Fun with Fang Fang and friends

Fang Fang and her family had me (along with a few other friends) to their home, and it was a great day!

MARKET. Fang Fang picked me up at 9 am, and we went to the market to buy all the fresh veggies and meat we would be needing for the day. Our last stop at the market was the chicken coop, where we were able to pick out our very own live chicken. I know some people have a very difficult time with the concept of buying 'live' food but on the upside, meals are always fresh! We chose a chicken and then watched the de-feathering and de-gutting process. If you know me, then you probably realize that I was quite fascinated by this entire thing, having never seen it person. The most interesting part was the 'butcher' inserting her BARE hand into the chicken (use your imagination) and pulling out the insides in one 'fowl' swoop...and then to top it off, placing the guts in a bag for us to take with the rest of the chicken. I was really hoping we would not be eating intestines for dinner!

DUMPLINGS. After the adventure at the market, we arrived at Fang Fang's home and made dumplings. It was so much fun and quite a process.

1) We began by mincing the meat with a butcher knife.


2) We made the dough and literally kneaded it for 1 1/2 hours. No Kitchenaid mixers to help us here!


3) We rolled the dough into small flat circles to fill with the meat mixture. After adding the filling, we folded the dough into a half-moon like shapes and ruffled the edges. This takes some talent!


4) We then cooked the dumplings three different ways- fried, boiled, and steamed.



The dumplings were fantastic.

BARBECUE. Chinese people love to eat, so we cooked and ate dumplings, then barbecued and ate more. For the cookout, we drove to a beautiful park outside of Jiaxing. It was a blast, and the food was awesome. We even had barbecued potatoes- felt like home!



MULTILINGUAL 2-YEAR OLD. Fang Fang has two sons (ages 12 and 2). Both are adorable, but the 2 year old hilarious. His name is San Yue. The first time I met him, he entered the room and said, 'Hello, how are you?' It was great- the only person to speak to me in English! He could also count to at least ten in Chinese AND English. He is one of the brightest kids I have ever met.



Great times!