Weller's crazy life!: a night of making dumplings

friday night was my friend alison's bday. our friend ali invited us over to learn how to make dumplings. the night was amazing. we got to ali and fernando's apartment...which overlooks many lit up bars in the french concession.....and ali had made some gluwhein(spiced hot wine). delicous! ali's parents lived in shanghai for a bit and they had an ayi(maid) named anna. ayi's cook, clean, do laundry, sew, pick your kids up from school, become part of the family, etc. anna and her daughter lin lin (about my age) came over around 730 and took over the kitchen. anna and lin lin have such sweet souls. lin lin can speak english...even though she says she is not that good....so chinese! anna knows a lil bit of english......when we were all chatting she would just smile and nod her head...she is soooo cute. in the kitchen, green onions were being chopped up and added to pork that was in a giant bowl. after the onions were done...we moved into the living room and the table was cleared off. the rolling of the dough was now beginning. lin lin rolled each dumpling so fast.....and she was very kind and patient to teach us. we then learned out to take enough meat with the chopsticks and place it in the dough and then pinch the sides to seal the dough. mine looked pretty awful next to lin lin's and anna's. we had quite the factory going on at the table. making the dumplings was quite the social event.....i can see why families gather around and do this. we had our mulled wine, flour filled hands, me taking pics, chat, music, good times for sure. anna and lin lin were only suppose to bring the dumplings...but in true chinese generosity....they brought more. we had eggs and tomato(very traditional dish) shrimp with veggies and then ali made some green chicken curry with veggies and sticky rice. we also made potato latkas b/c ali is jewish as well. we grated some potatoes and onions and fried them up....lil taste of home :) as the cooking went on, our stomachs were getting hungrier and hungrier. we didn't get to eat until about 9 pm.......reminds me of italy :) once dinner was finally ready.....oh the goodness that was about to be eaten. heaven heaven heaven. it was truly an amazing homemade meal, all in good company and yummy wine :) i am so grateful to have a wonderful group of friends here in shanghai. we truly had an awesome cultural experience. enjoy the pics below.