Jiǎozi

饺子

jiǎozi

Boiled, steamed, fried, in soup, at home, at a restaurant, on the street, meat, vegetables, eggs, cabbage - doesn't matter, we love them all! This post is dedicated to the new love of our life - jiǎozi. Call them what you want - jiǎozi, dumplings, pot stickers - these little buggers are delicious and incredibly addicting!

I didn't really eat a lot of jiǎozi when I lived in China before, but over the course of the last four (and a half!) months we have eaten more than we can count. Jiǎozi are super common on the street and are pretty easy to pick up anywhere. Near our apartment we'll often stop by and pick up 12 jiǎozi for 5 RMB - about $0.75 - and either stay and eat them out of a steaming tray (like pictured above) or get them to-go out of a plastic bag with a pair of chopsticks. One of our favorite restaurants here is the Bao Yuan Jiaozi House. They serve a variety of fillings in colored wrappers so you can keep track of which filling is which after you've ordered a bunch of different kinds. And then of course, there's the pan-fried. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. They're yummy at home and delectable here. Oh, and we can't forget, the black vinegar, chopped red peppers, green onions, and/or cilantro to dip them in before devouring. Holy crap. Lately we've been buying jiǎozi in the freezer section at the grocery store and either steaming, boiling, or frying them here at home. Jiǎozi are especially popular right now because they are a traditional food for Chinese New Year, which is fast approaching (January 23rd). Commonly, families will begin making their jiǎozi on New Year's Eve and eat them through the night as the celebrate together.

Given that we love them so much, and that Chinese New Year is coming, I figured that at some point we would need to learn how to make 'em! 5 of our students came over last night and put their mother and grandmother's training to good use - they did them very proud. If you've ever done this with Chinese people before you know that it is such a blast! We all worked together to stuff and fold them and has soon as the finished plate hit the table they disappeared! Wei Xiaozhe, May, Han Liyun, Edward, and Zhang Zijin all came over and showed Alex and I how it was done. Washing, chopping, chopping, chopping, mixing, kneading, waiting, rolling, stuffing, pinching, drying, boiling, straining, and DEVOURING!

One thing (among others) that we learned last night is that different provinces or areas of China have different ways of folding/forming their dumplings. All of our students are from different provinces so they each showed us their special technique - that was really fun. Alex's technique was a little thing we liked to call, "the burrito fold" or the ever-popular "star-ship enterprise." One of our students, Zhang Zijin, is from Hainan province which is one of the southern-most areas of China. He folded his jiǎozi and I was so surprised because it looked exactly like a fortune cookie! Look!

Now I Googled it, and the origin of fortune cookies is unknown - besides the fact that mainland China had virtually nothing to do with it and that they are only an American symbol of Asia. There are a lot of theories on where fortune cookies came from but if I could also submit my theory to the pile...it would have something to do with the jiǎozi from southern China.

When all was said and done we had made a giant, floury mess and had eaten about 130 dumplings! Alex and I are still recovering from the jiǎozi fest, but it was definitely worth it. We're happy we now know how it's done and look forward to perfecting the art when we try them again in the future!