So, what happens when two dumplings meet each other????
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They get ready to be eaten!!!!!
Hahaha, that's my lame joke.
Anyway, do they look the same? From the outside yeah..but from the inside, no.
I think if you have been reading my blog for quite a while you will know that my husband is a Hokkien and I'm a Cantonese. I can't speak a word of Hokkien before I knew him, well, but I can understand the "universal Chinese dialect words" that most understands. Neh, those that you will use to ask about people's parents. Hahahaha, I do no speak them, but that doesn't mean I do not know if someone is scolding me or cursing me behind my back or maybe right in my face.
Mike told me he never spoke much Cantonese, not until he met me, and the first few months of our relationship, we will always argue because he uses the wrong words to express himself, making me misunderstand him. But now, his Cantonese is definately much much better after all the commando training I've given him. :)
His Cantonese has improved, definately, but what about my Hokkien. Hahahahah!!!! Well, he's got TVB to be his guru, but me? I've got nobody,
**** nobody nobody but you.... nobody nobody like you, nobody nobody, nobody nobody, nobduy nobody ** with fingers twidling upright****
Bloggers who've met me, have heard me saying those few words over and over again only.
"Pai See" (naughty), "Ai Boh" (you want?), "Beh Sai" (Cannot), "Lai Ji Beng" (come here), "Kee Lau Ting" (Go upstairs) and maybe some other simple words. Yeah, these are the only ones that I can utter from my mouth. Trying to teach my girls the very few words that is in my personal collection of Hokkien Vocab.
Oh and the other day, Judy (Busy Gran) taught me how to call Gan Sui Joong in Hokkien, "Kngee Chang". Another new word... kekekeke.
Yeah, about those two dumplings, I just made these yesterday, yes, yesterday 15th June. This is the 2nd batch of rice dumplings I made this year. 1st batch wasn't enough to go around because my neighbours suddenly popped over asking for a few (in exchange with $$$), and a few became half the batch because each take 10, then 10 then 5 and another 5+2. So, after I came back from my dumpling making trip in Kampar last weekend, I made another 36 pieces yesterday.
So, my dumpling feat for this year
Hakka Dough Dumplings : 16 pieces
Plain Gan Sui Joong : 50 pieces
Hokkien Bak Chang: 1st batch: 44pcs, 2nd batch : 15 pcs
Cantonese Rice Dumpling : 1st batch : 23 pieces, 2nd batch: 24 pieces
Altogether: 174 pieces.
Well, I had some help with the 1st batch from my mom and 2nd sis in law. I didn't do this all by myself ok.
Anyway, glad this is only once a year. I'll be looking forward to next year, Nyonya Chang, wait for me ya.
Then in 2012, maybe hakka pillow dumplings... one year one new recipe to learn.
Happy Dragon Boat Festival, or Dumpling Festival
or Duan Wu Festival,
whatever you may call it, and most of all,
Enjoy the dumplings!!!!
I think I'm getting sick of them already..... hahaha!!
Wah Wendy! Mou ter teng! I want one - send by courier. Like your sense of humour.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh!!!! I especially love and madly love hokkien chang especially if they have a large piece of fay pork belly in it!!!! In my house, we eat chang with sugar, I know it sounds deliciously funny!!!
ReplyDeleteWow it looks so yummy! i am craving for dumplings but price of dumplings has sky rocketed!
ReplyDeleteJudy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for laughing :)
Cannot la, non halal cannot courier la!!!
Quinn,
ReplyDeleteWhat's chang if there is no fat pork belly???
Meaningless without that white piece of pure lard
Sweeter Side of Life,
ReplyDeleteOh, how much per piece???
But I think it depends on the fillings.
More fillings more expensive.
Hi Wendy, the changs look delicious but my favourite is nyonya chang so next yr reserve one for me ya :P.
ReplyDeleteHey, Wendy!!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't help but laugh as I read along the post ... I remember you taught some Hokkien words at the meet-up! I totally misunderstood them, just like what happened to you initially ... Man, Hokkien sounds SO, SO different from Cantonese! Haha! Even with my Teochew mom, me a Cantonese still can understand it a little bit ... If I really end up living with a Hokkien man for my whole life, I'm so gonna teach him Cantonese and vice versa ... It's fun what ... Actually, I think Mike speaks REALLY good Canto ... Seriously!
