Mixed Protein Dumplings

In pre-1980’s China, the quality of food was such that it was rare for a family to be able to eat meat dumplings such as mixed protein dumplings. With the economic growth of the modern era, however, there is now no end to the delicious foods that are served at the dinner table each day. Yet dumplings still occupy a special place in many Chinese people’s hearts. So, let’s take a look at some different varieties of mixed protein dumplings.

How were dumplings invented?

Legend has it that dumplings were invented by a miracle doctor named Zhang Zhongjing. As the story goes, a terribly cold winter at the time was inflicting many people with frostbitten ears. Zhang Zhongjing instructed one of his disciples to construct a cauldron at the Dongguan residential district in Nanyang. In this cauldron, he was to boil lamb, hot pepper, and cold-expelling medicinal herbs. Once cooked, he was to scoop out the ingredients, chop them up, and then wrap them up in dough to look like “delicate ears”. These would then be boiled to make “cold-expelling delicate ear decoction”. With two of these “delicate ears” and a bowl of decoction, those who consumed the remedy would feel their blood invigorate, their ears warm, the cold leave their bodies, and their frostbitten ears quickly returned to normal. 1,700 years later, this tradition continues, and even to this day people still eat dumplings on Winter Solstice.