Definition of "jiaozi"
jiaozi
noun
plural jiaozi or jiaozis
A Chinese crescent-shaped dumpling filled with a minced stuffing and steamed, boiled or fried; the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese gyoza.
Quotations
I took the Blakes over for a jiaozi dinner in the park—not my favorite place although the jiaozis were much better than the food we had before.
1975 May 26, George H[erbert] W[alker] Bush, “‘We Do Have Principles and It Is Time We Stood Up for Them’: April 16 to June 2, 1975”, in Jeffrey A. Engel, editor, The China Diary of George H. W. Bush: The Making of a Global President, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, published 2008, page 297
It was especially good that night—with wonderful fish, steamed pike, fish dumplings (rather like hot gefilte fish), a whole braised duck, the crab-filled jiaozis I love so much, and more beer and wine than I’ve consumed in months.
1985 December 16, James Friend, “Monday, December 16”, in Beverly Friend, editor, China Journal: A World of Difference, Lincolnwood, Ill.: Friendly Books, published 2008, volume II (October 24–Dec 19, 1985), page 272
Her favorite were dumplings. One Chinese New Year, her mom cooked us so many dumplings, I stopped eating them for almost a year. I craved those little jiaozis. Even one bite now, and I would have traded away my birthright.
2013, Peter Tieryas Liu, “Thou Shalt Not Live on Bread Alone”, in Bald New World, Alresford, Hants.: Perfect Edge Books, John Hunt Publishing Ltd., published 2014, page 88
In comparison, jiaozi fillings are much more diverse than those used for wontons. They could be any kind of meat, as well as many varieties of vegetables to make vegetarian jiaozi. And jiaozi are usually larger than wontons.
2015, Rongguang Zhao, Gangliu Wang, Aimee Yiran Wang, A History of Food Culture in China, page 39