Gyoza is a Japanese dish, though it is believed to have originated in China (the Chinese version is called jiaozi, which is much, much older than its Japanese counterpart gyoza). There is also a version of gyoza that hails from Thailand, and Trader Joe’s is making it (in Thailand, if the package is to be believed) and selling it in the United States. Man, these little dumplings really get around!
A while back, we gave our thoughts on TJ’s vegetarian gyoza, but today we’re going on a seafood adventure and trying out the Trader Joe’s Thai Shrimp Gyoza.
There are a few different ways you can prepare these. You can fry them in a pan, heat them in a steamer, or nuke them in the microwave. We wanted to try frying them to see how they’d turn out that way. This takes a little bit of work, as you have to heat up some oil in a pan and add the gyoza. Then, after the dumplings brown a little bit, you’ll need to add some water. This is the dangerous part, because adding water to boiling oil is a recipe for disaster. Be super careful during this step. After that, you’ll just need to let them simmer for a bit until they’re ready to eat. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions, check out our package scans at the bottom of this review.)
Parts of the shell should brown while you’re cooking these, and those sections are great. The rest of the shells, however, end up a little bit soggy. It’s really not that bad, but we think you could probably mitigate this by flipping the gyoza about halfway through the cooking process so you brown them on more than one side.
The filling is absolutely delicious. It’s a blend of shrimp, cabbage, chives, and garlic, but it has a gingery sweetness to it. We’re not sure where that sweetness comes from — we scanned the ingredients and we can’t find anything sweet or even gingery, but the flavor profile has a subtle sweetness that we really enjoy.
Speaking of subtle, the shrimp doesn’t really do a whole lot here. There’s a hint of shrimp flavor to these, but it’s barely noticeable. If you break the shells open, you can clearly see pink chunks of shrimp, but they don’t overwhelm the flavor with shrimpiness. If you’re here for the shrimp, you might find that a little disappointing, but we actually think the subtlety works here.
While you can definitely eat these without any sauces, we recommend adding a little bit of soy sauce. Just like with the Pork Shu Mai (which we reviewed not long ago), a light amount of soy sauce can really enhance the flavor here.
According to the package, one serving is three dumplings. A single serving contains 180 calories and 300 mg of sodium. That’s not bad, but we think you’ll probably end up eating more than three of these at a time. Plus, they’re an appetizer, so you’ll also likely be eating them with a greater meal. All of those calories add up pretty quickly!
The Trader Joe’s Shrimp Gyoza makes for a pretty tasty appetizer. Shrimp fanatics might feel a bit let down by how subtle the shrimp flavor is, but fans of Thai food will probably find a lot to enjoy here.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Trader Joe’s frozen gyoza, check out our package scans below.
The article states they can’t figure out where the gingery sweetness comes from. The picture of the ingredient list shows ginger as an ingredient. Hmm. It’s a mystery!