Mandu are dumplings in Korean cuisine. Mandu can be steamed, boiled, pan-fried, or deep-fried. The styles also vary across regions in Korean Peninsula. Mandu were long part of Korean royal court cuisine, but are now found in supermarkets, restaurants, and snack places such as pojangmacha and bunsikjip throughout Korea.
Names and etymology
The name is cognate with the names of similar types of meat-filled dumplings along the Silk Road in Central Asia, such as Uyghur manta, Turkish manti , Kazakh mänti, Uzbek manti , Afghan mantoo and Armenian mantʿi. Chinese mántou is also considered a cognate, which used to mean meat-filled dumplings, but now refers to steamed buns without any filling. Mandu can be divided into gyoja type and poja type. In Chinese, the categories of dumplings are called jiǎozi and bāozi respectively, which are cognates with the Korean words. In Japanese, the former-type dumplings are called gyōza, which is also a cognate. In Mongolian, the latter-type dumplings are called buuz, which is also a cognate.
History
Mandu are believed to have been first brought to Korea by Yuan Mongolians in the 14th century during the Goryeo Dynasty. The state religion of Goryeo was Buddhism, which discouraged consumption of meat. Mongolian incursion into Goryeo relaxed the religious prohibition against consuming meat, and mandu was among the newly imported dishes that included meat. Another possibility is mandu came to Korea at a much earlier period from the Middle East through the Silk Road. Historians point out many cuisines based on wheat, such as dumplings and noodles which originated from Mesopotamia and gradually spread from there. It also spread east along the Silk Road, leaving many versions of mandu throughout Central and East Asia. A Goryeo era folk songSsanghwajeom tells a story of mandu shop run by a foreigner, probably of Central Asian origin.
Varieties
If the dumplings are grilled or fried, they are called gun-mandu ; when steamed, jjin-mandu ; and when boiled, mul-mandu. In North Korea, mandu styles vary in different regions of the country. In particular, Pulmuone is releasing cheese dumplings, sweet seed dumplings with sugar and spicy dumplings.
Mul-mandu, it means "boiled mandu".
Gun-mandu is pan-fried mandu, it's derived from guun-mandu 구운만두=>군만두 to mean "panned" dumplings. It's sometimes called by its Japanese name, yakimandu.
Jjin-mandu is steamed, either in a traditional bamboo steamer or modern versions.
Gullin-mandu, or called gulmandu is a variety of mandu in a ball shape without a covering. It is mainly eaten in summer.
Wang mandu, is a bun stuffed with pork and vegetables, similar to the Chinese baozi.
Pyeonsu, mandu stuffed with vegetables in a rectangular shape. It is mainly eaten in summer and a local specialty of Kaesong, North Korea.
Eo-mandu, mandu wrapped with sliced fish fillet. It was originally eaten in Korean royal court and yangban families.
Saengchi-mandu, mandu stuffed with pheasant meat, beef, and tofu, that was eaten in Korean royal court and in the Seoul area during winter.
Seongnyu-mandu, literally "pomegranate dumpling" because of the shape
So-mandu, mandu stuffed with only vegetables, which were originally eaten in Buddhist temples.
Kimchi-mandu, mand with stuffing which contains kimchi. The addition of kimchi gives it a spicier taste compared to other mandu.
Dishes made with mandu
Manduguk is a variety of Korean soup made with mandu in beef broth. In the Korean royal court, the dish was called byeongsi while in Eumsik dimibang, a 17th-century cookbook, it was called "seokryutang".
Similar food
In Korean cuisine, mandu generally denotes a type of filled dumpling similar to the Mongolian buuz and Turkish mantı, and some variations are similar to the Chinese jiaozi and the Japanese gyoza. They are similar to pelmeni and pierogi in some Slavic cultures.
In the 2003 South Korean filmOldboy, the protagonist Oh Dae-Su is fed a steady diet of fried mandu, the food that he detests the most, while he is imprisoned. After he is released, he visits various restaurants serving the dish to get clues and determine where he was held captive.
Wonder Girls' member, Ahn Sohee, is often referred to as Mandu due to her cheeks resembling the shape of mandu.
In the 2020 Dreamworksanimated seriesKipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Kipo finds a mutated pig and names it Mandu because it resembles the dumpling.
