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Japanese mom’s husband trash talks her for using frozen dumplings, maker fires back on Twitter

Casey Baseel Aug 11, 2020
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”It’s not about being lazy” says one of Japan’s most popular frozen gyoza brands.

Between people avoiding eating out in restaurants and kids being on summer vacation, moms in Japan are doing a lot of cooking these days. Recently, the meal one mother produced for her family included a batch of gyoza (pot stickers), and with the garlicky pork dumplings a reliable crowd pleaser, her son was immediately grateful.

“Mom, the gyoza you made are so good!” the kid told her, but no sooner had she received the words of thanks did her husband butt in with “Your mom is lazy. These were f-r-o-z-e-n.”

Understandably frustrated, the mother took to Twitter to vent, and after seeing the buzz her tweet got online, food company Ajinomoto, one of Japan’s largest suppliers of frozen gyoza, decided to weigh in on the issue through its official Twitter account.

冷凍餃子を使うことは「手抜き」ではなく「手“間”抜き」ですよ！
工場という“大きな台所”で、野菜を切って、お肉をこねて、皮に餡を包んで…という大変な「手間」をお母さんに代わってに丁寧に準備させていただいています。（続）

— 味の素冷凍食品【公式】 (@ff_ajinomoto) August 6, 2020

“Using frozen gyoza isn’t about avoiding doing work, it’s about avoiding spending time on hassles! We think of our factory as a big kitchen, where we take on the hassle of carefully chopping the vegetables, mincing the meat, and wrapping the gyoza skins, so that moms don’t have to.”

▼ Ajinomoto’s frozen gyoza (after cooking)

Of course, if you’re a hard case, you could still call that laziness, since if Ajinomoto is doing all that prep work, it means moms have more free time, right? Maybe, but it’s not like moms’ free time is always me-time.

で、その下ごしらえの「手間」を代わることで生まれた時間で、世の中のお母さんは何をしているかというと、目の前でダダをこねるお子さんを抱きしめたり、勉強を頑張るお子さんの宿題をみてあげたり、遠くのご家族と電話したり…“誰かのため”に使っていることが多いと思うんです。（続）

— 味の素冷凍食品【公式】 (@ff_ajinomoto) August 6, 2020

“And what do the moms of the world do when being freed from hassles opens up their schedules? Give their upset kids a hug. Help their kids with their homework. Call their relatives who live far away and talk with them. We believe that they’re still using that extra time for the sake of others.”

だから「手抜き」じゃなく、「手間抜き」だと声を大にして言いたい！

私も２児の母ですが、惣菜ポテサラも冷凍餃子も…使うことに何の罪悪感もありません！

これからももっと前向きな気持ちで使っていただけるようお伝えしていきますので、引き続き、応援いただけると嬉しいです！

— 味の素冷凍食品【公式】 (@ff_ajinomoto) August 6, 2020

“So we’ll shout it out: It’s not about being lazy, it’s about saving time.

I’m the mother of a two-year-old, and I say there’s nothing wrong with using pre-made potato salad or frozen gyoza! We’ll keep spreading that message so more people can feel secure in their choice to use frozen gyoza, and we hope you’ll continue to do so!”

By the way, Ajinomoto’s mention of pre-made potato salad is referring to a separate instance last month when a woman tweeted that she had been grocery shopping with her daughter and bought the store’s last pack, only to have an older man chastise her for being a mother who doesn’t cook from scratch (though apparently it was OK for him to have wanted to buy the pack himself).

While Ajinomoto’s response still prompted a handful of “But I like gyoza made form scratch better” grumblings, the pro-frozen gyoza demographic has rallied around the tweet, giving it more than 200,000 likes and leaving comments like:

“Mad respect for Ajinomoto.”
“You tell ‘em!”
“Saying what needs to be said.”
“It’s all about making the best use of your time for yourself and your family.”
“My family always ate frozen gyoza when I was growing up, and they always tasted great.”

Of course, having a preference for from-scratch gyoza, or even going so far as to dislike the frozen variety, doesn’t make you a bad person. It’s when you start badmouthing your spouse’s cooking, and right after your kid expresses his appreciation for it, that you’re acting like a jerk, especially since if you like from-scratch gyoza that much you can always make them yourself.

Source: Twitter/@ff_ajinomoto via Otakomu, Twitter/@ponkots15493241
Top image: Ajinomoto
Insert image: Ajinomoto
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where he took his lunc break in the middle of writing this to enjoy some delicious frozen gyoza his wife cooked.