Mmmm ... I want your dumplings lar ... They look so well-made!!! Happy Dragon Boat Festival!! 端午節快樂!!! Eat more dumplings arr ... I'm so gonna stuff myself with 粽 till round round and fat fat ... Hahaha!!
Ooo...how delicious looking they are! haha... I bet no one could ever resist that either. I made 1kg of rice last week and alrady finished up by last Saturday and am too busy to make another batch. So, just leave it! Probably, will make one batch on this coming weekend. See how!=o) Btw, Happy 'Duan Wu Jie' to you & your family too!
ReplyDeleteCheers, Kristy
Nobody in my family makes Zhang anymore- we just buy.Malaysia still has that 'village neighbourhood' atmosphere which I think is really endearing. As I write this,they are screening 女人我最大on TV and they are comparing the calories of different types of Zhang!!! 1 Chaomaizong(dark coloured)contains almost 500 calories- need to swim for 2 hours to burn it off... Looks like I need to jog for 2 hours tomorrow... :P
ReplyDeleteJess,
ReplyDeleteOkok, next year.
Remember to come and claim your chang ok.
Pei-Lin,
ReplyDeleteHe's been with me for 10 years!!!!! If he's not fluent now, I'm a bad trainer then!!!
But as I said, he's got TVB and me to extra polish him.. Sigh, but he's not teaching me any Hokkien.
My mom always say, eat more burger become like burger. Then if you eat more dumplings, you'll become like a dumpling. Hahahaha!!!
I wonder how round can you get, show me please!!
Kristy,
ReplyDeleteThis weekend?? Over liao lor.
Anyway, it doesn't really matter.
Shirley,
ReplyDeleteHaha, yeah, we are less cosmopolitan. :)
Maybe due to the type of houses we live in.
High rise residences/apartments are very different than living on land.
But the village thingy is only present in villages.
Even during CNY, I rarely see families gathering to make love letters compared to 20 years ago. I don't even see many candle lit houses during Mooncake Festival nowadays compared to every house when I was a kid. Traditions are dying.... Sad.
Hello Wendy,
ReplyDeleteIt is always enjoyable to read your post... I never know that changs are only made for special seasons as I see it in Miri most of the time & you can buy halal ones too.
So what happened to your children - what dialect they are picking up? I have a friend like your case & the children ended up speaking English only. The funny part is the children have to speak malay to their grandparents because the grandparents cannot speak english.
Roz,
ReplyDeleteMy kids are speaking in English mostly, with a bit of Cantonese and Hokkien.
I'm teaching them English at home because the English standard at the schools here is really *sigh*. They won't be able to practise speaking English in school.
Happy Dumpling Festival to you! I had already virtually tasted it, yum yum .... :)
ReplyDeleteDG,
ReplyDeleteMade any???
Happy dumpling festival to you too!!
My dad's Cantonese and my mum's Hokkien and so we speak both dialects at home - especially Cantonese since my mum's better at languages and speaks it fluently. I find myself speaking Hokkien more when I have something bad to say about somebody :-)
ReplyDeleteAs for the rice dumplings, I prefer the Cantonese one!
Beau Lotus,
ReplyDeleteUsually Cantonese will win.. heheheh.
Hokkien is so difficult to learn.
Sui cha Po is already one example.
I thought it meant bad kettle, something used to scold women, but hahaha, it actually meant pretty girl.
Hokkien is a very difficult dialect.
Wah...174 dumplings, impressive. I think you are like my mum's level, she can wrap like 50 in an hour. ;) Wish can make some (nicer) dumplings next time...need to practice more, heehee. :) Happy dumpling fest to you too~!
ReplyDeleteHey, Wendy...you should subscribe to Astro's Hokkien channel la...Hua-Hee-Dai(欢喜台)can learn hokkien then. :)
ReplyDeleteMy dad's Hokkien and my mum's Cantonese but I prefer the Nyonya chang la...maybe becoz I have a sweet tooth! Now in Klang not easy to find friends to practise my Canto...I'm losing touch!
