Wontons

Even though wontons in broth have been established here as a traditional soup, in China the dish is considered a snack. Filling but not heavy, simple but versatile, and easy to cook and serve, wontons are the mainstay of many food vendors and “small-eats” restaurants in China. There was something very special about having a bowl of wontons from the night vendors who trotted gracefully through the streets of Shanghai, pausing here and there to ladle the small steaming dumplings into bubbling broth with a light touch of soy sauce and sesame oil. And in the narrow, winding back streets of Chungking there were many small stall-like restaurants, where the proprietor scooped wontons from a bubbling pot into a small bowl and seasoned them with dashes of soy sauce, sesame oil, and red chili oil, plus a tasty sprinkling of minced preserved vegetables. Tossed and rolled in this spicy sauce, the wontons were known in the Szechuan dialect as the “tossing hand.” In the United States, wontons have also developed into an appetizer when deep-fried. Being neat and compact, they fit in well with the Western idea of an hors d’oeuvre.