chinese food for lunch



Up here in the mountains we are pretty starved of any kind of international cuisines and this is something that I personally really miss.  This year, though, I met a lovely new friend called Lori (obviously not her Chinese name), who has certainly filled that little hole in my life! Lori moved to the Victorian high country with her Australian husband and 18 month old son, Oscar, from a remote village in China. She and her husband met by chance on a train in China, where he was studying Chinese. It was love at first sight and they've been together ever since. Now you might think that this move must have been quite a culture shock for Lori, but she is as tough as nails and has adapted to her new home seemingly easily. Lori spends about $200 per month on food and seems to be able to make a magnificent meal out of almost nothing. She buys all of her meat and seafood from the Footscray market and freezes it. She very quickly had a vege garden up and running, with broccoli, chives and radishes now thriving and being used daily in her cooking. In particular, she uses the broccoli leaves, which we usually discard, in almost every dish - and, they are delicious! Lori also makes her own magnificent bread. Every skerrick of food in the house is used in some way, so there is no wastage and, compared to most Australian families, the grocery bill is very small. There's so much that I have learned about life from Lori - it's so good to meet people from other cultures and find out different ways of doing things.

So, today Lori invited a few friends around to her place for lunch, to make and eat wonton soup. We all sat around and rolled the wontons together and then Lori served them in the delicious soup pictured above. Oh my, the taste was sensational and the whole process was just so heartwarming. The children played around us, and then ate the wontons as well. Oscar was especially fond of them.

The wonton soup contained dried pork belly, dried shrimp,dried seaweed, chili, chives and of course, the wontons - the taste was just indescribably good. I do hope that I am lucky enough to enjoy another of Lori's Chinese feasts again before too long. Thank you Lori for a wonderful lunch!