Potstickers

I have strong memories of eating potstickers as a kid when I grew up in Malaysia. My family always enjoy devouring potstickers in a well known coffee shop or at a notable Dim Sum restaurant on Sundays. My mother sometimes complains about how oily the potstickers are, yet her comment does not spoil my mood. The delicious thought of savouring those freshly made steamed potstickers, dipped with spicy soy sauce transcends my mother's complain. I could not imagine a Sunday without a plate of those addictive potstickers.

As I grew up, I discovered that potstickers are famous around the world. Different countries named potstickers in their own language. In America, its also known as fried pork dumplings or Chinese boiled dumplings; in Korea,mandu for Korean potstickers and notwithstanding gyoza for Japanese potstickers. Subsequently, different names lead to different ways of making the potstickers. 

I had my first experience of making a Japanese gyoza with my mother in law. I realized that the Japanese have gyozas as a meal rather than as a side dish. The family will make a bunch of gyozas up to 70pieces at least, steamed them and have them for dinner, dipped with chili soy sauce. Sometimes, my brother in law also dips the potstickers with mustard. Its quite a funny sight.

I found an internet article posted on San Francisco Chronicle explaining the legend of the origin of potstickers. According to the article, an aged chef who served the royal family left a pot of dumplings on the stove for too long and discovered the bottoms were burned. Afraid of being punished, the horrified chef consulted his smart son. Albeit the burns, the son presented the burned dumplings to the emperor and were asked why about the burns. The son ingeniously replied,'This is a new recipe called the potstickers.' Blessed the chef and the son, they were saved and praised as the emperor happily consumed the burned and crunchy 'potstickers'. 

Another account also ties the Chinese emperor closely to the potsticker origins, but with a variation on the story. Legend has is that the potstickers were originated from the Ming Dynasty. At those time, an emperor would usually go on a road trip in disguise and stop at any stalls for food or water. That day, when the emperor was travelling, his itinerary managed to get to the ears of a famous shop serving boiled Chinese dumplings. Having a hunch that the emperor is going to stop at his famous shop for a boiled Chinese dumpling, the chef decided to prepare the dumplings ahead of time. Unfortunately, as he waited and waited, the emperor did not turn up. Just as he was feeling disappointed, the emperor turned up, half a day late. 

Completely taken by surprise, he began to worry about the cold dumplings. A sudden idea came to his mind, he could fried the dumplings on a pan while making sure that the bottom parts were slightly burn to ensure cripiness. Upon tasting the burned dumplings, the emperor was delighted, amazed by the fragrant and taste of the fillings as it was both crispy on the top and soft on the botton - all at once! Given the spur of moment, the chef could not think of the name of this new invention when the emperor asked him. Therefore, the emperor had suggested the potsticker name in Mandarin.

Some prefer vegetables fillings, some meat and seafood fillings, or even more exotic of making it, using turkey, cilantro and sour cream like the Mexicans! Either way, potstickers are more scrumptious and flavorful if it were handmade, some might argued. Those frozen ones are certainly more convenient for those who do not have time to make it from scratch, however, I do recommend anyone of you to give it a try. Its not at all difficult, and its fun!