This yr my FIL bought Kngee-chang with red-bean fillings for offerings, nice oso leh!
Happy Duan-Wu Fes to you!!
happy "Dumpling Festtival" to you and family.
ReplyDeletei havent eat dumpling yet. do you have extra?
Bee,
ReplyDeleteI didn't do 174 in a day ler... 3 days.
I'm just a novice, and I can't layer the leaves. Max is just 2.
Mel,
ReplyDeleteI can subscribe to Vaanavil too and learn Tamil.
You see, one can learn cantonese from TVB simply because cantonese can be guessed if one knows mandarin, but hokkien cannot leh. It's so so different. Just take for instance, Sui Ja Boh. If no one will explain what is that, I'll just translate it into bad kettle, instead of pretty girl. And the environment I am in, Hokkien is almost obsolete, hardly anyone speaks it outside, it's mandarin everywhere. I believe if I'm in Klang, then I can pick up hokkien and watch Hua Hee Dai, cos there's practise and people to explain the meaning.
I can watch KBS everyday, but I don't think I'll learn Korean that way.
Voon,
ReplyDeleteAda extra, mari ambik.
Courier tak boleh, tak halal leh.
Happy Duanwu festival! Zongzi look so tempting that I really want to dig my head into the screen!
ReplyDeleteNo dumplings for me this year cause too lazy to make =( they look so good!
ReplyDeletehahahahah i like the way u started this blog...and the bak chang is even better hahaah
ReplyDeleteI remember during the olden days, there is a certain cantonese chang made of glutinous rice with peeled green beans and a piece of fat which we dipped with icing sugar. Nowadays we seldom seen this. Maybe they modified a bit different. I like this chang.
ReplyDeleteAngie,
ReplyDeleteThat'll be dangerous, NOOOO!!!!
Manglish,
ReplyDeleteSometimes the idea just comes....
Sometimes I have nothing to say...
Redsister,
ReplyDeleteThis Cantonese Chang is the way my Grandaunt from China did it. I think the method you mentioned was during the hard times when meat was hard to come by.
But during one of my dumpling sessions this year, I was left with some "white" glutinous rice and 2 small pieces of fat, so I filled up one leaf with just these. My mom ate that piece and said, "wow, this is good".
Not yet, still long way to go. I only know how to eat, not how to make :)
ReplyDeleteWOW...I still cannot get the right technique on wrapping the "chang" la..:( I'm still waiting for my mum's 'canto chang' next week. (she'll make some for me again next week coz din go back last week) heehee..;p
ReplyDeleteI don't quite agree with you about the cantonese sounds more like Mandarin thingy...Maybe its becoz HongKong had made Canto so "formal"...they used it even when teaching at schools. i think its becoz you are more used to that dialect already. i speak English, Mandarin and Hokkien since young, and heard my mum and my aunt(whom stayed with us) spoke to each other in Canto, so I can understand my students well when I got posted to KL...but got misunderstandings oso...eg: “ 老师，他从我的‘边皮’跑过，然后。。。” (read this in Mandarin) I was like: huh? 边皮? sounds vulgar...?!
ReplyDeleteHey wendy...nice food site...now I also hungry liao...*saliva drips* :-P
ReplyDeleteDG,
ReplyDeletehaha, nvm. Eating is the first step to making. :)
Reese,
ReplyDeleteOh great. Please post your mom's yummy canto chang and show us :)
Mel,
ReplyDeleteMaybe when things are familiar, then we can easily relate. To me, Hakka is much much easier to learn. I stayed with a Hakka room mate for 6 months, and I can understand Hakka liao, just becos she always talk to her friend opposite the house in hakka. Hokkien is still too foreign for me.
Bianpi sounds vulgar meh? Maybe I don't know enough mandarin vulgar words to relate that to.
Allan,
ReplyDeleteHey, nice of you to drop a comment here.
The name of your blog reminds me of your room at Carpenter's.
Drop by more yeah :)