Dumpling Dynamo

This past Friday, after everyone was finished with their classes and in need of a little relaxation, we (my aforementioned roommate Richard, my soon to be mentioned roommate Jeremy, and myself) hopped on a bus and visited another international student’s apartment further into town. The goals of the trip were simple: 1. Learn how to make dumplings 2. Make a prodigious amount of dumplings and finally, my personal favorite, 3. Devour Dumplings. I’m not sure if I just wasn’t thinking (we received this invitation early in the week) or if I have some sort of sick, subconscious hatred for my digestive track, but the day before, Thursday, I decided to treat myself to my favorite hole-in-the-wall dumpling shop, twice. I know what you’re thinking, casual (and probably American) reader, “Jason, dumplings are delicious, and I bet the ones in China are even better than the ones at home, why are you complaining?”

WELL, you’re right, dumplings are delicious, and the one’s in China are better than the ones at home, buuuuut it just so happens that I decided to order 30 dumplings each time I went to my little shop. For those playing along at home, that’s 60 dumplings lurking menacingly somewhere in my digestive system, pre-dumpling fiesta. I my colon never stood a chance.

The digestive impossibilities notwithstanding, dumpling night was a huge success. Myself, and my two roommates, and the two other international students, and their two roommates, had a blast. Making dumplings is surprisingly easy, and between the six of us I think we downed around 90-100. I’ve attached some pictures below of the entire process/dumpling making dream team. Surprisingly, myself, another international student from New Hampshire and our two female Chinese hosts were the best at folding and creating the dumplings. My roommates, who I think aren’t accustomed to cooking themselves, were hilariously bad at the simple process.

All in all I’ll chalk this one up as a win for the mind, spirit, and the ability for me (and other Americans) to persevere through incredible odds to eat truly ridiculous amounts of food (The Man v. Food guy would have been proud), but a loss for the body. I won’t go into any detail, but I’ll just say this weekend was happily dumpling free, and leave it at that.