Yummmmm, gyoza. I first tried gyoza in America at my favorite Japanese restaurant and quickly fell in love with them. Then, they became a regular on the menu of ‘cheap things to eat’ while I studied abroad. My favorite gyoza are from a restaurant called Ohsho, and it wasn’t until I came back to Japan on JET and found the restaurant again in Matsumoto, Nagano that I realized it’s called Osaka Ohsho everywhere else.

Before I go on a tangent about the wonderfulness of Ohsho, I guess I should tell you what gyoza are. They are dumplings filled with pork, cabbage, ginger and other things which are usually cooked in a combination of steaming and pan frying. The one time I tried to make gyoza, that is how I made them. It’s actually kind of a bittersweet memory for me; I made them with Hunter, and even though we’d never done this before, he was much better than me at folding the gyoza into their shape and pinching the ends so they stayed shut… My competitive spirit got in the way, and I eventually gave up and let him do all the folding haha. If I make them again, I’ll be more patient with myself, now that I know what I’m getting myself into 🙂

SO. Ohsho. The pictures below are gyoza from an Ohsho in Tokyo. As you can see, they’re served upside down so you can get a good look at the crispy bottoms, which have been pan fried. Not only are the gyoza delicious, they’re also cheap too! One of my friends told me that on their first trip to Ohsho, they mis-ordered and got like 50 gyoza; luckily they were with friends they could share it with, and it wasn’t too expensive.  Ohsho also sells some wonderful chahan (similar to fried rice) and Chinese food. Whatever you order, it’ll be delicious 🙂