Among the famous snacks in Luoyang, the Xiaojie Pot Stickers cannot be left unmentioned. They have a crispy texture, juicy fillings, and the bottoms of the pot stickers are a burnt-yellow color. Dipping them in sauce and eating them gives an endless aftertaste, making them a household name as a delicious food in Luoyang City.
Shan Yuanyuan is the fifth-generation inheritor of the production technique of Xiaojie Pot Stickers, an intangible cultural heritage item in Henan Province. He learned the traditional handicraft technique of making pot stickers from Liu Yongkang, the fourth-generation inheritor, enabling this food culture with unique regional characteristics to be passed down from generation to generation.
Shan Yuanyuan introduced that the production process of Xiaojie Pot Stickers is unique, and its operating procedures are standardized and rigorous. From the selection of materials, proportioning, making of fillings, to wrapping and shaping, and then to frying and taking them out of the pan, each process has strict standards and requirements. The finished pot stickers are bright in color, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, filled with savory soup, crispy, soft and fragrant, and are deeply loved by diners.
In recent years, Xiaojie Pot Stickers have been successively rated as famous snacks of China, time-honored brands in Henan and so on, and have become characteristic snacks renowned across the Central Plains. As a new-generation inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, Shan Yuanyuan has further explored, sorted out and studied the ingredient proportioning, nutritional combination, production techniques and so on of Xiaojie Pot Stickers, making them better meet the needs of customers in terms of taste and nutritional value. “Behind Xiaojie Pot Stickers is not only the strict control of the traditional production techniques by the masters, but also the adherence to pot sticker cuisine and the inheritance of the culinary spirit from generation to generation,” said Shan Yuanyuan.
