As mentioned in my Hitokuchi Gyoza review, Nagasaki and its cuisine are influence very heavily by Chinese culture because of their proximity to China, as a result, they also possess one of the grander Chinese New Year festivals in Japan.
Like the dumplings from Hitokuchi Gyoza, they reflect a sense of Chinese influence in them even though they also have its own Japanese twist.
After the dumplings that night, we went for a stroll around the area mainly because we were still hungry for more food, and as a result, we also walked to their Chinatown, where workers are busy putting up last minute decorations.
Sadly for us, the lights don’t officially go on until Chinese New Years day, so we only managed to grab a few photos of the set pieces.
One thing that did strike us as odd was how early the shops closed in Nagasaki, I guess we’re so use to Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto that when we walked around the city around 7:30pm, we were surprised how many of the shops have actually closed for the day. In my opinion that is fine (I approve of work life balance) – but just a reminder to people in case they thought they can go shopping late at night.
With our walking done and our bellies still hungry, we stumbled past a tiny meat buns store which sold gyoza and meat buns, I initially wanted both but then were told that the gyoza were sold out.
We bought 10 meat buns (yes 10!) and given that there weren’t much to do, we drove back to the Garden Terrace Nagasaki making an effort to keep the buns warm by having Ms Buddha keep it in her big jacket (also made her clothes smell like meat buns!)
There is something about Japanese way of cooking that continues to surprise me, they have a focus on doing everything well, and these dumplings, whilst only from a sidestreet store, were very good. The dough were made with a nice bouncy consistency that I always enjoy and the meat filling were tasty and generous. What surprised me most was that Ms Buddha, who’s normally not a big buns eater, ate 5 of them in a go and then looked at me to see whether I wanted the last one – obviously I conceded.
Buddha Explores 