March 9, 2024: Gyoza and Shumai （餃子とシュウマイ）

Japanese dumplings (gyoza in Japanese) and steamed meat dumplings (shumai in Japanese). They are very popular in Japan. But I hate them and do not like them as much as others do, at least. I have never been strongly tempted to eat them in my life.
For gyoza, it was when I was a child that I ate them for the first time in my life. At that time, they were served for dinner. As they were frozen, they were served after unfrozen. They tasted very bad and I came to hate the dish. Since then, I never ate them at home while in Kyoto. Even after I had moved to Tokyo, I never ate them until I got married. Since I got married, I have to eat them reluctantly because my wife sometimes serves them for dinner. When they were served at my home for the first time, I was surprised to see them but reluctantly ate them. I could not tell my wife that I hated them and was not ready to put them in my mouth. Since then, I have been eating them for about thirty-five years without saying anything and have got used to them. Overall, I still would not love to eat them, but I no longer hate them as much as before. In particular, I have come to enjoy my wife's handmade gyoza. They taste very good because she does not use garlic as much as the ones on the market.
For shumai, I had never eaten them in my life until about five years ago. Since I had eaten that bad gyoza as a child, I had not been tempted to try them until five years ago because I took it for granted that shumai must have tasted as bad as the gyoza. In particular, I was poor at the smell of the steamed shumai. But among many of them on the market, one shumai has changed my mind. Five years before, when I went to Yokohama on business, I did not know why, but I was strongly motivated to buy the shumai from Kiyoken, a Japanese food company. So I bought and ate them at home with my wife. Then, they tasted very good and were much better than expected. Since then, I have come to love them but am still never tempted to try other shumai.

　餃子とシュウマイ。日本でとても人気がある料理です。でも、ボクは嫌いです。少なくとも、他の人ほど好きではありません。これまでの人生で、すごく食べたいと思ったことは一度もありません。
　餃子に関しては、生まれて初めて食べたのが子供の頃でした。夕食に出たのですが、 冷凍餃子で、解凍されてたものが出されました。とても不味くて、これですっかり嫌いになりました。それ以来、京都にいる間は、家で食べることはありませんでした。東京に来てからも、結婚するまで一度も食べませんでした。 結婚してからは、妻が夕食に出すことがあるので、しぶしぶ食べるようになりました。我が家で初めて出されたときは驚きましたが、しぶしぶ食べました。妻に、嫌いで食べられないとは言えませんでした。それから約35年間、何も言わずに食べ続け、すっかり慣れました。全体としては、今でも好んで食べたいとは思いませんが、以前ほど嫌いではなくなりました。特に、妻の手作り餃子は美味しく感じるようになりました。市販の餃子ほどニンニクを使っていないので、とてもおいしいです。
　シュウマイは、5年ほど前まで食べたことがなかったです。子供の頃に不味い餃子を食べて以来、シュウマイも餃子と同じように不味いと思い込んでいたのです。特にシュウマイの蒸した匂いが嫌いです。でも、市販のシュウマイの中で、あるシュウマイがボクの気持ちを変えました。５年前に、仕事で横浜に行ったとき、なぜだかわからないのですが、崎陽軒のシュウマイを無性に買いたくなったのです。それで買って帰り、家で妻と食べました。 すると、予想以上に美味しかったです。それ以来、このシュウマイは大好きになりましたが、他のシュウマイはまだ食べたいと思いません。