This traditional and famous Huai’an dish is also called “small wonton”. It was created by the chef Huang Zikui at Huai’an Zhenfengyuan Restaurant back in the Guangxu period of Qing dynasty. The dumplings are cooked with soup, or fried, or hot-flavored. Details matter when cooking the dish. Over 600 dumpling wraps can be made from every 500g of flour. The wraps are as thin as bamboo membrane, and you can see through it to read the words on the paper beneath it. If you burn it will fire, it will turn into flames. When you eat the dumpling, you don’t even feel the wrap. The stuffing is abundant, tender, and finely made, not oily at all. Together with the crispy fried rice, the wonton naturally tastes amazing. Specifically, to make this stuffing, you need to beat the meat into puree with an iron rod, then add egg white, green onion and ginger and other seasonings. Boil the water in the pot and pour the newly made raw dumplings in. Softly push it to prevent sticking. When the water is boiling, pour some cold-water in. When the water is boiling again and the dumplings float to the top, take them out and put into bowls. Dress with pepper, green garlic, and sesame oil, then you have the soup dumplings. For fried dumplings, you fry them in the oil till they turn gold before sizzling with pepper salt. As for hot-flavored dumplings, use the spider to hit off the surrounding wraps of the boiled Huai’an dumplings. When put into the plates, they look at the heads of sparrow. Add some soy sauce, minced garlic, pepper, and sesame oil, mix well to enjoy this dish. In 2014, it earned the title of “Symbolic Delicacy of Jiangsu”, and in 2016, it has been selected as the first batch of “China Gold Medal Tourist Snacks”.
