Think about Asian dumpling culture

Jiǎo zi(餃子), China 

Let's think about Asian Dumpling cultures. Dumplings are called jiǎo zi in Chinese. For making dumpling dough, we add boiled water to flour and mix well until the flour absorbs all water. After that, you coat every side of dough with starch, wrap pork and vegetables around the dough, and then add them to boiled water.

Jiǎo zi is written (餃子) in Chinese characters. On the other hand, "Gyōza" means "dumpling" in Japanese. Japanese also uses the same characters as the Chinese ones even though the way of pronuncing it is different from the original Chinese way. Since all Japanese people who don't understand Mandarin can communicate with Chinese by their characters, they catch the basic meaning of cuisine on the menu when they order something from the waiter at the restaurant. But they are surprised at the dumplings which the waiter serves them because these aren't grilled dumplings! Basically, Chinese jiǎo zi indicate boiled dumplings like above.

鍋貼(guō tiē) Grilled Dumpings,
China  

Of course, Chinese dishes have grilled dumplings, but the name of the cuisine is "Guo tie" with another character. This picture on right side is Guo tie but it's not grilled as much as Gyōza in Japan. Please let me explain the reason why most Japanese people mistake boiled dumplings for grilled ones. Boiled dumplings are called "Sui Gyōza" in Japanese and "Sui" means boiled water.

만두(mandu), Deep Fried Kimchi Dumpling,
South Korea 

Koran Kimchi is inside of deep fried drmplings, which is called "Mandu" in Korea. They also wrap Korean glass noodles in the dough of dumplings. In South Korea, white rice is regarded as a staple food. They eat everything with white rice, like Japanese people. Spicy Kimchi is a specialty of Korean cuisine. They have many kinds of Kimchi and of course, they eat it with white rice.

The most remarkable thing about dumplings is that the way to wrap a pork in dough is different from the Chinese original one when they make dumplings. In South Korea, since they make a round shape of dough when wrapping ground pork, Kimchi, and sometimes glass noodles, Mandu has sometimes a round shape. Let's arrange the differences between the way of wrapping ground pork on the table below.

समोसा, سموسہ ,Samosa, India, Nepal  

In India, they wrap potatoes, vegetables, chicken in dough and fry it in oil. Samosas may take different forms, including triangular, cone. They dip it in green chili sauce like in the picture above when eating it.

пельмени, Pelimeni, Russia 

For long time, all generations of Russians and former Soviet union have cooked themselves, this dish at home. Please dip it into the cheese sauce when you eat it. This is a Russian dumpling of minced pork or beef wrapped in thin pasta dough.

蝦餃(Xiā jiǎo) Shrimp steamed dumpling,
Canton(Guang Dong)  

Shrimp steamed dumpling in small steamer baskets is one of the Dim Sum and its wrapper (dough) is made of rice paper. Dim sum is called Diǎn xīn(点心) in Chinese and actually dim sum comes from Cantonese direct pronunciation. Diǎn xīn(点心) means light food that covers a wide range from cake to dumplings.

But dim sum often indicates food served in small steamer baskets such as Xiu Mai, shrimp dumplings, xiao long bao. I've arranged the table about pronunciation.

character	Cantonese	Mandarine	Japanese
點心 点心	dim sum	Diǎn xīn	ten shin
小籠包	siu2lung4baau1.	xiǎo lóng bāo	sho lon po

烧卖, Shāomài, Cantonese  

S hāomài is a one of Chinese dim sum, which steam minced pork meat wrapped by wheat flour dough. Dim sum often indicates food served in small steamer baskets. Shāomài is steamed pork dumpling but it's quite different from Vietnamese one.

Xíu Mại, Vietnam  

S hāomài is steamed pork dumpling but it's quite different from Vietnamese one. In Vietnam, they don't wrap minced pork meat on wheat flour dough.

Country	Character	Pronunciation
English	steamed pork dumpling
Mandarine	烧卖	Shāomài
Vietenamese	Xíu Mại
Korean	슈마이	syumai
Japanese	焼売	Shūmai

Há cảo, Vietnamese steamed dumpling,
Vietnam  

This cuisine Há cảo as in the picture above comes from Cantonese dimsum. They wrap the pork in dough that is made of rice paper and steam it. Ha Cao is often sold in a street or other public place.

餃子(Gyōza), Grilled Dumplings with white rice,
Japan  

Let's think about Japanese dumplings next. As shown in the above table, they grill dough to make dumplings which are called Gyōza. Gyōza, like picture above, is grilled more than Guo Tie. We usually mix soy sauce with vinegar and chili oil to make the sauce for dumplings before eating it. Utsunomiya city is famous for Gyōza. Please confirm this city on Google Maps. It is located in the Kanto region.

Since the main diet in Japan is rice, they have a custom to eat it with white rice after dipping dumplings in soy sauce. The biggest difference between Western cuisine style and Asian style would be sharing side dishes.

揚げ餃子(Age Gyōza) Japan,
炸饺子(Zhá jiǎo zi) Deep Fried dumplings, China
    

This picture on left side is a Deep Fried dumpling in a Japanese restaurant. In Chinese, a Deep Fried dumpling is called "Zhá jiǎo zi(炸饺子)." In Japanese, they call it "Age Gyōza." Please be careful not to confuse spring rolls with Deep Fried dumplings. The most remarkable thing about dumplings is that the way to wrap ground pork is different from the Chinese orinal one. In Chinese original style, the dough of the dumpling is folded symmetrically when wrapping the ground pork, however, in Japanese style they make pleats in the dough. Furthermore, in South Korea, they make a round shape of dough when wrapping ground pork, Kimchi, and sometimes glass noodles.