I still remember as a little kid watching Chuka Ichiban(a true old-school anime that heavily featured Chinese cooking, so think Shokugeki no Soma, but way less pervy) in Taiwan, and the main character Liao Xiao Ming made a dish called shumai. 5 year old Fred had zero clue what that was, but after asking his parents about shumai, he was lucky enough to get some from a 7-11 in the airport on the way back to the states. I remember being warned that they usually have shrimp in them(young Fred HATED shrimp), but I got really lucky in that the shumai I ate were full of rich meaty, mushroom-y goodness, hence why I went with a pork and shiitake shumai for my own recipe all of these years layer. For those who aren’t sure what are shumai, they are essentially open-faced dumplings, made by placing a ground meat filling into the middle of a wonton wrapper, folding that around the filling so that it is still partially exposed, then steaming it that way. I remember seeing Xiao Ming making those on the show and being so fascinated that dumplings could have more shapes than just a jiaozi. Fast forward over 20 years later, and I’m finally taking a stab at shumai myself. Fun fact: I had 0 clue what Chuka Ichiban was called for a long, long time because I was too young to learn the name of the anime when I was watching it at that time. It wasn’t until I was using the Clubhouse app back during the pandemic and was in a room about “Anime Food” that someone mentioned the name of the anime, and when I Google’d Chuka Ichiban, I had realized that this was that very same anime with the shumai from my early childhood. It’s wild how much time flies, and yet, the anime still holds up even now. For me, anyways. Granted, it’s probably the nostalgia goggles.

For this recipe, it makes 18 shumai. I do make my own dumpling wrappers using an egg based flour dough. Fun fact, it’s very similar to the dough I would use for ravioli. To make the dough a bit softer, I relied on hydrating the dough with water, but used egg yolk to give the dough a golden yellow color and a tender bite. I still distinctly remember that the shumai in Chuka Ichiban used eggs, so that was my hint to use eggs for my wrappers instead of just the typical water-flour dough I would use for my jiaozi. For the filling, I went with a combination of shiitake mushrooms, pork, and some other ingredients, such as mushroom soy and shaoxing wine, just to layer in more richness and umami in the ground pork. I will be honest in that the final presentation on these little guys is drab. I didn’t bother with microherbs or edible flowers or really anything. That was because I did not really want to do a whole lot to the tops of these. While the idea of doing crispy or caramelized mushrooms on top sounded appealing, I really wanted these dumplings to be served simply as-is, straight from the steamer. So I went with an extremely simple presentation. The filling itself is so juicy that you really don’t need even a sauce to go with them! I will be honest, I STILL get PTSD about making dumplings after my time on Back to Win(I never even watched my elimination episode because of how traumatic it was to get sent home on dumplings), but each time I make them, I feel like it’s a chance to confront my skeletons, and try to heal and relearn why I loved making them in the first place. Food and cooking should be built on nostalgia and fondness, not fear and disappointment. That being said, in retrospect for these, I probably should have garnished them with something green(turns out my micro cilantro and nasturtium gardens were actually growing and I didn’t think to use those), but at least the shumai tasted good, regardless of how brown and beige they looked?

Makes 18 shumai:
For the dough:
2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp water
a pinch of salt

In a bowl, mix everything together until a smooth dough forms. Roll the dough out to the thinnest setting on a pasta roller, and cut out 2-inch by 2-inch squares, rerolling any scraps of dough as needed to continue this process. Place the dough squares on a lightly floured surface just to keep them from sticking.

For the filling:
2 dried shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 pound ground pork
1 tsp canola oil
1 tbsp mushroom soy sauce
1 tsp shaoxing cooking wine
a pinch of salt
1 clove garlic, grated
1 tsp grated ginger

Soak the mushrooms in the 1/4 cup warm water until soft. Squeeze out any excess water and finely mince the mushrooms. Reserve the water for assemble. In a bowl, mix the mushrooms together with the other ingredients until a smooth paste forms. Divide the filling into 1 1/2 tbsp-sized balls.

For assembly:
Reserved dried shiitake water

Brush the edges of one side of each dough square with the shiitake water. On the wetted side of the dough, place down a ball of filling onto each. To form the shumai, start by pinching the middles of each straight side of the dough to allow the pointed edges to come up along the sides of the filling. Then tuck the pinched parts of the dough into the sides to form your shumai. Steam these dumplings in a lined steamer for 8-10 minutes on medium-high heat before serving.