Gyoza, beer and autumn leaves – that’s what you can expect at Flower Expo Memorial Park Tsurumi Ryokuchi over the long holiday weekend of November 19–24. This scrumptious food festival brings together 13 popular gyoza specialists from across Japan, offering 25 varieties of the country’s iconic dumpling. There will also be frozen gyoza for sale, as well as a special photo booth where you can take flatlay shots of your gyoza feast.
The selection of gyoza at the festival is broadly divided into three categories. Directly translated as ‘make-up gyoza’, these camera-ready dumplings are not only beautiful to look at but also feature inventive fillings and flavours such as strawberry milk cheese, fried corn with butter soy, and succulent beef tongue, to name just a few.
There are also the so-called ‘synergy gyoza’, with creative new stuffings including green onions with miso, pork in scallop and kombu (seaweed) soup, and lamb with cumin. Purists who prefer classic gyoza need not worry; the festival also offers traditional dumplings, from bite-sized Hakata gyoza and steamed shrimp dumpling to the ever-popular pork and green onion variety.