Chinese New Year Day 5: Stuff Your Face With Dumplings

Homemade dumplings made especially for the New Year.

Day five of Chinese New Year is the God of Wealth’s birthday.  And what does one do on the God of Wealth’s birthday? Well obviously feast on dumplings, duh. And Karaoke. Yes, you gotta have karaoke.

Dumplings (餃子, jiǎozi)  symbolize wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese tael, an old school system of Chinese weight and currency. Thankfully these bundles of joy are a tasty treat, making indulging in them an easy task. As for finding a local place to procure homemade ones with my limited Chinese… Yes, I could walk into a 7-11 easily and find some frozen ones (you can find anything in a 7-11), but that wouldn’t be fun, healthy nor sustainable.

In the end, with the help of a fellow teacher, I found one of the best dumpling places in town. Added bonus: lots of drunk Taiwanese people singing karaoke for my dinner entertainment.

All in all, day 5 has been pretty rad. Dumplings + Karaoke = Win. If the rest of the year follows in this manner, the year of the Snake is gonna be amazing.