Liang Shiqiu on jiaozi: I have eaten the lowest jiaozi and the highest exquisite jiaozi. ...

"Delicious but jiaozi, comfortable but backward. This is a common saying in northern rural areas. People in Beiping don't talk about this. Because people in Beiping used to say "baked wheat cake" instead of jiaozi, which may be Manchu. I didn't know the sesame seed cake was jiaozi until I was fourteen.

Northerners, regardless of rank, eat jiaozi as a meal. In Ding's restaurant, there is sufficient manpower and financial resources. Eating jiaozi is not the same thing. If a well-off family wants to buy jiaozi a meal, it is necessary to mobilize the whole family, old and young, to mix noodles, peel, chop stuffing, knead noodles and cook, which is busy but interesting. It is natural to eat jiaozi at the end of the year. Some people have a big appetite, and they can eat jiaozi from the first day to the fifteenth day. Of course, it's not without begging for mercy after dinner. As for the countryside, it is not easy to eat jiaozi. Perhaps only when menstruation returned to her parents' home can she have this feat.

Jiaozi has different colors. I have eaten the lowest jiaozi. During the Anti-Japanese War, I was in Baoji, Shaanxi on New Year's Eve, and the hotel closed for the New Year. I wandered in the street and saw a straw shed beside the railway in the distance. The lights were bright and steaming, so I rushed over. It turned out to be a dumpling shop. I ordered twenty jiaozi stuffed with leeks, and the shopkeeper gave me a handful of garlic cloves with skin and a bowl of hot soup. I ate a sweat and was very satisfied.

I also had a delicious meal in jiaozi. At the banquet of Shunxing Building in Qingdao, I finally served a bowl of jiaozi. Jiaozi is very small, only a few inches long, but the stuffing is yellow croaker and leek. The soup is clear and thick chicken soup with a little chicken oil floating on the surface. Everyone is full of food and drink, and can't help but be tempted, but they still eat everything and applaud again and again.

Preferably the first side of jiaozi. There is too much alkali in the ready-made dumpling skin in the shop, which is slippery when cooked and lacks toughness when bitten. So be sure to mix your own noodles, be moderate in hardness and keep awake for a while. Cover with a wet cloth to prevent cracking. Leather is not difficult, it is cooked after a long period of practice, with a slightly thicker center and a slightly thinner edge. Be sure to pinch it with your fingers when you wrap it. In some shops, the man Bao jiaozi, with his fist clenched, boiled one pimple after another, which was useless.

Jiaozi is my favorite stuffing. Some people love shepherd's purse, while others are afraid of fennel. Some people want a thin skin and a big stuffing, preferably a bag of meat, while others are willing to eat more vegetables. A lady was invited to eat jiaozi. She took a bite and shouted. The owner thinks she must have eaten flies, cockroaches or something. She said, "Why, it's full of vegetables!" Young master is embarrassed. Some people think pork and melon stuffing is the best, while others think mutton and cabbage stuffing is authentic. Some people say that leek stuffing is fragrant, others say it stinks, and the mouth of the world is not necessarily the same.

Frozen jiaozi is a last resort, or fresh. It is said that a new machine for jiaozi has been invented, and it has been working, neat and fast, which I have never seen before. I think the best dumpling machine should be-people.

Eat the rest of jiaozi, refrigerate it, and fry it in the oil pan the next day. It's brown and delicious.