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I love gyoza, the pork and garlic-packed dumplings that you can find in diners, ramen joints, and grocery stores across Japan. Seriously, when the Japan Gyoza Association released an ad that was just a dude running around with a delirious grin saying, “Aha! Gyoza! Ahaha!” it seemed, to me, like the most natural reaction in the world to the little wrapped bits of deliciousness.

Really, the only complaint I have about gyoza is that I don’t have a freshly cooked batch in front of me right now. With a solution to that problem, here’s a video of how to make gyoza in just three seconds, without using a microwave.

If all this talk of hyper-fast cooking is starting to ring a bell, you might be recalling the day in December when we looked at a similar preparation method for three-second fried shrimp. Once again, the source of this speedy recipe isn’t a cooking program or famous chef, but the engineers at telecommunications company NTT Docomo, reminding us of the speed and precision coordination of its wireless LTE networks.

While things are about to get high-tech in a hurry, that doesn’t change the fact that as with any cooking project, the first step is to assemble your ingredients.

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As our host, actress Asuka Kataoka, explains, we’ll need 150 grams (5.3 ounces) of ground pork, one-fourth of a head of napa cabbage, four gyoza skins, and as much garlic, garlic chives, salt, and pepper as you’d like.

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You’ll also need a couple of simple pieces of equipment, such as a pair of safety goggles for each person in or around the kitchen and a premium 4G cannon, plus a few other pieces of machinery and an advanced computer system to control all of them.

▼ If you can’t seem to find your cannon, check behind your spice rack. You’d be amazed how many people’s fall down there.

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And, of course, you’ll want a big red button you can hit to start the process (and also finish it in less time than it takes your brain to realize what happened).

Although many foreign visitors and residents fall in love with gyoza after arriving in Japan, the dumplings actually originate in China, and Japan considers them to be one of the signature dishes of Chinese cooking. That explains the Chinese background music and kung fu battle cry let out by chef Takamitsu Yoshikawa. Kataoka’s scream, on the other hand, seems to be more due to shocked terror than any preexisting cultural images.

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After neigh-instantaneously mixing the pork and napa cabbage, the ball of filling passes through its seasonings, which are launched into the air milliseconds before it flies by. Shortly thereafter, it slams into the outstretched wanton skin, its powerful momentum causing it to travel fast enough that it wraps itself.

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However, this is still a raw lump of flour, vegetables, spices, and meat. To cook it, you’ll need fire.

A lot of fire.

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Finally, you’ll want someone with nerves and steel and a catcher’s mitt of iron waiting on the far side of all those blowtorches to catch your freshly cooked, piping-hot gyoza, lest they continue on their path and demolish an orphanage.

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According to Yoshikawa’s stopwatch, these gyoza go from zero to delicious in just 2.244 seconds, well below the three-second target and even faster than Docomo’s fried shrimp.

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As she sits down for lunch and signs off, Kataoka informs us that tomorrow’s recipe is going to be three-second spaghetti. Ordinarily we’d chuckle at the silly joke, except that the three-second fried shrimp video ended with Kataoka telling us to look forward to three-second gyoza, a promise she just made good on.

So go ahead, Docomo, keep the three-second meals coming. We haven’t got all day/minute to spend waiting, after all!

Source: Jin
Images: YouTube