Boyu Ran The Instructors ENG 101 01/31/2018 The Last Dumplings The first time I tasted the dumplings that made by my grandmother was kind of sweet. Dumplings are a classic Chinese food. I often miss the taste of dumplings from my home country, China. I am a foreign student who has been in America for over one year. I have seen that many local people love to eat dumplings in Chinese restaurants. As a Chinese person, I love dumplings because of my grandmother. There is old story that tells about Zhang Zhongjing, who was the popular Chinese doctor that invented classic Chinese dumplings—the small pieces of lamb, peppers and herbal medicine were packed by thin dough, using clear water to boil—for thousands of years to save people from cold injury. The shape of Chinese dumplings looks like ears. Also, a widely-circulated tale describes that eating dumplings can recover people’s frozen ears and get rid of cold. (Liu) There are many types of dumpling—tapioca dumplings; fried dumplings; tofu and spinach dumplings; lamb dumplings with sweet chilli sause; vegetable dumplings; banh dumplings; sausage dumplings; chicken and prawn dumplings; Australian dumplings. (10 Best Dumpling Recipes)
Sausage Dumplings
Lamb Dumplings with Sweet Chilli Sause
Fried Dumplings
Vegetables Dumplings
I will use pork and leek dumplings as one example to demonstrate the benefits of dumplings. First, Scientists have confirmed that ginger alleviates symptoms of gastrointestinal distress. Also, motion sickness—nausea, dizziness, vomiting and cold sweating—could be reduced the impact by ginger on these symptoms. In addition, treating the symptoms of pregnancy is also a valid use of ginger because “it contains high levels of active substances so even a small dosage provides beneficial effects.”(Ginger) In addition, Chives are also an important ingredient in this dumplings. However, chives have a lot of health benefits, not only for adjusting the flavor. Based on the horticulture center at Illinois State University, researchers thought “chives contain not only vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C and calcium, but also other antioxidants that can help fight cancer.” (Berry) Chives work in different ways. First, they can improve our heart health because chives contain allicin and organosulfur. According to registered dietitian Jacqueline Spang’s opinion, “allicin releases nitric oxide, reducing stiffness in the blood vessels and decreasing blood pressure and an organosulfur has ability to help lower cholesterol and blood pressure.(Berry) In addition, based on Danya Epstein’s research, who is naturopathic physician and resident at Bastyr Center for Natural Health, chives also are rich in vitamin K, which help cells to fight against bone demineralization.(Berry) The huge effect of chive is antioxidants that they could “help destroy free radicals and discourage the growth of cancerous cells and tumors.” Researchers have realized that “chives help our body produce glutathione, an agent that enables our body to identify toxins and other cancer-causing substances and eliminate them.” (Ipatenco) Different types of dumplings have various advantages for our health. This is why local citizen love to eat dumplings. When my foreign friends ask me what is popular and delicious food in China, I always recommend Chinese dumplings to them. In addition, most Chinese people do not usually eat dumplings on normal days. Normally, they eat dumplings is for celebrating important events or festivals, such as the Chinese New Year. Dumplings in Chinese New Year has significant meaning. I was lucky to be born in the north of China. Most of people who live in northern China have to wrap new dumplings on the eve of Lunar New Year. They should eat these dumplings on the first hour of the Lunar New Year. This is meaning “bidding farewell to the odd and ushering in the new.”(Irene) Also, many families wrap one coin with fillings into the dumplings, including mine. The persons who bite this coin in their dumplings represent they will be lucky, prosperous and good fortune in this New Year. Due to my parents’ busy work, I had always lived with my grandparents. I remembered what happened to my childhood clearly. My grandmother loved me dearly. When I was feeling hungry, she would cook any food what ingredients we had at home. When I got cold, she would let me drink the herb or use physical cooling method to help me shake off cold. When I had an idea to make creative stuff, she would be my best partner to make this stuff. I felt very happy was that I knew when I was coming back to home from school, my grandmother had already cooked and waited for me. At one day, she asked me if I wanted to eat dumplings. I answered it without any hesitation. For her partner, I wanted to relieve her stress, so I rolled the dough into wrappers and she put the filling into the dumplings. Chinese New Year is usually in January or February. On Lunar New Year in 2014, I was happy because I bit the coin in my dumplings, which mean I would be very lucky and good fortune. That was my first time to bite this special coin. As I grew up, my grandmother kept getting older. In 2014, I was 15 years old, but she was almost 70 years old. From the first few days on October in the same year, my grandmother did not feel very well. She thought she got serious cold. I asked her to go hospital to check what happened to her, but that result shew it was cancer in her lung. I was shocked at that time. How could she have lung cancer? My parents and grandfather cooperate with doctors to cure this cancer. After a half month, she felt better. I thought she got out of the hospital as soon as possible. However, the fact was contrary to my imagination. On one day, nobody knew why her cancer was spread. She was sent to Intensive Care Unit(ICU) at local best hospital. Due to isolation, there was only a half hour to enter ICU to talk to patients every day. Because of school day, I have only chance to come to hospital on weekends. When I saw her, I said, “you can conquer it. I would be waiting for your dumplings.” Nevertheless, my first time to bite coin also meant that I was last time to eat her dumplings. When I heard this bad news from my father, I hurried to the hospital. I saw the doctor had stopped saving her via defibrillator. At that moment, I cannot say any words. Tens of thousands of memories were showed in my mind. There were games which her love to play them on iPad—Super Mario and Tetris. Sometimes she did not know how to adjust the screen light and volume. I taught her step by step. In case, she forgot these steps if I was not be with her, I wrote down specific details how to do it on paper, but now, that became garbage; I knew she cannot love me anymore; I knew if she make dumplings by herself, it would cause her feeling tired. I was her best partner, I can recall any details when we made dumplings together; I knew that dumplings on Lunar New Year was my last dumplings made by herself. After she was gone, I tried my best to make the dumplings, following the septs on video, but I will never make that flavor which belongs to her.
Work Cited Berry, Lucy. “The Health Benefits of Chives.” Healthy Eating | SF Gate, healthyeating.sfgate.com/health-benefits-chives-6102.html. Irene. “Chinese New Year Dumplings.” a beautiful day, 14 Mar. 2013, abeautifuldayblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/chinese-new-year-dumplings/. Ipatenco, Sara. “Health Benefits of Chives.” LIVESTRONG.COM, Leaf Group, 3 Oct. 2017, www.livestrong.com/article/407900-health-benefits-of-chives/ Leech, Joe. “11 Proven Health Benefits of Ginger.” Healthline, Healthline Media, www.healthline.com/nutrition/11-proven-benefits-of-ginger. “Origin of Chinese dumplings.” Origin of Chinese dumplings CCTV News - CNTV English, english.cntv.cn/program/cultureexpress/20111223/105484.shtml. “10 Best Dumpling Recipes.” NDTV Food, 5 Feb. 2015, food.ndtv.com/lists/10-best-dumpling-recipes-730379.