I look forward to bringing educational and fun experiences in Asia to my granddaughter Mila, who lives in Oklahoma, USA. She can learn about the world through all my adventures. I got a flat stuffed toy to join me. She is reversible. One side is a little girl and the other is a ladybug. I call her LadyB. I sent the same toy to Mila, which she can name as she sees fit. My Chinese name is Gonggong (公公), which means grandfather in Chinese.

I posted the first 15 on Facebook and got so many complaints from fans who hate it, don’t use it or got banned, so I decided to start posting them on China Rising Radio Sinoland. Catching up with #5 here.

ADVENTURES IN ASIA WITH LADYB AND GONGGONG

Story #5: Chinese raviolis. YUMMY!

Puli Town, Nantou County, Taiwan Province, China.

Dear Granddaughter Mila,

Last night, LadyB and I ate another famous Chinese dish: “(shui)jiaozi”, which means “(water) raviolis”. They are similar to the guotie we had in Story #4, but instead of being fried in a hot pan, they are dipped in nearly boiling water to cook. The crimp on each ravioli’s dough cover has to be really solid, otherwise they come apart in the water. Grandmother Maflor and I made them a few times and our crimps were not very good. It takes lots of practice. Families and friends will hand make them together for a big jiaozi feast!

China’s three favorite condiments, left to right: soy sauce, vinegar and hot sauce. There are many others, but these are the Three Kings.

Like fried guotie, jiaozi can be filled with seasoned ground pork and/or vegetables, but can also be stuffed with scrambled eggs and chives. Fancy ones can have popcorn shrimp, fish, shiitake mushrooms and on and on. Also, like guotie, they can be dipped in soy sauce and/or vinegar, or hot pepper sauce. LadyB likes to mix soy sauce and vinegar and I like it spicy! Did I say D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S?

Fancy, top-crimped jiaozi filled with popcorn shrimp, in a bed of fiery-hot pepper sauce and garnished with spring onions.

For the busy ones in Taiwan and on the Mainland, frozen jiaozi are in all the supermarkets . Here is a 1.4kg bag we bought in Puli for NTD89.00 or only €2.68/US2.72, which is incredible valuable for the money.

If your parents can find an Asian supermarket, they are sold frozen, ready to put in hot water, and are very good eating. Be sure to use a handheld strainer to hold them in the water. They stay sealed better than roiling around in boiling water.

You know who loves jiaozi? Why, your aunt Chara, that’s who! She lived and studied in China from 2010-2019…

Love, Grandfather Gonggong

PS: here are a couple of videos of how to make jiaozi from scratch – if you all are up to the challenge!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emmv1KxP7kE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBfKsS0ASMo