WONTONS or 馄(Hún)饨(Tún)

MAIN INGREDIENTS: flour wraps; scallions; and minced pork-based filling.

TASTE and TEXTURE: simple and delicious.

HISTORY: 馄(Hún)饨(Tún) is a play on the Chinese word for chaos, 浑(Hún)沌(Dún), rooted in the historical perception held by Chinese who felt a wonton’s shape evoked the image of an airtight bun that would ‘suffocate’ its filling. During the Western Han Dynasty, very little distinguished wontons from dumplings. This would change at some point during the Tang Dynasty, when the wonton’s iconic square-shaped wrap was introduced in a deliberate effort to imbue a contrast with the dumplings more conventional round wrap.