Joined #cgtn World Insight with Tian Wei to discuss the upcoming Chinese New Year, whether we’ll see record receipts as we saw with the previous post-pandemic “Golden Week” during last October, and to reminisce about the way we used to travel in #china in the past vs. how things have changed.
I’ve experienced what’s called the “biggest human migration” as hundreds of millions of travel home to visit family and friends from two sides: going with the flow and staying put. In the late 90s I’d often travel across China, on the old slow trains, standing in interminable lines for tickets, with local media telling us how many people were waiting outside for their trains. I recall one year in #guangzhou a million people waiting outside the old train station, many for standing room only, no train seats to be hand. Today of course people mostly buy tickets online, indeed you don’t even need a paper ticket, you merely scan your ID or passport and on you go.
These days I choose to stay with my family in #shanghai. While some parts of the city, the Bund for example, attract some tourists from neighboring areas, and while this may be particularly true this year with a popular tv show showcasing the city, in fact most of the city is virtually empty. While I enjoy living on a regularly basis with 25 million people, its pleasant once a year to share the subway with no one, to walk down empty streets, to stay home and cook healthy food and enjoy the #cctv Gala Show.
With that in mind, let me share my dumpling recipe. I don’t make the shells, I leave that to my daughter or we buy them pre-made. We make two types: one, the usual with seasoned minced pork, the other inspired by a specialty restaurant in #harbin many years ago, featuring tomato and beef, that I’ve tried to improve upon a bit.
Get some good quality, low fat steak, some sun-dried tomatoes (without oil if possible), garlic, a little basil and salt. Food process all of this together, making a thick, meaty paste and then fill the shells as you normally would. Serve with Shanxi vinegar or, if you want to imagine Marco Polo making ravioli when he returned to #italy, then serve them with balsamic vinegar or even a marinara sauce. It’s a tasty twist, a bit of global fusion that is made better if you hide a small coin inside a few dumplings to make the nontraditional a bit more typical.
