Knife Skills

Sunday afternoon was spent with the future in-laws learning how to make dumplings. This is a very dangerous thing, given my proclivity towards dinners made solely of dumplings and ramen.

At least now I can save money by making my own.

But seriously, I learned a lot more than just how to make dumplings.  I also learned that I am mostly inept at using a Chinese knife. I figured this out during the hand chopgrinding* of the pork. This, the first task of the dumpling making (after prepping and chopping all the non-salmonella ingredients, that is), was proof enough.  It was at this point that the future father-in-law mentioned that I should improve the way I wield a knife. I should, instead, cut like "driving like highways in America."

Which could mean dangerously fast.  Or it could mean with a gliding forward motion.  Hon's dad does both.  Apparently very few highways that Hon's dad has seen move as easily and as straight as ours do.  I was cutting mostly up and down.  There is no power in that, so it seems.

The summary of today?  My future father-in-law will best me in knife skills for the rest of my life.

*to chopgrind meat is to take a cut of meat and chopping it with a Chinese knife (close to a butcher's knife in shape, but not quite so) until it becomes "ground".