Chinese Cooking workshop

This week self-professed "Chinese cooking nerd" Ryoko Takahashi completed her month-long series of Thursday evening Chinese cooking classes. The class was one of the Winter Workshops most popular, with a waiting list half a mile long. Not surprisingly, everyone had a fantastic time and learnt (and ate) more than they had expected. Here are some photos from the first class of the series. Students were making roubing - a pork mince, sesame oil, and spring onion filled folded bread. This is a very common street food in China that you are very unlikely to find in any restaurant in New Zealand. Thank you Ryoko for this very interesting and educational introduction into the heart of "real" Chinese food.

Ryoko demonstrating the technique

Rolling out the dough

Filling the dough

Folded and sealed

Frying it up

Success!

Time for a feast!

 Ryoko also made congee (a kind of porridge made from millet and white lima beans) to eat with the roubing. Also on the table was freshly brewed chamomile and goji berry tea, and a "mystery ingredient" from Ryoko's pantry, which turned out to be fermented bean curd - an acquired taste!

Nuno Scarf workshops

This week tutor Shirley Wallace held two Nuno scarf making workshops for the Winter Workshops. The Nuno scarf technique was invented by a fabric artist in Australia who wanted to be able to wear felted wool scarves, but found the climate too hot. The artist then developed this technique which melds silk with merino to create a wonderfully light, soft, and beautiful scarf. Here are some photos from these very successful workshops.

Getting started. Hank of hand dyed wool and length of silk.

Examples of tutor Shirley Wallace's nuno scarves.

Shirley Wallace describing the technique at the beginning of the workshop.

The finished result drying in the sun.

At the end of Friday's class, there was some time left to make small felted balls. These can be used to make earrings, necklaces, or as embellishments for other projects.

Wednesday's group modeling their scarves.