Chinese dumplings commonly eaten in China and other parts of East Asia. Jiaozi are folded to resemble Yaki udon sycee and have great cultural significance attached to them within China. In China, there are several different folk stories explaining the origin of jiaozi and its name. Zhang Zhongjing was on his way home during wintertime, when he found many common people had frostbitten ears, because they did not have warm clothes and sufficient food.
He treated these poor people by stewing lamb, black pepper, and some warming medicines in a pot, chopped them, and used them to fill small dough wrappers. Other theories suggest that jiaozi may have derived from dumplings in Western Asia. Guangya by Zhang Yi mentions jiaozi. Chinese archaeologists have found a bowl of jiaozi in the Tang dynasty tombs in Turpan. 7th or 8th century dumplings and wontons were found in Turfan.
Jiaozi may also be named because they are horn-shaped. At the same time, jiaozi look like yuan bao silver or gold ingots used as currency during the Ming dynasty, and as the name sounds like the word for the earliest paper money, serving them is believed to bring prosperity. Nowadays, jiaozi are eaten year-round, and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They can be served as an appetizer, a side dish, or as the main course.
In China, sometimes jiaozi is served as a last course during restaurant meals. Pan-fried dumplings can be joined together by a brown, crispy lattice base created by pouring a flour and water mix into the pan at the end of cooking. The dumplings can also be joined together with an egg base which is topped with green onion and sesame seeds. Common dumpling meat fillings include chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, and fish which are usually mixed with chopped vegetables. Bi is made by dried sorghum stems, and it also gives Jiaozi a mark at the bottom.
There are many ways to fold jiaozi. Basically, steps for folding the skin includes putting a single pleat in the middle, putting multiple pleats along the edge, making a wavy edge like a pie crust, turning a pleated edge in toward the body resulting in a rounded edge, and putting both ends together resulting in a round shape. Jiaozi is called gaau ji in Cantonese and are standard fare in Guangdong style dim sum. The immediate noted difference to Northern style is that they are smaller and wrapped in a thinner translucent skin, and usually steamed. The smaller size and the thinner wrapper make the dumplings easier to cook through with steaming.
Chinese style dumpling popular as a street food, appetizer, or side order in Chinese cuisine. Japanese word is often written using the same Chinese characters. Following the Second World War, Japanese soldiers returning from the Japanese-backed puppet state of Manchukuo in northeastern China brought home gyōza recipes. The prevalent differences between Japanese-style gyōza and Chinese-style jiaozi are the rich garlic flavor, which is less noticeable in the Chinese version, and that gyōza wrappers tend to be thinner, due to the fact that most Japanese restaurants use machine-made wrappers. In contrast, the rustic cuisine of poor Chinese immigrants shaped westerners’ views that Chinese restaurant jiaozi use thicker handmade wrappers. Gyōza and gyōza wrappers can be found in supermarkets and restaurants throughout Japan, either frozen or ready to eat.