Hugh stumbled out of the bedroom, drawn toward the kitchen by a savory smell that should not have been there.
‘Good morning,’ said a bright voice and he stared into his medium sized cooking pot where a tiny person had just popped its head above the boiling water to greet him. ‘I am Dumpling Dubya the Jiaozi Fairy and I have just made you breakfast.’
Hugh couldn’t think how to reply. He was never very bright in the morning, so he just said, ‘Why are you green?’
‘I’m a qing cai,’ came the answer. ‘Have some dumplings.’
Hugh grabbed a pair of chopsticks and took the first steaming hot dumpling from the bowl now on the small wooden table.
Wait! The vinegar,’ and a small trickling sound accompanied a brown stream of the best jiaozi cu into the bowl. Wonderful!
‘Thanks.’
‘Don’t thank me, we’re friends.’
‘Good.’
Glossary: jiaozi pron.jow zi. Chinese savoury dumplings, delicious parcels of flour batter around a meat, vegetabel or mixed filling, served hot with vinegar.
cu difficult for Westerners to pronounce. The c is a cross between t and s, said at the same time. cu is vinegar.
xing cai pron. x varies from sh to s followed by y, so shing or sying, c as above ai as in tie. Closest to shing tie, a vegetable tasty in dumplings. qing cai (corrected) Q is pronounced ch, as in chip or chook. Thanks for the correction BMW.