It's always teatime in China. But my favourite version came in the afternoon, sometimes for a late lunch, sometimes just as a welcome chance to escape the city streets and sit down for a while. What I loved most were the beautiful hand-made dumplings....here's a selection. Palest pink-toned shrimp and delicately flavoured vegetable from the big teashop on the edge of the park with the lanterns...
...and pork with leeks and the customary dish of mild vinegar, made fresh to order for us as we sat on the lakeside verandah of the tranquil garden hidden from a traffic-packed crossroads by the Marriott Hotel.
I can't make these, of course, but I did get one photo of them being made in a shop in a relatively quiet old corner of Guangzhou. And I bought some frozen ones for my son's freezer and showed him how to cook them, giving him something else to have at home besides tuna pasta and takeaways. But I do understand - why cook when you can go out to eat so much delicious food so cheaply?
