Chinese food for Christmas? If the cooking and eating are shared, that’s all that matters
- The Chinese traditionally love cooking together during festivals, the point being to break down barriers between family members and encourage interaction
- But people seem to be moving away from the practice, spending too much money and effort on materialistic things
Cooking together is a fun way to bond with family members, and it’s something that the Chinese love to partake in during traditional festivals like Chinese New Year. This isn’t to say the practice is exclusive to us, but the Chinese love to take this to a whole new level.
During Chinese New Year, families gather together not only to enjoy a sumptuous feast on the first day of the festival, but also to engage in the annual ritual of making dumplings together.
I remember there was one year our family wrapped more than 1,000 dumplings in one afternoon; we had to keep boiling and eating them so that we could empty enough trays to hold them.
The most enjoyable part of this festive “cottage industry” was not only eating the final products but wrapping dumplings in varied shapes and sizes to showcase individual styles.
The older members of the family were always keen to craft “perfect dumplings”. But the younger family members took a lax approach by churning out products that barely resembled anything dumpling-like.