‘I love gyoza’
That’s what everyone says about gyoza
I’m Rob, a gyoza otaku. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I’m based in Canberra, but have lived in Indonesia, Vanuatu and Japan. I love gyoza too. Mad for them. I hunt out gyoza wherever I go.
‘You make your own gyoza?’
That’s the other thing a lot of people say. I get it. All that wrapping might seem a bit tricky. But don’t be put off. They’re easy to make and get easier with practice. And what can go wrong? We’re not making semi-conductors here. It’s a gyoza.
Chop. Fill. Wrap. Repeat.
Like going for a long walk, swimming up and down a lane, doing the dishes, or mowing the lawn….theres an easy rhythm to making dumplings. The mind meanders. Things that before seemed troublesome then settle. Something like gyoza zen. I might share thoughts on this too.
An unconventional prop for learning Japanese
In preparation for taking on a job in Tokyo, in 2017 I started learning Japanese. it was tough. The US Foreign Services Institute (the US diplomatic academy) ranks Japanese amongst the most difficult languages to learn for native-English speakers - rating it a ‘super-hard language’ (may as well call it the way it is!).
Gyoza played a prominent role in my language training. Starting out, my brain ran ahead of my very basic abilities. I wanted to talk with teachers about things that were happening in Japan at the time, like politics, nuclear threats from North Korea and preparations for the Olympics. But with the Japanese vocabulary of an 18 month old, the best I could manage for a long time was variations on ‘Today, I will insert verb insert noun.’ More often than not, the verb was ‘eat’ (食べる, or たべる) and the noun was ’gyoza’ (餃子, or ギョウザ).
I got better with Japanese. But the gyoza thing remained a bit of a joke with my teachers. For my ‘graduation party’ (卒業会) I made 200 gyozas for my teachers and fellow students.
餃子, ギョウザ, or gyoza in Japanese means dumpling. お宅, オタク or otaku sort of means nerd, freak, or someone who’s really obsessed with something. The Otaku kanji (お宅) means house. So the association is an Otaku is someone who is so caught up with something, they don’t leave home. In Japanese, it’s probably a bit of a derogatory term, but has come into pop culture, alongside cos play, manga and anime. Otakus come in all sorts. The Sushi Otaku. The Gaming Otaku. There are straight up just Otakus too. I’m a gyoza otaku.
So this is a blog about gyoza. I’m just starting out. But over time I hope to share recipes and stories with family, friends and others who love gyoza or find zen in the small patterns and routines of life. There may be things that other Japanese language learners might find helpful too, like a vocabulary list for gyoza cooking, links to quizlet and some recipes which I translate into Japanese and share back and forward with my sensei here and in Japan. Feel free to draw on them and share your own recipes or thoughts on gyoza, life’s little patterns or learning Japanese too.
初めまして。餃子お宅のロブです。
私のブログを楽しんでいただければ嬉しいです。
よろしくお願いします。
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Rob Tranter
A gyoza otaku.
If you can’t tell already I love gyoza.
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Oscar
Our dog.
He loves gyoza too.
