Potstickers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A dumpling commonly filled with meat or vegetables, pan-fried for a crispy texture while remaining soft on the top surface
2. A traditional savory pastry where a thin wrapper holds various fillings and is usually cooked to achieve both a crispy and tender consistency
3. A small Chinese dumpling filled typically with meat or vegetables, cooked by frying on one side to create a crispy bottom and soft top

Etymology: "Potstickers" is the plural of "potsticker," and the story begins with a cookbook. The name is a calque, meaning a word-for-word translation, of the Mandarin 鍋貼 (guōtiē), which combines 鍋 (guō, "pot" or "pan") and 貼 (tiē, "to stick"). Buwei Yang Chao, a Chinese-American cookbook author, coined the English term in the fourth edition of her book How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, published in 1963. The English word is simply "pot" plus "sticker," describing the dumpling's defining trait: it is pan-fried until its bottom sticks to the pan and forms a crisp crust, while the top stays soft from steaming. The translation keeps the Chinese logic intact, so the name describes the cooking method rather than the filling or the wrapper.

Synonyms: dumplings