It Can’t Be This Simple – Jodie’s Kitchen – Taipei, Taiwan

We couldn’t come to a foodie country like Taiwan and not acquire some new skills. We spent our last afternoon in Taipei at Jodie’s Kitchen with Jodie, a Taiwanese chef who offers a variety of cooking classes. We signed up for a class that specifically focuses on dumplings, something we love very much but know so little about.

The class was extremely informative and hands on. We started out by making a batch of dough from scratch, which we then used to make four different types of snacks: calzone-like pockets, potsticker dumplings, scallion pancakes, and black sugar sesame pancakes. The key to the perfect dumpling is getting the dough just right. Jodie taught us how to get the dough to its sweet spot, where it becomes perfectly pliable.

Once the dough was ready, the time to create something edible was surprisingly quick and easy. We were snacking on freshly fried pockets and potstickers in no time. Making pancakes was a little more complicated, taking several steps to create something that when cooked turned out flaky and layered, similar to Indian roti. The picture is one of many that we took, in hopes that we’ll be able to replicate it when we’re home.