Dumplings are a traditional Chinese specialty, also known as dumplings. It is a staple food and local snack in northern China, as well as a New Year's festival food. There is a folk song that says, "Eat dumplings to celebrate the New Year." Dumplings are made with cold water and flour, rolled into a round skin that is slightly thicker in the center and thinner around the periphery, wrapped around the filling, pinched into a crescent shape or an angle shape, and then boiled in boiling water until the dumplings float to the surface. The dumpling skin can also be made of hot noodles, crispy noodles or rice flour; the filling can be meat or vegetarian, sweet or salty; the maturation method can also be used for steaming, branding, pan-frying and deep-frying, etc. Meat fillings include sanshen, shrimp, crab roe, sea cucumber, fish, chicken, pork, beef, mutton and so on, and the vegetarian fillings are divided into assorted vegetarian fillings, ordinary vegetarian fillings and so on. Characterized by thin skin filling tender, delicious flavor, unique shape, never get tired of eating.

There is a custom in the north of China, on New Year's Day, to welcome friends and relatives, always pack a dumpling to eat. Especially on the first day of the New Year, the whole family to pay tribute to the New Year, will be sitting around together, while wrapping dumplings and chatting, mountains and seas, everything to talk about, from time to time to bring laughter, great fun." Dumplings are everyone's favorite, and the New Year's meal is especially fragrant. When people eat this slippery taste of delicious water cakes, if then know some of its origin, who can not marvel at the ancient civilization of our long history of pasta Qi Yuan it!

The Origin of Dumplings

Dumplings originated from the ancient dish of jiaozi (角子). As early as in the Three Kingdoms period, this food was mentioned in the book "Guangya" written by Zhang Yi of Wei. According to the evidence: it is from the North and South Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty period of the "supine crescent-shaped wontons". And the Southern Song Dynasty "dry meat double under the corner of the" development, has a history of 1,400 years ago. The Qing Dynasty historical records say; 'New Year's Day at the time of the child, the food with away, such as eating flatbread, the name of the corner of the child, to take the meaning of its more years of the child." Also said: "the first day of every year, rich or poor, no matter how rich or poor, all do dumplings with white flour to eat, known as boiled biscuits and cakes, the whole country is the same, no different also. Wealthy families, secretly to the gold and silver ingot hidden in the meat and potatoes, in order to divine the smooth, family members eaters, the end of the year is very lucky." This means that people eat dumplings on New Year's Day, symbolizing good luck, to show that the old and welcome the new. Recent Xu Ke compiled the "Qing Barnyard Banknotes" said: "in the filling, or called the powder angle - and steamed food fried food can be boiled in water and soup is called dumplings." For thousands of years, dumplings have been a favorite food for New Year's celebrations, and have been passed down from one generation to the next.

The Story of Dumplings

Dumplings were originally called "Jiao Er", which was first invented by Zhang Zhongjing, the sage of Chinese medicine. The story of how he made a soup that dispelled the cold has been passed down in folklore to this day.

The end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was a time of serious disasters and many people suffered from diseases. In Nanyang, there was a famous doctor named Zhang Ji, the word Zhongjing, since childhood, study hard medical books, learn from the best, become the founder of Chinese medicine. Zhang Zhongjing was not only a brilliant doctor, who could cure all kinds of illnesses, but also had a noble medical ethics. He treated both the poor and the rich seriously, and saved countless lives.

When Zhang Zhongjing was an official in Changsha, he often treated the people. One year, when the local plague was prevalent, he set up a cauldron at the entrance of the government office and saved people's lives by giving them medicine, which was y loved by the people of Changsha. After Zhang Zhongjing returned home from Changsha, he walked to the bank of Baihe River in his hometown and saw many poor people suffering from hunger and cold, and their ears were frozen. He was so upset that he was determined to save them. When Zhang Zhongjing returned home, there were so many people seeking medical treatment that he was very busy, but he always remembered those poor people with frozen ears in his heart. He followed the example of Changsha, and asked his disciples to set up a medical hut and a cauldron in a vacant lot in Dongguan, Nanyang, and opened the hut on the day of the winter solstice, giving medicine to the poor people to cure their wounds.

Zhang Zhongjing's medicine was called "Cold-removing Jiao Er Tang", which was made with mutton, chili peppers and some cold-removing herbs boiled in a pot, and then fished them out and chopped them up, wrapped them in dough to form ear-shaped "Jiao Er", and then gave them to patients who begged for medicine after they were cooked. The patients who begged for medicine were given two jiao ears per person and one bowl. Each person was given two ears and a bowl of soup. After people ate the soup to get rid of cold, their bodies became hot, their blood flowed smoothly, and their ears became warm. After eating it for some time, the patients' rotten ears were cured.

Zhang Zhongjing She Medicine lasted until the 30th day of the New Year. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, people celebrated the New Year as well as the recovery of the rotten ears by making New Year's food in the form of jiaojiaoyu and eating it on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. People called this food "dumpling ear", "dumplings" or partial food and ate it on the winter solstice and the first day of the new year to commemorate the day when Zhang Zhongjing opened the shed and cured the patients.

Zhang Zhongjing was born nearly 1,800 years ago, but the story of how he made the "Cold-removing Dumpling Ear Soup" has been widely circulated among the people. Every winter solstice and the first day of the Lunar New Year, people eat dumplings, still remembering the kindness of Zhang Zhongjing. Today, we don't need to use jiao ear to cure frozen ears, but dumplings have become the most common and favorite food.

Dumplings around

Dumplings in its long development process, a variety of names, the old days there is a "prison pill," "flat food," "dumpling bait," "powder horn" and so on. Tang Dynasty called dumplings "soup in the prison pill"; Yuan Dynasty called "time Luojiao Er"; the end of the Ming Dynasty called "powder angle"; the Qing Dynasty called "flat food" -- Now, the north and south of the dumplings are not the same name. North people call "dumplings", but many areas in the South called "wonton". There are many famous dumplings, such as Guangdong shrimp dumplings made of clarified flour, Shanghai pot-sticker dumplings, Yangzhou steamed dumplings with crab roe, Shandong small dumplings in high soup, the old side of the Northeast dumplings, Sichuan Zhongshui Dumplings and so on, all of which are popular varieties. Xi'an has also created a dumpling feast, where dozens of dumplings of different shapes and fillings are used to entertain guests. There are many historical records and folklore about the origin of dumplings.