Do you know Gyozas/dumplings? Have you make any Gyozas/dumplings by yourself? Would you like to have an amazing dinner with Gyozas/dumplings and good wine?
2022 Chinese New Year is coming now, Cong Fine Arts is glad to announce that we will hold our first special workshop with Gyozas/dumplings on the 5th of February at 18.00h - 21.00h. And now Let us talk a little bit about dumplings!
The story of Gyozas/dumplings
The story of East Asian dumplings started from a man called Zhongjing Zhang, before he was born his country was already cracking down, wars and disease were all over the places, he had a extremely big family which had 200 people, but after 10 years he had been given birth, only 66 family member left. The rest of his family either passed away from disease or from countless wars. So the young Zhongjing made his mind to be a doctor when he grow up, to help the people who was struggling with pain and sickness.
And he made it, after many years study and practice, he became one of the most famous pharmacologist, physician and writer in his country and his medical master piece had been read by all the doctors after him in China.
Soon, he reached to the age of retirement, he left the capital city and took all his belongings to go back to his hometown. On his way back, he saw a lot of poor people were dying in the winter and suffering from cold and hunger, what was worse, most of them have their ears dropping off Because of the cold and the shortage of medicine!
And this remind him the memory of his own family when he was young, Zhongjing was absolutely shocked, the tears were full of his eyes, he could feel the pain which these poor people having. He decided to help them with all what he had learned in this life. So when he came back to his hometown, he started to find a way to cure these people.
He boiled lamb, chili and a lot of medicinal herbs together and chopped them into small pieces. after that, he put them in a wrapper which make with flour and boiled them again. After all cooked, he give his new medicine/food to the poor people, and after eating it, they start to getting warmer, and especially their ears!
Since then, dumplings are invented by this amazing doctor, even a lot of Chinese people had already forget about the origin of dumplings, but dumplings as Chinese medicine and traditional food had been inherited by generations and generations in the last 1800 years.
How to make the dumplings?
Many people think that it is really difficult to make those dumplings, however, it is not the truth, my mum can make 100 dumplings per hour, it can be easy and fast as long as you know those tricks! And that’s why here in Cong Fine Arts, we are holding this workshop to show how to make dumplings with these tricks!
Dumplings and East Asian Culture
Most people here in Europe know about Gyozas or dumplings from Japanese and Chinese restaurant, but we barely know the deeper meanings and culture background of it. Actually, besides the medical origin of dumplings, it also represent the philosophy of East Asian culture.
Unlike pizzas, we prefer to put everything inside not outside, because it will always remind us to be humble and respectful, even though it makes difficulties in selling dumplings, because you can’t see any difference from outside, but when you put it in your mouth, your tongue will tell you everything! As for us, from inside, maybe you had already achieved a lot of things in your life, but from outside, we are all human beings, we are all a small part of nature, and we are all a tiny small part of universe. So be humble, be respectful, be patient. And if you think you are a “better prepared dumpling”, then people will know sooner or later!
So this is the difference between western and eastern culture, personally, as an Asian, I am a pizza lover, but I love dumplings more, not only because I am used to the taste, but the surprises dumplings brought me each time. For me, eating and making dumplings can be a really exiting adventure each time!
Hence, if you also interested in experiencing something really different and fun, please do come to our Gyozas/dumplings workshop! This special workshop will not only allow you to experience the joy of making dumplings by yourself and know more about Asian food culture, but also you will enjoy the dumplings with wines! Whether you're good at cooking or not, or whether you know anything about dumplings, CFA Gyozas Workshop will open its doors for you! For more information please go to https://www.congfinearts.com/tallers and reserve your seat!
