Traditional Chinese snacks not only taste good but are easy to make
Intense concentration as foreign students make green rice balls together
At a school in Shanghai, the table in a classroom is not filled with books or exam papers. Laid out there are ingredients for a meal and steamers to cook it.
The class at the Citizen Night School is aimed at teaching expats how to make popular Chinese snacks. The instructor is Zhong Jun, former head chef at Jin Jiang and Marriott hotels.
"I've been working with the Citizen Night School for a long time, but this is the first time I am teaching a class for foreigners," Zhong told Shanghai Daily. "The biggest challenge is language, but I can speak simple English words, and we have a volunteer interpreter. If all else fails, I can use body language."
The snacks class is one of 278 offered at the school, which aims to provide cultural experiences for locals at reduced tuition fees. The school opened in 2016.
Zhong's class is held at the Shanghai Mass Art Center every Monday through July 3. Each session is 90 minutes long. Enrollment is open to 25 local expats aged between 18 and 55. Cost for the 12 classes is 860 yuan (US$123): 500 yuan in tuition and 360 yuan for ingredients. The current term has enrolled people from the UK, Russia, Japan and other countries.
Elena Zabolotskaia manages to get the sticky rice dough into a proper texture.
"This class is an elementary one, designed to give the foreigners a sense about these traditional snacks," Zhong said. "Food is culture. We hope through food to encourage more interaction among people from different countries."
He added, "When I was working abroad, I found that Chinese cuisine and snacks were very popular with foreigners. For instance, when I was in Malaysia, people there loved congyoubing, or scallion pancakes, and Chinese pumpkin cake very much."
Wearing a customized chef uniform emblazoned with "Chinese cuisine," Zhong briefed students at the first class about the history of chuandian, or "boat snacks" – a traditional fare in areas immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Boat snacks were served up to ancient officials and nobles while they enjoyed performances on pleasure crafts.
Zhong showed the class five varieties of the snack, including pumpkin-shaped rice balls, baked shortbread and the green rice balls associated with the Qingming Festival. The course will teach them how to make the different variations of rice balls, glutinous rice cake and peach-shaped steamed buns.
One of the students, Elena Zabolotskaia from Russia, praised Zhong as a "sculptor who turns food into art."
Zhong Jun shows Elena Zabolotskaia how to knead dough infused with green sprout juice.
First up on the menu for the students were green rice balls.
"The first time I came to China seven years ago, it was the end of March and the first holiday that I celebrated here was the Qingming Festival," Zabolotskaia told Shanghai Daily. "So that was the first local snack I tasted."
She said she is an experienced cook in Russian and European dishes but had no idea how to make Chinese dishes.
To cater to the palate of foreigners and young students, Zhong made some recipe changes. He replaced lard with butter, and he added a milk-and-egg stuffing for the rice balls for those who don't like the traditional red bean paste.
As the students worked on their rice balls, Zhong moved among them, making suggestions as they formed the dough. In less than half an hour, the students were finishing their snacks with toppings of walnuts and raisins before lining them up in a steamer.
Zabolotskaia said food is an excellent way to learn about a country's cultural heritage. She used to teach at a university and took students on trips around China. The travels showed her the depth and variety of regional Chinese cuisine.
Márcio Costa and his wife add glutinous rice flour to their dough.
Brazilian Márcio Costa and his wife Paula Martins Costa attended the cooking course together. His wife said snacks in China are not as sweet as in Brazil.
"She wants to learn Chinese cooking," Márcio said of his wife. "When we return to Brazil, she can teach it to others."
British student John Wade packed some green rice balls to take them home and share with his wife and two sons. He said he signed up for the course at the suggestion of his wife, who is Chinese.
"My wife is a wonderful cook, much better than me," he said. "It's good to learn more about Chinese cooking."
John Wade compares doughs with a classmate.
Erina Toyama, an Okinawa native who works for a Japanese company in Shanghai, said rice balls remind her of the Japanese dessert called daifuku. She said she learned about the night school from social media.
"I am really interested in learning more about Chinese cooking," she said. "Next term, I might enroll in a class to learn some Shanghai dialect."
Zhong advises his students to try to make the snacks they learn in class at home. If they run into any problems, he's available to help them in the class WeChat group, where the recipes are also posted.
Tao Xin, who is responsible for the school program, told Shanghai Daily that the school is happy with the level of participation by expats.
"If this course goes well, we will open more expat classes related to learning Chinese culture such as singing and dancing," Tao added.
The Brazilian couple proudly show off the rice balls they have made.
