Mandu — Korean Dumpling Traditions and Filling Varieties (만두)

Introduced to Korea from Central Asia via China during the Goryeo period; the Korean form diverged from Chinese jiaozi in its use of tofu and glass noodle in the filling, and from Japanese gyoza in its generally thicker, chewier wrapper

Mandu (만두) is the Korean dumpling tradition — a category that encompasses steamed (찐만두), pan-fried (군만두), boiled (물만두), and deep-fried (튀김만두) variants, each with different wrapper thickness, fold style, and filling convention. The classic filling for gogi-mandu (고기만두) combines pork mince, firm tofu, glass noodles (당면), napa cabbage, garlic, ginger, green onion, ganjang, and sesame oil. The wrapper is made from plain wheat flour dough, rolled thin (2mm) for boiled mandu or slightly thicker (3mm) for pan-fried. The fold is the cook's signature: a half-moon (반달형) for soup, a pleated crescent for steamed, a flat-bottom dumpling (왕만두) for pan-frying.

• Chinese jiaozi (dumplings); Japanese gyoza; Central Asian samsa; Nepalese momo — all are related variants of the folded-dough-around-filling principle that spread from the Central Asian steppe

Dipping sauce for steamed and pan-fried mandu: ganjang + rice vinegar + sesame oil + gochugaru. Boiled mandu served in clear broth (manduguk, 만두국) at Lunar New Year. The broth from manduguk, made rich by the filling releasing flavour through the wrapper, is as important as the dumplings themselves.