some supplies and then the rest of the day was devoted to making beans. It was actually a really fun process but incredibly time consuming. The whole process from start to finish took about 5 hours. It was a long arduous process, but it was well worth it. We made up some rice and beans and it was truly magical. Both Jesse ad I agreed that Chinese food is amazing, but nothing beats beans. I still have black beans to cook up, I want to see if we can’t find some corn tortillas as black beans make for wonderful tacos.We’ll see how that works. the rest of the night was spent generally milling about.

Feb. 21, 2015

    So today ended up being quite a fun day considering I really didn’t want to do to much. So I contacted Raphi and we decided to make a day of making Jiaozi, something we had agreed to devoting a day of our break too. It’s not a particularly difficult process but it is again time consuming. Raphi, Jesse and I met up and went on a quick trip to Trust Mart for supplies. First step is to make the dough which is simply flour, starch, and water. Then Raphi imparted on us the way to marinade the meat. The meat was pork, which is traditional, and I blended up some chicken for my dining pleasure. I then put together the dipping sauce, which was essentially homemade teriyaki sauce with hot peppers mixed in Sichuan style. Then we spent about two hours rolling and cutting the dough. Then once we made the little rounds, Raphi and I added the meat. That process easily took an hour or so, and then it was time to finally cook them. The cooking process was fairly easy, all you need to do is boil water and throw in the completed Jiaozi. The name in Chinese is 水饺 or water dumplings, not to be confused with the Chinese word for sleep 睡觉 which is the same pronunciation (Shuijiao) but completely different tones. We got all of them cooked and it was time to eat. And if I do say so myself, it was extremely tasty. The clean-up was not so amazing but we managed to get through it, nothing is worse for the wear. Overall, the day turn out pretty epic.

Rolling dough

sauce!

Stuffing jiaozi

好吃！！