If any of you have seen “Crazy Rich Asians” yet, (I’m reading the book) there’s a cute little scene where everyone is essentially taking a break from being sophisticated, high-class society members to gather around the kitchen table and fold up some gyoza. Wasn’t it so adorably cute watching Nick teach Rachel his little pneumonic? “Put the baby in bed, tuck it in, and give it a kiss goodnight.” The cast talk and share some together Here!
The 2018 international gyoza eating competition was just posted today including Joey Chestnut Matt Stonie and Miki Sudo. Watch it get messy HERE!
Or maybe you saw the newest short from Pixar during “Incredibles II” about the Chinese mother and her sweet little dumpling child. We took this as perfect time to reminisce about Jeremy’s time in China and recapture the fun of systematic cooking just the 2 of us. My job was to roll out the dough. Jeremy filled the dough with pork and pinched them closed. 18 is the lucky number of pinches because 9 symbolizes longevity, so twice 9 is twice as good. This is a fantastic way to get kids in the kitchen. I was even remembering making calzones with Mom on my little chair with ricotta and ham. But we can talk about that later. For now, let’s refocus our attention as Jeremy recounts some of his favorite baozi memories from China.
Different parts of China have different grains. The north has more rice focused dishes. South-East China had more noodles. Another part was dumplings. My first time with baozi was the Chinese restaurant style. At the time I liked them and still kind of do, but mostly for novelty. My first time making them was in my sophomore year in ESL. I had a couple of Chinese friends around Chinese New Year. It’s very important, the equivalent of Christmas and our New Year. Everyone goes home. All the major cities are empty. Huge dinner with a number of traditions and things they eat. It’s a time where basically, for family to get together. While I was living up in Potstand, the Chinese New Year started in February during the school year. On a cold snowy night across Clarkson my friends and I traveled to a meeting room filled with all sorts of food for the celebration. I felt like a pelican among sea gulls. It was me and only 1 other American among a flock of Chinese people. We had music, games, not as much drinking, but tons of food including baozi. I remember 1 of the games we played was a baotzi making contest. Who can make the most? We had a bowl of pork and beef filling with boiling water on the side. It was wrapper, filling, seal, water, counting how many we made. Us 2 Americans were on a team together. We tied for first and had a lot of fun.
My second time in China, we were staying with a friend for a week. There I remember a really foggy morning like a ninja movie. We were walking down out to get breakfast for everyone in Chung Doo. (They get up at like 5am, CRAZY!) We saw some bamboo crates stacked at like 5ft 8 every one of them filled with varieties of baozi. Vegetarian, mushroom, beef, egg, pork there was a LOT, ranging from teeny tiny, to big as my face all piping hot. It may be just getting breakfast, but they were memorably good. These could be found anywhere on the street.
Gyoza are boiled, unlike our steamed baozi. They sink and rise a few times. Wontons are sort of like baozi. There are even cream filled ones and Japanese style. Once I went to China for a third time on weekdays we worked noon to 9. On weekends sans class we stayed 8-5 I would usually buy baotzi for breakfast with stewed hard-boiled eggs. The mushroom ones were my favorite. I wish I could have tasted more various baozi.
We even did a sort of Muk-Bang like in Korea with our sushi and baozi. It’s our first time on camera. He was a little stiff, but we’ll get the hang of it all eventually. See the live camera video on our Facebook page. Have you gotten the chance to try and make some of these yourself, or with family or friends? Raina Huang has a record of eating 100 baozi in this video. Tell us in the comments section. We would love to hear some of your stories.