Forget pork and chive, these wontons are a family tradition
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Looking for something a little different this Dumpling Week? Midnight Shanghai is serving up wontons filled with shepherd’s purse — a wild green known as jicai in Mandarin.
Owner Mia Zhao chose the filling because pork and chive or cabbage dumplings are already common. Shepherd’s purse, she says, is the flavour of her childhood.
Every spring, her mother would make wontons with the leafy herb, and now she wants to share that “taste of home” with Christchurch diners.
“Dumpling Week is the perfect time to share something a bit different,” Zhao said. “These are the flavours I grew up with.”
Jicai is arguably China's most delicious weed.
“In spring they’re everywhere. The herb grows in a rosette of jagged leaves, and my mum used to pick it straight from the backyard.”
It pairs well with belly pork mince, which adds extra fat for a smoother texture. Scrambled eggs can also be added to stretch the filling a bit further.
The wontons come two ways: silky and boiled, topped with chili oil; or fried until golden and crisp.
Zhao said wonton wrappers were “a little different” from dumpling skins — thinner, less elastic, and transparent once boiled. “It’s a bit tricky to peel them once they stack together.”
Her team has been folding about 300 wontons a day for Dumpling Week and will keep making more as demand rolls in.
Dumpling Week, which started on Friday, is organised by the New Zealand Chinese Language Week (NZCLW) Trust. The 10-day celebration gives everyone plenty of time to try dumplings, vote for their favourites, and get hands-on at home.
About 20 restaurants across the country have joined this year’s Design-A-Dumpling Competition, with diners invited to cast votes online via the NZCLW website.
Masterchef NZ 2022 winner Sam Low has partnered with NZCLW to promote the event, sharing Shandong-style fish dumplings on Instagram. They’re made with white fish, ginger, spring onion, coriander and delicate wrappers, then fried and steamed to perfection.
Dumpling lovers are encouraged to try making them at home and share their creations online with the hashtag #DumplingDay2025.
The winning dumpling will be announced this Friday, on National Dumpling Day.
Last year’s winner was Pomelo Kitchen & Bar in Wellington with its oriental three treasure dumpling.
NZCLW is a Kiwi-driven initiative launched in 2014 by Jo Coughlan and Raymond Huo, seeking to bridge the cultural and linguistic gap between China and New Zealand.
Dumplings, or jiaozi, are a staple of Chinese celebrations and holidays, with a history that stretches back to the Han Dynasty more than 1800 years ago.
At that time, dumplings were invented as a kind of medicinal cure for frostbite.
They believed dumplings – stuffed with lamb, vegetables, minced ginger, and herbs like chives, selected to improve blood flow – would help them keep warm and prevent their ears from getting chilblains during a biting cold snap.