More About Gyoza!

While I have gotten out of the habit of eating donuts regularly, I've found a new food addiction that is at least slightly healthier to feed. My roommate and I have become connoisseurs of a Chinese food known in Japan as Gyoza(餃子). I have posted about Gyoza before, but today I will go a little more in-depth on the subject. Japanese-style Gyoza are fried while Chinese Gyoza are typically boiled. Wherever we go, we try to find new styles of Gyoza. Recently I tried "Eggplant Gyoza" which turned out to be Gyoza meat stuffed inside an eggplant. It was tasty, but hardly resembled a traditional Gyoza. Pictured here is another Gyoza restaurant in Tokyo whose name translates to "Craftsman of Gyoza." Again, this restaurant's Gyoza were mediocre at best. 

Since returning to Osaka, I've come to appreciate how much better the food is here than in Tokyo. By far the best Gyoza I've had came from a small resturant near my school called TekuTeku, meaning "The sound of many footsteps." I have come to know the owner of TekuTeku very well and I once asked him how he made his Gyoza so tasty. He told me that he had done a lot of research on the internet about Gyoza preparation. This struck me as rather funny that the owner of a restaurant would get their cooking ideas from the internet like everyone else. Though it shouldn't be surprising, I've always imagined that cooks in Japan call upon hundreds of years of tradition in crafting their products. Judging by the taste of the food, however, the TekuTeku way appears to be superior.