Mmmmm ma la tang!

Not rabbit, possibly fish

Friends, sorry for the long silence. I don't have time to blog in the morning, and in the evening, my internet connection is too slow to upload stuff. I hope to have a blast of blog posts done over the upcoming holidays.

​Today my students told me that it is traditional to eat dumplings on the winter solstice. I never need an excuse to eat dumplings. I mean, you had me at dumplings. So that was good news. And I know a place I can get some....

On a cold winter's day, there is nothing like a piping hot bowl of spicy ma la tang (pronounced more like mah la tong) for lunch. Since we discovered ma la tang (tang means "soup"), we've been choosing this build-your-own soup for a simple meal when we're downtown. Slip into this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant with us. The windows are covered with steam. Inside are just a few tables and chairs..
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The first thing you do is grab a tray and some tongs and head for the display case.  There's a big assortment of fresh vegetables with none of those pesky Western sneeze guard things in the way. Don't worry, it's all going to be boiled. Fill your tray with what you want, as much as you want -- big meaty pieces of mushroom, or the delicate little white enoki mushroom, green and yellow cabbage, dark green baby bok choy, black mu'er fungus, fresh cilantro, thinly sliced potato, bean sprouts and several kinds of lettuce. (Lettuce is often served cooked here, just like cabbage. In fact, you'll more often encounter cooked lettuce rather than raw lettuce.)

 Then in the frozen section, there are lots of little dumplings -- yes, dumplings --  and sausages, and lots of mystery meat (?) balls, most of which resemble our imitation crab pollock sticks in flavor, no matter what shape or color they are. They are round and pillow-shaped and spiral and pink and green and purple. Some contain tofu or rice or sweet potato, too.

Finally choose from a variety of noodles or vermicelli or even chunks of bread. The overall balance of the soup is entirely up to you. If you want vegetable, or dumpling, or noodle, or potato, or mystery fishy ball shapes, or none of the above, it's your call. 

Take your tray to be weighed. You pay (in Zibo, about 15 yuan each, or $3.00 Canadian depending on how much food you selected) and your tray is passed back to the kitchen. You will see your ingredients again in less than five minutes, swimming in a big bowl of spicy salty broth, with a few peanuts tossed in for good measure.  (You can ask for less spice, or less salt, or hold the peanuts, of course.) Ma la tang is traditionally very spicy, however, as you can see in the picture below. You tackle your meal with both a spoon and chopsticks -- pick out the little dumplings and the vegetables and taste as much of the broth as you want. While our son Gus was visiting us, we brought him for the ma la tang experience, too

There is another version of ma la tang that I've seen around town, sold by street vendors, but haven't tried. In this version, skewers of vegetables, tofu and dubious meat sit around in broth. You just buy skewers of whatever you want and take it away in a bowl of the broth. I haven't tried this because at least with the soup version, everything is brought to a boil before serving. 

So here's to the winter solstice, warm bowls of soup and dumplings and all food-related traditions. We're looking forward to our Christmas activities here in China. More to come.