Jiăozi (饺子), or pot sticker is a Chinese dumpling, widely popular in China. Jiaozi typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together or by crimping. Jiaozi should not be confused with wonton: jiaozi have a thicker, chewier skin and a flatter, more oblate, double-saucer like shape (similar in shape to ravioli), and are usually eaten with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce (and/or hot chili sauce); while wontons have thinner skin, are sphere-shaped, and are usually served in broth. The dough for the jiaozi and wonton wrapper also consist of different ingredients.
Chinese dumplings (jiaozi) may be divided into various types depending on how they are cooked:
• Boiled dumplings; (shuǐjiǎo-水餃) - "water dumplings"
• Steamed dumplings; (zhēngjiǎo-蒸餃) - "steam-dumpling"
• Shallow fried dumplings (guōtiē - 鍋貼) - "pan stick", "potstickers", "dry-fried dumplings" (jiānjiǎo - 煎餃).
Dumplings, one of the major foods eaten during the Chinese New Year, and year round in the northern provinces. Traditionally, families get together to make jiaozi for the Chinese New Year. In rural areas, the choicest livestock is slaughtered, the meat ground and wrapped into dumplings, and frozen outside with the help of the freezing weather. Then they are boiled and served for the Chinese New Year feast. Dumplings with sweet, rather than savoury fillings are also popular as a Chinese New Year treat.
Cantonese style Chinese dumplings (gaau) are standard fare in dim sum. The immediate noted difference to jiǎozi is that they are smaller and wrapped in a thinner translucent skin, and usually steamed. In other words, these are steamed dumplings.
Jiaozi were so named because they were horn shaped. The Chinese for "horn" is jiǎo (角), and jiaozi was originally written with the Chinese character for "horn", but later it was replaced by a specific character 餃, which has the food radical on the left and the phonetic component jiāo on the right.
Guotie (锅贴; literally "pot stick") is pan-fried jiaozi, also known as potstickers in North America. They are a Northern Chinese style dumpling popular as a street food, appetizer, or side order in Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean cuisines. This dish is sometimes served on a dim sum menu, but may be offered independently. The filling for this dish usually contains pork, cabbage, scallions (spring or green onions), ginger, Chinese rice wine or cooking wine, and sesame seed oil.
Xiǎolóngbāo (小笼包), also known as soup dumpling, is a type of baozi (包子) from eastern China. It is traditionally steamed in small bamboo baskets, known as xiao long, hence the name.
Traditionally, the Xiaolongbao is a dianxin (点心) or snack item. The buns are served hot in the bamboo baskets in which they were steamed, and may be dipped in rice vinegar with ginger slivers.
Xiaolongbao have also become popular as a main dish, it is also commonly served as a yum cha item.
Check out our latest frozen home-made products at our Delis:
a) Jiăozi with corn(饺子 - 猪肉玉米)
b) Jiăozi with garlic chives(饺子 - 猪肉韮菜)
c) Jiăozi with cabbage(饺子 - 猪肉包菜)
d) Xiǎolóngbāo (小笼汤包)
