We celebrated the Lunar New Year this week by making dumplings, a traditional Chinese symbol of good fortune. In the classroom, we watched a short video about an initiative in Sonoma to commemorate the contributions Chinese farmworkers made to the burgeoning wine industry in the 19th century. Chinese people were some of California’s first farmworkers, a history many of us aren’t taught in school.
In the kitchen, students folded dumplings by hand. While the dumplings steamed, we prepared another batch of filling ingredients: garlic, ginger, tofu, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, Napa cabbage, Chinese chives, and cilantro. (One of our mighty parent volunteers diced the shallots, savings students from tears!) We set the table with chopsticks for everyone to practice eating with, and served the hot dumplings with a simple dipping sauce of soy sauce and rice vinegar. Many students expressed doubts about a recipe containing mushrooms, and we’re happy to report there were quite a few converts. Happy New Year to all!
