Season 7-10 Tochigi Special: Chicken Wing Gyoza Bento & Nori Gyoza Bento

On today's BENTO EXPO,

we travel to Tochigi Prefecture,

one of Japan's leading producers of strawberries.

There are more than 40,000 foreign residents of Tochigi,

and some of them are avid bento makers.

- Check it out!
- Wow!

And both Marc and Maki prepare bentos inspired by Tochigi.

We love bento!

(The Global Lunchbox 7-10 Tochigi Special)

The city of Ashikaga boasts a thriving textile and machinery industry.

Many Muslim people live and work here.

Everyone loves chicken biryani.

Ashikaga is home to many stores which sell halal foods.

These are foods which follow Islamic law.

Aleli is from the Philippines.

Her husband is a Pakistani Muslim, so she often visits this shop.

Today, she's come to buy ingredients for her husband's favorite meat dish.

I'm going to use this meat with bones

for my husband's bento, because it's tastier.

Aleli met her husband in Japan 26 years ago.

Their family includes their two daughters and Aleli's mother from the Philippines.

Each day, Aleli prepares a bento for her husband who works at a factory.

He works hard every day, so he deserves a nice bento.

She uses a pressure cooker to cook the tough bone-in meat.

Now, it's tender.

She's making a Filipino stew called Caldereta.

She stir-fries the meat and vegetables

in a spicy mix of tomato seasonings

and adds coconut milk.

After simmering for about 20 minutes to integrate the flavors,

it's ready to eat.

My husband loves beef.

Here you go.

Looks good, huh?

A Filipino bento of Caldereta made with halal beef.

Today, they'll enjoy the bento together at home.

Looks good, as usual.

I'm so glad.

Yum!

Caldereta meat is so tender and goes well with rice. I love it.

I appreciate how she gets up early every day to make bento.

Delicious.

It's my way of thanking him.

We love bento!

Now to Utsunomiya, the capital of Tochigi Prefecture.

It's known throughout Japan for its gyoza:

dumplings filled with ground meat and vegetables.

There's even a gyoza statue in the image of Venus.

Visitors can take photos of themselves as gyoza, too.

This restaurant's gyoza is particularly famous.

Gyoza, please.

The restaurant is run by the Jiang's, a Chinese couple.

This is their signature dish.

Here are your gyoza.

Six different kinds of gyoza featuring Jiang's grandmother's secret recipe.

He uses tomatoes, charcoal,

and other natural colorings for the wrappings.

I'm glad my customers love my grandmother's recipe.

Jiang came to Japan 21 years ago as a student.

He met and fell in love with his wife, Wang.

They've been married for 17 years and have two daughters together.

Asami is a high school student and makes her own bento every day.

Today, she's preparing a gyoza bento for her parents

with the help of her sister, Yoshimi,

who's an expert at making dumpling wrappers.

The trick is to give it a rhythm.

- Not bad!
- Of course.

Asami helps out at the restaurant and is a pro at wrapping gyoza.

You need to pinch the pleats.

Like this!

The red coloring of this wrapper comes from tomatoes and paprika.

The gyoza are stuffed with cheese and are wrapped in a unique way.

It resembles an ear of rice, a symbol of luck in China.

Yoshimi gives it a try.

Tricky.

Yoshimi's gyoza turned out well today.

Good job.

Nice teamwork.

The family restaurant is in good hands.

After boiling, the gyoza are ready to eat.

They add Mabo-dofu and fried rice to go with the gyoza.

In China, eating dumplings is believed to bring good luck.

The use of red and white, which are auspicious colors in Japan,

makes for a good-luck bento!

Wow!

Awesome!

How did they do?

So good!

I'm happy, which makes them taste even better.

Thank you!

We love bento!

As we just saw, gyoza are usually wrapped in thin round wrappers like this,

but today both Maki and I are going to be making variations on gyoza,

that are using a different wrapper.

I'm using nori to make Nori Gyoza, which is very easy to make.

Nori is a fragrant mineral-rich sheet of seaweed

and it's perfect for wrapping foods like sushi, or dumplings!

To complement the nori, Maki uses a filling that's loaded with

minced vegetables and pork.

To the ground pork, add grated ginger,

cabbage, garlic chives, onion, and "shiso" leaves.

The main seasonings are just soy sauce and toasted sesame oil.

Umm, nice scent!

The vegetables add great textures and flavors.

Maki shapes the gyoza mixture into patties before wrapping them.

It's super easy.

Just put a meatball on one side of nori, and

fold it like this.

- Wow, that's a lot easier than regular gyoza.
- Yes.

So let's fry them.

That was quick!

Umm, I love the smell of toasted nori. It smells so briny.

Fry over medium heat to draw out the aroma.

Maki pan-fries her gyoza on all sides

until the filling is nice and firm.

OK, my Nori Gyoza is done!

Oh, that looks so good.

So, Marc, try my Nori Gyoza.

Itadakimasu!

