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Chinese dumplings recipe

I’m always inspired to write in the silence of the night. As much as I love reading and writing, I’ve never really been good at semantics. Just writing the above sentence, I think I’ve corrected myself twice. But that’s besides the point. Just today, I had a shot at making Chinese ‘jiaozi’ or commonly known as dumplings. I had a huge craving for it while I was on my way back from Berlin, so after spending 2 days hibernating at home, I decided to take a walk outside my Finnish apartment and head to the grocery store to purchase some of the ingredients to make my jiaozi. 

I’m no Gordon Ramsay or Jamie Oliver, and to make the filling for the jiaozi, I followed the directions from one of the food blogs which I randomly chanced upon. I did not follow the exact directions that was on the e-recipe,I kinda tweaked it here and there to appeal to my taste buds.

Ingredients:
100g minced beef
White pepper powder (to taste)
2 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic diced
1/4 onion diced
50g cabbage chopped

Dumpling skin:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup warm water
Mix well and knead till dough is soft

Method:
Combine the minced beef, garlic, onions, lettuce and all seasonings together. Set aside while preparing your dumpling skin.
To make jiaozi, place a spoonful of the filling in the center of the skin. You can fill as much as you like, just make sure the filling does not spill out when trying to fold and knead the dumpling.
For steaming: Arrange the dumplings and place them in a bamboo steamer. Another alternative is to use a rice cooker.
For panfrying: Use a a teaspoon of vegetable oil to oil the pan. Place the dumplings in a wok. Fry till golden brown.
Serve with black vinegar dipping sauce (preferred) or you can try chili padi with soy sauce.

Travelogue – Saint Petersburg, Russia

Old Saint Petersburg remains a beautiful stage set but to the Russians it is not what Rome is to the Italians or Paris to the French. – Joseph Wechsberg

Kazan Cathedral

Never in my wildest dream would I have imagined myself touring Europe, much less Russia. My only impression of this country was gathered through this game my cousins and I played when we were younger: Red Alert. I’m sure many have heard or played this game, and Russia was never the good guy. They always had the deadliest weapon, the meanest troops and the ones who were the hardest to kill, and if you chose to be with the Soviet Union, the first country that drops down from the list was Russia. Hmmm, just thinking about it, Russia was never the good country.

When I told my aunt about my plan on visiting Saint Petersburg, she rattled on like a train proclaiming the wondrous beauty of the city and how magnificent a sight it would be if the buildings were covered in snow. So when the school decided that all the exchange students should visit Saint Petersburg during their short stint here in Finland, my stomach did a double flip. We booked our trip from the 10th-14th of November and we travelled by ferry to Russia. The good thing about it is that we didn’t need to have a Visa because we stayed for less than 72 hours.

St Isaac's Cathedral

Savior on the Spilled Blood

I would think 72 hours is more than enough to visit Saint Petersburg. If you’re a fan of museums and are culturally active, you’d love Saint Petersburg. The Winter Palace has almost 60,000 collection of artefacts and art pieces and it is rumoured that some can spend an entire week just walking through the museum. Well, I’m not that kind who can stand in front of a painting and admire the delicate strokes of the brush nor appreciate the meaning of the paining (though I do know some of the artists), so spending 2 hours in the Winter Palace was more than enough for me.

The Winter Palace

Russia was cold at the time I went there, and it was almost painful to have to whip out my camera from my bag to snap those photos (although in my humble opinion, there’s really nothing much to capture on film).

I came across this article while I was just browsing the net, and it mentioned about how we are all slaves to technology. During a walk in one of the parks in Saint Pete’s with a friend, I casually mentioned that sometimes there is no need for a camera for the best lens you can ever have are your eyes. Not some tilt-shift lens, not macro lens, but our crystalline lens (the biconvex structure in the eye). But i guess the camera comes in handy when we realise that as we grow older, our memory tends to fail us. This is when the pictures can come in handy.

Russia was overall a decent experience for me. It was not as fantastic as my aunt or friends made it out to be, but neither was it intimdating like how I imagined it to be. Although I’ve got to admit that people are not the friendliest. They shun you the moment you ask for directions in English, it is as though English was a plaque. I actually think Russia would be prettier during winter time.

What do you think if you’ve ever been to Russia? Winter time or summer time? And if you are in Russia or planning to visit Saint Petersburg, YOU HAVE TO visit this cafe. It’s a God-sent (:

Food on Exchange – Stolle

What do you do when you first go to Russia? Eating was not top on my agenda, but nonetheless, thanks to one of the Japanese whom I was travelling with, we managed to stumble upon a great cafe in Saint Petes’.

This cafe is called Stolle and they possess an extremely comprehensive menu. Online reviews about their pies also tempted us to visit their cafe before heading back to Helsinki.

This is a Russian sweet cake which we did not try, but having it placed at a conspicuous place, it does indeed make those customers waiting in line salivate.

Green onion and egg pie was the hot favourite among the customers and garnered the most reviews on the online discussion forum. Not to be missed, this pie carries with it the most unique blend of flavours. I am a fan of green onion so I thoroughly enjoyed this.

This rabbit meat with mushroom and egg was not my favourite. I personally do not like consuming rabbit meat, although it was a hit with the friends I went with.

The salmon and mushroom pie took the cake. If you know me, you’d know how huge a fan I am of salmon and mushroom. These two pies made my brunch so much more enjoyable. I love how they were very generous with the salmon filling and it was a little creamy on the inside, the flesh was tender and the crust was crisp. The mushroom pie had a very different taste to it, unlike the ones that is sold in Singapore. It was a little sourish, but still had the mushroomy taste. A perfect blend of mushroom and pastry. It would have been better if they had garlic with the mushrooms.

If you are ever in Russia (Saint Petersburg or Moscow, they have a few outlets everywhere), you should never miss this cafe. Their prices are really reasonable and it is definitely worth a shot at this. You wouldn’t regret it!

Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Konushenny Lane 1/6,
Telephone: (812) 312-1862
Operating hours: 9:00 – 21:00