Fried Wontons (Dumplings)-"Cat's Ears"; 云吞,抄手,猫耳朵

Each region of China has its own wonton - dumpling variation - referred to as 馄饨 (hun tun, Mandarin) in Northern China e.g. Beijing; 云吞 (yun tun, Mandarin) in Guandong; 抄手 (chao shou) in Sichuan.


And fried wontons/dumplings are sometimes known as 猫耳朵 - Cat's Ears!!! Because they simply look like IT.

I usually enjoy boiled wontons (wonton-wrapping video here) since I prefer not to fry them (and do not do much frying at home). However, these were courtesy from my friend (more on "Cat's Ears"at end of post), and I do not reject fried goodness.

Do you think they are gyozas (pan-fried dumplings) or simply resemble gyozas? But gyozas tend to be regularly-shaped vs these...which are not so.

Why Cat's Ears? 为何称它猫耳朵？
My friend told me that her aunt in Shanghai. China, used to boil a huge pot of wontons (dumplings) - . consume part of the dumplings for a meal and keep the leftover boiled (cooked) dumplings for another meal. These leftover boiled (cooked) dumplings would not be re-boiled but removed from the soup broth during the initial cooking, left to cool at room temperature and lightly fried for the next meal. When cooled to room temperature, these wontons are so much easier to fry - without sticking to the pan; and since the filling has already been cooked, the frying is to solely crisp up and "wrinkle up" the skin, hence the resemblance to cat's ears.


After frying is done, the charred pleats on the rounded-wontons really do look like the ears of a kitty!


Tag: fried wontons, boiled wontons, dumplings

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