Dumpling making

Do you know how much work goes into making one small dumpling which can be finished in a few bites? I used to take this kinda things for granted, until today when I helped my grandma with the preparations for 端午节. Everything used to be done by her alone in the past, but age is ctaching up with her, and it's time for me to learn a skill or two also, so I can teach my children next time too haha. Ok, that's a bit too far into the future.

The leaves which we peel away from the dumpling and throw into the bin without a second thought, have to be washed one by one, cleaned by water and cloth on both sides, then rinsed a few more times before being dried. In the process of drying:

But it's nice having the smell of the leaves reach your nose while you're washing them. It beats washing shoes or clothes anyway.

Today my grandma made the plain dumplings, the type accompanied by orange sugar. Tmr then we'll be making those with fillings, and I'll be helping her! I can still remember the frustration of not being able to make perfect dumplings when I was young. They're either too irregular-shaped or too loose..then I'll see my grandma's nice triangular ones then get fed up over not being able to make those. Then agian, that was when I was in lower secondary? Haha..can't say my skill improved much over the years of learning (once a year at that too), but at least my dumplings look decent. I was chopping garlic for the glutinous rice tmr and these show the before, during and after process:

Well, good food always come with hard work. It's the amount of preparation and effort that produces the end product, and believe me, it can be tasted.