Chinese Dumplings(Jiaozi)-The Most Delicious of All Food
2 min readThe Chinese people’s affection for Chinese dumplings(jiaozi) cannot be described with words, L so they simply sum up:”Chinese dumplings are the most delicious of all food.”
It is circulated among the people that jiaozi was invented by Zhang Zhongjing, the “Medicine Saint”during the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220). Reportedly, Zhang Zhongjing noticed that many people’s ears were frostbitten when he returned to his hometown one winter. He chopped up hot food such as mutton and rolled them up into ear-shaped forms withwheat flour wrappings using both hands. After boiling the ear-shaped food, he distributed it with boiled water to his fellow villagers. After the villagers, who were suffering with frostbitten ears, had eaten this preparation from the day of Winter Solstice to New Year’s Eve, they had fully recovered from their illness. In the beginning, people called this food jiao’ er, and later the name jiao’ er slowly became jiaozi.
Today, jiaozi is still a must for Spring Festival in most parts of north China, and making jiaozi a very importantpart of celebrating New Year’s Eve for every family. The whole family, after washing their hands, sit in around the table and roll up their sleeves, wrapping up all their expectations for the coming new year in ear-shaped jiaozi, all the while chatting and laughing. Some families stillobserve the age-old custom of randomly putting a candy, a peanut and a coin into the jiaozi. It is said that whoever eats the jiaozi with the candy will lead a happy life in the coming new year, whoever eats the jiaozi with the peanut will have good wealth and a long life, and whoever eats the jiaozi with the coin will be lucky in money matters.
The jiaozi filling is usually a mixture of meat andvegetables and the manner of eating jiaozi have few differences; vinegar is the basic sauce used to accompany jiaozi. The northerners prefer to have Laba vinegar andLaba garlic during Spring Festival. When eating jiaozi, drinkers also love to have a cup of liquor, which best illustrates the saying,”If one has jiaozi to go with liquor, the more he drinks, the more well-off he will be.”
Nowadays, having already broken down traditional barriers, jiaozi filling can also include mountain delicacies and seafood delights, as well as seasonal and dried food.
Jiaozi can be steamed, boiled, fried or deep-fried or baked, and it can be salty, sweet, hot or sour and can be made into shapes so exquisite, such as butterflies, goldfish, Chinese mandarin ducks and rabbits, that people do not have the heart to eat them.
To understand Chinese food, first try to make jiaozi yourself.
