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April 18, 2007

juicy dumpling family

tonight T.T. and i joined a bunch of his friends for a meal at the local juicy dumpling mecca of Din Tai Fung. for those who are wondering, a "juicy dumpling," better known on the East Coast as a "soup dumpling," is basically a genius bit of Chinese culinary skill: a thin wrapper is filled with a bit of tasty meat and a dab of gelatinous broth. when it is steamed on a bed of cabbage in a bamboo steamer, the broth heats up and becomes a delightful, sloshy burst of flavour when the lucky diner nibbles into it.
i remember that some years ago these were all the rage in New York City. places in Chinatown would vie for the "best soup dumpling" while xiao long bao shops started springing up all over the place. since the juicy dumpling is a specialty of Shanghai, my mother's hometown, of course any visit to the Chan relatives in New York would include consuming many of the tasty little packets. food connects and rejoins my family members, so even after long absences, a good Chinese meal can easily fill in the gaps.
any juicy dumpling place worth its, well, broth, has a glassed-in kitchen so you can actually see your dumplings being made. i remember seeing an article in the window of New York establishment Joe's Shanghai in which Mr. Joe complains about all the American people converging on his place for "soupy buns" so that "all day long, we stuff, stuff, stuff." i thought that was pretty hilarious, considering how he was marketing the place as "Home of the Soup Dumpling." Din Tai Fung also has a glassed-in dumpling-stuffing-watching window, but the funny part about it is that every single person stuffing back there is Latino. not one Chinese person is actually making the dumplings... but honestly, i think the multiculturalism makes them taste better. besides, some of the best Japanese food places in L.A. are run by Koreans, and some of the best Vietnamese food i've tasted was cooked by a Mexican. culinary skill and appreciation needs no cultural boundaries.
it made me wonder about my own family -- Shanghai was always an incredibly cultural diverse city, especially for xenophobic China. perhaps the soup dumplings in my grandfather's home were made by Chinese cooks, but i'm sure they also had to make crêpes, pâtes, and maybe even some crème brûlée -- after all, the city was known as the "Paris of the East." i don't know a whole lot about my family history before my grandfather, since when he took his wife and kids and fled to America, they left mostly everything behind, including extended family.
family is on the brain right now, because my mother's youngest sister is in China, meeting some of those left-behind people for the first time. she was only a toddler when the Chans escaped from the onslaught of Communism. here's an e-mail that she sent from my grandmother's hometown:

I met my cousins on my mother's side - almost all of them. The oldest son from the first brother gathered his entire family to meet me expect for his youngest brother who lived in Beijing and didn't have enough notice to come. I met all of the siblings from my mother's younger brother and his widow. I also met my Uncle, (my father's younger brother). The welcome I received was amazing. All I can say is that I finally understood why my parents wanted to come back to live out their years. I truly feel I understand them better. When I saw my Uncle, it was like seeing my father again. It made me miss him so much. He sang an English love song for me.. he has the same charm as my father. My mother's family gave me the best meals of my life. They were wonderful.

i'm certain that those shared meals -- full of familiar pungent smells, savory tastes, laughter, and chopsticks -- filled in the chasm of all these many years and the very different lives, and reconnected family in a way that no cultural or language barrier could prevent.
i hope they enjoyed their juicy dumplings. i did.

Posted by hadashi at April 18, 2007 2:48 PM

Comments

Posted by: Ms. Jen at April 27, 2007 11:07 AM

Posted by: hadashi at May 2, 2007 11:47 AM

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