HAVE YOU EATEN YET?

Have you eaten yet? is a traditional Chinese greeting which expresses the Chinese love of eating. Food here is immensely important, very complicated and really good. We went to a huge traditional wet market in Shanghai and bought ingredients for our dumpling workshop at a Chinese cooking school. Many foods below will be recognizable; many, like the pig tongues, may be unfamiliar. After the shopping we learned how to cook! It was an intensive workshop which began with making the dough for the wrappers, rolling and shaping it, filling it, and then constructing little purses (hard), fish (easier), flowers of 4 happinesses, etc. and while we washed the dough that had stuck to our fingers, the staff steamed, boiled, and fried our work. The feast of more dumplings than we had ever seen, along with rice, noodles, salads, etc.