China has a lot of festivals and holidays. Some of the most important festivals are Chinese New Year, Full Moon Festival, and Dragon Boat Festival. For the Full Moon Festival, we cook a special Moon Cake and for Dragon Boat it is sticky Chinese rice pudding.

During Chinese New Year, dumplings are one of the major foods eaten. We write, carve, and make paper cuts of Fu meaning "fortune" or "good luck". Fu is a common Chinese tradition at New Year and can be seen on the entrances of many Chinese homes worldwide. We also buy firecrackers and have fireworks. During this special day we make special garlic vinegar (Laba vinegar) and eat it with dumplings. This celebration is really family time; people visit each other and give each other red envelopes with some money and also some gifts.

I chose this recipe because it is traditional food in China and everyone knows how to make these dumplings. We call these dumplings "Jiaozi". You can use almost anything as a filling, and you can boil, steam, or pan fry them. On New Year's Eve, we make dumplings in the evening before midnight and then keep them outside to freeze them before we cook them. At midnight, we have fireworks and after that we go inside and everybody eats dumplings.

This month we're celebrating Asian Heritage Month and will be cooking baked pork chop rice (焗豬扒飯) with Yami.

Yami explains: "This dish has a home in almost every Cha Chaan Teng (茶餐廳), also known as Hong Kong’s tea-serving cafes. Cha chaan teng food is some of my favorite kinds of foods because it was almost a blend of my two cultures: Chinese and Western cuisine. My name is Yami, born and raised in Hong Kong. Everyone in Hong Kong loves Cha Chaan Teng, fast, casual and affordable, especially when you only have 30 mins lunch break, I always go for baked porkchop rice (焗豬扒飯)!"

This month we're celebrating Chinese New Year will be cooking dumplings with Sam.

To start with I am Sambredi Shrestha, but you can call me Sam or sammy it’s more convenient call. I am originally from Nepal but I live and worked in Hongkong as a chef. I moved to Canada last year on September, and there’s a lot of places i would like to explore in the future. However i am loving whistler very much, I find people living with peace and happily with nature. 

The dish that I am making is one of the important dish in Chinese cuisine, that was originated on the Han dynasty around 200 BC, by Zhang Zhongjing a Chinese medicine practitioner. It is said that, it was a difficult winter and many people were experiencing ill effects from cold. To help the people warm up during this period of time, Zhongjing took mutton, herbs and chilli and wrapped them in a dough, then steamed them. This pillow like steam dish helped many people keep warm and prevent the cold. Which now is called dumpling. And it can be made in different shape and flavours too. 

We make dumpling today to pay the respect of the history of cuisine and keep ourselves warm during this winter and most importantly to enjoy the dish together.

The fun part is that in my country we love eating dumplings too but we call it Momo, when I find out dumpling are so famous in Hongkong it brought smile on my face because I love making and eating dumpling.

This month we're celebrating Chinese New Year will be cooking vegan dumplings with Sara.

Hi, I’m Sara Tobias. I’m Canadian-American-Chinese and grew up in Hong Kong. I moved to Canada six years ago to attend university, and now I call Whistler home. I’m passionate about hiking, trail running, and spending time outdoors. Cooking is another love of mine, and I’ve been vegan for over seven years, so I have plenty of experience with plant-based food. Back in high school, I worked at a vegetarian restaurant where I learned a lot about plant-based cooking. These days, I love cooking for myself, my family, and friends—it brings me so much joy to share delicious food with the people I care about.

I’m excited to get more involved in Whistler’s multicultural community, and I thought the best way to do that is by sharing a piece of my culture. I’ve always loved dumplings—they’re affordable, easy to make, and absolutely delicious. For me, they’re a comfort food, something I ate often as a child. I’m also thrilled to share a vegan version, so even more people can enjoy them! :)

Dumplings (called jiao zi in Chinese) are a staple in Chinese culture, often symbolizing wealth and prosperity. Their shape is reminiscent of traditional Chinese ingots, which were used as money in ancient times. As a result, eating dumplings during the New Year is believed to bring good fortune and financial success. In some traditions, a coin is hidden inside one of the dumplings, and the person who finds it is said to be especially lucky and prosperous in the new year.

This dish brings me back to my childhood in Hong Kong, when I’d wrap dumplings with my mom. I still remember one time when we decided to make the dough from scratch. It was a lot of fun, but neither of us had much experience rolling it thin enough. In the end, the dumplings turned out a bit thicker than we’d planned, but they were still delicious!