English introduction of ancient food in China.

Jiaoziji? Ozi (Chinese transliteration), gyza (Japanese transliteration) or pot sticker is a kind of China jiaozi, which is very popular in China, Japan and outside East Asia, especially in North America.

Jiaozi is usually wrapped with meat and/or vegetable stuffing into a thin dough, and then sealed by pressing or curling the edges together. Jiaozi should not be confused with wonton: jiaozi's skin is thicker and chewier, and its shape is flatter and flatter, like a double dish (similar in shape to wonton), usually eaten with soy sauce-vinegar dipping sauce (and/or Chili sauce); The wonton skin is thin and spherical, and it is usually eaten in broth. The dough of jiaozi and wonton skin is also composed of different ingredients.

In Korean cuisine, jiaozi with stuffing is called mandu. Although some variants are similar to China's jiaozi or Japanese jiaozi in stuffing, shape and texture, South Korean mandu is more like Mongolian buuz or Turkish mant? .

tangyuan

Tangyuan is a traditional food for the Lantern Festival. Small dumplings are usually made of glutinous rice flour.

We call these balls Yuanxiao or Tangyuan. Obviously, they get their names from the festival itself. Made of sticky rice flour and filled with sweet stuffing, it is round in shape and symbolizes family unity, integrity and happiness.

The fillings in jiaozi or Yuanxiao are sweet and salty. The sweet stuffing is made of sugar, walnut, sesame, osmanthus fragrans, rose petals, dried tangerine peel, red bean paste or jujube paste. A single ingredient or any combination can be used as stuffing. Salty stuffing is minced meat, vegetables or a mixture of the two.

The methods of making Yuanxiao are also different in northern and southern China. The common practice in southern provinces is to knead rice noodles into balls, dig a hole, put in stuffing, then close the hole and roll jiaozi flat with both hands. In northern China, sweet or non-meat stuffing is the usual ingredient. The stuffing is pressed into a hard core, gently immersed in water, and then rolled in a flat basket filled with dried glutinous rice flour. One layer of flour sticks to the stuffing, then it is immersed in water again and rolled in the rice flour for the second time. In this way, it's like snowballing until jiaozi reaches the ideal size.

Zongzi Zongzi

Zongzi is a traditional festival food in the Dragon Boat Festival celebrations.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, people will eat a glutinous rice pudding called Zongzi to symbolize the rice sacrifice for Qu. Ingredients such as beans, lotus seeds and chestnuts, pig fat and golden yolk of salted duck eggs are often added to glutinous rice. The pudding is then wrapped in bamboo leaves, tied with a kind of raffia leaves and boiled in salt water for several hours.