Dumplings and Mantou!

My mom let me know at the last minute that I was expected for lunch today with one of my grandmothers, poste haste. I responded with petulance - more over the lack of communication than about seeing granny. My sighs were rewarded, undeservingly, by a great meal at a relative's.

Today was a belated celebration of the New Year with my granny in another state. My uncle made dumplings per my other grandmother's specs. My hostess granny is unable to cook for herself anymore, but my other granny was kind enough to send the ingredients and recipes that she likes best. The first thing I noticed when I arrived was that my uncle had bought the same flour used by one granny, a brand made in Hong Kong. Both grannies are very particular about the flour used in dumpling skins - the brand is important for a pliable dough that doesn't break easily under water. Apparently, Wegman's all-purpose works really well for these, too.

I was surprised to see mantou (steamed buns) at the table as well. No one, and I mean no one, I know makes their own mantou like my grandmother (the one supplying the ingredients). It's truly a lost art, since mantou are generally too humble to be served in restaurants. Everyone else I know buys their mantou frozen at the H-mart, the product of moisture-controlled factories that taste faintly of freezers. If you make a bad mantou, there is no hiding it with sugar, a crust, nothing. It is either a pillowy roll of flour and steam, and touched with oil at the surface, or a gummy mess in your steamer. It also takes hours to get it done. A friend of mine, who loves China more than some people love their spouses, once asked me what the big deal about mantou is. He'd had some steamed bread in China's northwest. Hours of labor, for what? I really can't explain it. Everyone has their own bread. Mine happens to be incredibly labor intensive and plain, and hard to make without sucking big time. Mantou are the pandas of the bread world. Eating one made by hand is revelation only to people like me (spoiled) and older Chinese people, who remember what it is like to make every meal from scratch. Needless to say, my tummy is very happy right now.