Wontons

Wontons

　　Wontons

　　Tiantai wontons are also made from wheat flour. They resemble northern dumplings and southern wontons, but have their own unique characteristics. They are more delicate than dumplings and plumper than wontons. The variety of fillings far surpasses that of dumplings or wontons. As for their shape, they are slightly flat and somewhat ear-like.

　　Tiantai people could be said to eat wontons all year round. Especially during the Spring Festival, they are an essential dish. They are prepared on New Year’s Eve and served as dinner on the first day of the lunar new year. This tradition is similar to the northern custom of making “New Year’s Eve dumplings” (made precisely at the turn of the old and new year, referred to as “welcoming the new year’s hour,” and playfully pronounced as “jiaozi,” hence the name). However, the Tiantai tradition of eating wontons when the lanterns are hung on the thirteenth day of the first lunar month and taken down on the eighteenth is a local creation.

　　After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, with the migration of northerners to the south, making dumplings became more common. It seemed to rival the local practice of eating wontons and the sale of dumplings in snack shops.