Friday, February 7, 2014

Chinese Dumpling Instructional, Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year!
 
2014 is the year of the green wood horse, a high energy year of rapid progress, unexpected and fleeting opportunity, potential for scandals and for those with a business involving wood or fire 2014 will be a particularly lucky year. 

Chinese New year began on the new moon of the 31st in the tiger month of January, and will continue until the full moon on Feb 14th, plenty of time to celebrate and observe ancient rituals for the new year and sacred meanings of symbolic foods like dumplings.
Dumplings/Jiaozi for Chinese New Year and Spring Celebration is a tradition dating back to the Sung dynasty. These luscious and delicate little bundles of exquisite flavors and textures are the original comfort food. 

Pictured above is a Green Tara dumpling in honor of the green wood horse. This is one of the beauties of dumpling making, creativity rules and the variations are endless. Master Chinese dumpling making and you are on your way to mastering the cousins of Chinese dumplings,  momos, piorgi, vaenyaky, ravioli, tortellini among others, 'dumplings' in all their guises are universally loved.

 Dumpling making is easier than it looks and can be done solo, but much like tamale making at Christmas, labor intensive dumplings are reserved for celebrations. Making them is traditionally a community event involving friends and family, potentially a deliciously fun pre-party.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Thumbtack.com For Local Services

Om Chef is now on thumbtack.com as a personal chef and wellness coach. Thumbtack is a little like Angies List and allows you to submit a request for bids for a variety of services. I found an excellent tree trimmer and nontoxic home cleaning service before adding Om to their roster of providers.

It's a great site if you happen to need almost any kind of service, but do keep in mind the provider in paying to send you a bid, so only submit requests you're serious about.

Thumbtack.com 

private chef