I love the texture of those crispy vegetables. You've got the umami from the pork.

And I love how the nori adds a nice toasty flavor on the outside.

And it's very easy to wrap.

Maki packs a vibrant medley of veggies

to go with her novel Nori Gyoza.

For kids, she uses carrots and nori to make

a cute pair of birds!

It's such a flavorful and easy interpretation of gyoza!

So Marc, what are you using for a wrapper in your gyoza?

Well, I'm going to be using these chicken wings or Tebasaki

to make Teba Gyoza.

That's gorgeous!

You might be wondering how chicken wings can turn into a gyoza wrapper,

but by deboning the wing it turns into a pocket

that's perfect for stuffing with gyoza filling.

Let me show you how it's done!

There are two bones that run through the base of the wing,

and we need to remove both of them.

So the first thing I'm going to do is to bend this back right here at the joint

to separate those two bones.

And then, I'm going to use some clean kitchen scissors

to cut this cartilage between the two bones.

And we're going to push down on these bones

and you can pry the bone up,

and you should be able to pull it out, just like that.

Do the same thing for the other side.

And once you got the bones out, you get a nice little pocket

there with a flap of meat on the outside, just like this.

To stick with the chicken theme, I'm going to make my gyoza filling

with ground chicken along with shiitake mushrooms,

onions, and ginger.

I season the mixture with oyster sauce

and knead the mixture together until it's well combined.

Now comes the fun part!

I'm going to open up the pocket and stuff it with a small spoon.

The skin will stretch quite a bit so you should be able to fit

a good amount of filling into each wing.

- Just like that!
- Oh, it's nice and plump.

Yeah, it's a chubby chicken.

Dust the wings with potato starch

and fry them in a non-stick pan with the thicker skin side down.

Once they've browned on both sides, it's time to steam them!

- So let's open it up and check it out!
- Wow!

So plump! They look delicious!

So, we're going to glaze this with our 3S sauce,

and we just want to flip this chicken over to glaze each piece of that.

And that sauce has evaporated.

We're going to go ahead and add the black vinegar

and give it a few tosses to get this coated,

and our Teba Gyoza is done.

So gorgeous!

So, Maki. You ready to try out the Teba Gyoza?

Itadakimasu!

The umami-rich filling goes so well with the juicy chicken.

- With no bones, it's easy to eat.
- Yeap!

I packed my chicken wing gyoza with egg-fried rice, which is a great match.

The juicy chicken filling will keep the gyoza moist and tender until lunchtime!

Today both Maki and I made bentos inspired by gyoza,

and by changing up the wrappers we are able to create something new.

So we hope you'll...

Give them a try!

Now to our final destination in Tochigi, Mashiko.

This roadside station offers a wide of selection local fruits and vegetables,

and has become a popular tourist destination.

Another major attraction is this stand set up

once a month by Anne, a Canadian living in Mashiko.

I have Chilli con carne. My mother used to make it for me all the time.

I think it's turned out pretty good. I've got a lot of customers, repeaters.

It's like hearty, homemade food.

This is the baby. He was really picky.

Yukiyo says that even when she was suffering from morning sickness,

she was able to enjoy Anne's cooking,

which is how they became good friends.

Anne is a former professional golfer who came to Japan about 30 years ago.

After retiring from golf,

she began teaching English in Tochigi.

She also began making foods using organic vegetables.

What are you doing? What are you doing, Gracy?

Are you happy?

- Mew.
- Yeah, good!

Today, she lives with her three cats and sells homemade food.

These are dried apples grown in Mashiko.

You know, Mashiko is a lot of fun.

I get to use a lot of delicious vegetables and fruits to make my products.

Today, Anne is making a pulled pork sandwich bento

for a picnic with her friend, Yukiyo.

It's her mother's secret recipe.

When you have somebody say it tastes good, it's just great.

After cooking for three hours,

the pork is tender enough to be shredded.

So now, we're going to make the barbecue sauce.

Anne mixes ketchup with molasses

to make a sweet and spicy barbecue sauce.

It has more flavor than honey.

She adds Japanese mustard powder to give it a kick.

To give it the fire.

And that's what you want when you are eating barbecues.

She simmers and reduces the sauce,

then adds it to the pulled pork.

Oh!

Good, perfect!

Next, she stuffs the pork in between slices of bread

and covers it with more sauce.

As a side, a colorful quinoa salad.

It's a treasure.

Handmade pickles, and some dried fruit for dessert.

Mashiko's strawberry.

The flavors of Mashiko and Canada.

Now for a picnic with Yukiyo and baby.

- So good!
- Thank you!

The meat and the sauce are combining really good together.

What is the secret of this barbecue sauce?

It's a secret!

We love bento!

I want to try that pulled pork sandwich. It looked so delicious.

Yeah, it did, didn't it?

We hope you enjoyed this special episode about Tochigi Prefecture,

and we hope to see you again here soon on BENTO EXPO.

- See you soon.
- Bye!