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Shumai
Shumai — ground pork and onion wrapped in a thin skin and steamed
A Yokohama specialty of ground pork and onion wrapped in a thin skin and steamed. Inspired by dim sum from Chinatown, a station bento version made it famous nationwide, and the city is said to still lead the country in shumai consumption.
- Origin: Kanagawa Yokohama
Lineage
What it's made of
Well-kneaded ground pork is mixed with onion and other ingredients along with soy sauce and oyster sauce to make a filling, which is wrapped in a thin sheet of dough and steamed into shumai dumplings. A single green pea on top is the classic look, though some regional versions knead the peas right into the filling instead, and the springy bite of the meat meets the sweetness of onion in a burst of flavor best enjoyed straight from the steamer.
How it's made
Well-kneaded ground pork is combined with soy sauce, oyster sauce and chopped onion and mixed thoroughly until it turns slightly sticky, forming the filling. The filling is carefully wrapped in a thin dumpling wrapper, then steamed until plump in a steamer with plenty of rising steam. Topping each one with a single green pea is considered the traditional finishing touch.
Why it took this shape
This port town, opened to foreign trade early on, grew a neighborhood where Chinese food culture took root over the years. Building on the dim sum served there, a version of shumai was refined to taste good even after cooling, and its pairing with easy-to-carry railway station shops helped it work its way into everyday meals. It stands as a dish born from the blending of cultures typical of a port town.
Before you go
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- Food for Obon and the harvest moon (tsukimi)A guide to the meat-free shojin ryori and somen served at Obon, and the tsukimi dango offered on the night of the harvest moon.
Dishes in the same style
- Agonoko UmaniThe roe of egg-bearing flying fish, caught only in early summer, is simmered in stock and soy sauce as an Oki bar snack. Its large grains and dense, sticky texture are prized as a delicacy said to be scarcer even than the fish's flesh.
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Related lineage
- Yokohama RamenA thick broth of pork bones and soy sauce with thick noodles. The familiar bowl is topped with spinach and sheets of nori.
- Wantan-menWontons wrapped around minced pork and similar fillings, floated in a light soy- or salt-based ramen soup. In Japan the filling leans toward meat, which sets it apart from Hong Kong's shrimp-led version.
Also from Kanagawa
- DoriaButter rice topped with shrimp in cream, covered in white sauce and cheese and baked. Said to have been improvised at a Yokohama hotel for a guest who wasn't feeling well.
- Ebi MayoBattered, fried shrimp are tossed in a sweet mayonnaise-based sauce — said to have begun when a Cantonese chef, unsatisfied with a mayonnaise-dressed shrimp dish he'd eaten in the United States, remade it his own way.
- Gyu NabeA Yokohama-born hot pot of beef, tofu and chrysanthemum greens simmered from the start in a soy or miso-based sauce. Born of the port city's encounter with Western meat-eating culture, it is said to trace to a tavern owner who opened one of the first beef-pot restaurants.
- Harihari-zukeDaikon cut thicker than ordinary kiriboshi strips, dried, then pickled in a soy-based sauce — a Miura Peninsula specialty. Its name is said to echo the crisp "hari-hari" bite, developed in Miura, a daikon-growing region since the Edo period.
- Herahera DangoA confection from Sajima in Yokosuka City, flattened dumplings of wheat or glutinous rice flour coated in sweet bean paste. Offered at the shrine during a summer boat festival to pray for a good catch and good health, it is still shared among family.
- Hiratsuka-kei TanmenA clear, salt-based broth carries a faint edge of acidity, topped with wakame seaweed and chopped onion — a thinner, less thickened bowl than the typical Kanagawa tanmen, said to have taken root among Chinese-style diners in Hiratsuka.