Journeys for Knowledge

A remarkably convenient aspect of Cambridge is the plethora of Chinese markets in town, giving me ample opportunities to practice cooking with similar resources to what I might find in Okinawa. One such experiment took the form of a dumpling making party/potluck. Although the best dumplings have their wrapping made from scratch, none of us were skilled enough to do this, so we used frozen premade wrappers instead. Unfortunately even with these premade wrappers we still managed to mess things up, but it was a very educational experience.

The major problem with the frozen wrappers was that we did not defrost them at room temperature ahead of time. Our efforts to expedite this process included microwaving a set of wrappers, dunking a sealed bag in warm water, and just trying to be patient as the wrappers dried out. In the end, the warm water method yielded the greatest number of useable wrappers, while the microwave method dried the wrappers out and made them brittle. Realizing we had too few wrappers to utilize all the filling that had been prepared, we decided to mix the rest of it into fried rice, while also making additional dishes on the side.

In the end we had plenty of food for everyone, and the dumplings we were able to make were delicious. However I think from now on I will stick to noodles and rice for my staple grains, but more on that later.

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