In the north of China, where people are serious about things made of wheat flour, jiao zi come in all sorts of different flavors, are wonderfully thin-skinned, and (everyone agrees) just much better . . . than our southern China imitations. Here it's all standard pork-and-green-onions, mainly, but such a TRADITIONAL spring festival food that EVERY SINGLE person and family must must must eat jiaozi on the eve of new year. It represents union and unity for the family . . . especially if you sit around jovially wrapping them together.
What I hadn't thought about before this year, was all the wrappers that get made and sold in the noodle shops on THAT ONE DAY. There are people who make the simple (flour and water) dough at home, roll it into logs, pinch off small pieces, roll those into neat circles - homemade jiao zi wrappers . . . but A LOT of people will be buying the wrappers pre-made.
The shop across from the bakery was already going full-force at 7 pm on the 29th. They had four people working together - rolling out sheets, cutting, packing, feeding scraps of dough back into a machine that tore them up, and then another to start the process all over again.
When I left the bakery after 11 pm I stopped by this little noodle shop and asked if I could take some pictures. I asked them how long they'd work that night. They said they'd be there 'til daybreak.
This machine rolls out sheets and sheets of dough:
The sheets are stacked up maybe 20 thick or so, and he uses a can-shaped metal cutter to slice down through them for a pile of perfect circle wrappers.
3 comments:
Is a momo the same thing? I had one once with soybeans and green onions,made by a Tibetan family in Nepal. They were superb.
I think there is a recipe for those in Extending the Table. I've never had the real thing, but I did make them with my mentor in high school, and they are delicious!
Hosanna - looks like, yes, the momo is a Tibetan version of the jiaozi (I looked it up)
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