Chive Box or Chive Pocket (Jiucai Hezi)

The Chinese dish of Jiǔcài Hézi (originally from Shandong, China) has been called “Chive Boxes” or “Chive Pockets.” The “boxes” or “pockets” are stuffed with ingredients such as chopped garlic chives, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, cabbage, sauteed mini-shrimp and cellophane noodles.
 
“Chive Box” was printed in the Los Angeles (CA) Times on November 22, 1987. “Chive Pockets” was printed in the book Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine: The Fabulous Flavors and Innovative Recipes of North America’s Finest Chinese Cook (2002).
 
   
Wikipedia Jiucai Hezl
Jiǔcài Hézi (韭菜盒子, lit: garlic chives small box) is a type of Chinese savory pocket pie, originated from Shandong, China. It is a traditional food in Shandong Peninsula for celebrating the Chinese New Year.
 
Description
Its dough is made from flour and water, with leavened and unleavened varieties. The stuffing typically includes chopped garlic chives, scrambled eggs, sauteed mini-shrimp and cellophane noodles. There is also a variety with minced meat as stuffing. The stuffing will be put in the middle of a flat dough, and then folded into half-moon shape. The finished turnover is usually pan-fried instead of baked in the oven like a turnover, and is served with black rice vinegar and sesame oil mixture as dip.
           
22 November 1987, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Delicatessen With a Chinese Viewpoint” by Max Jacobson, Calendar sec., pg. 105, col. 4:
(Deli World Cafe, 125 N. Garfield Avenue, Monterey Park.—ed.)
No. 413, “chive box,” is actually not that great, but if you’re not curious enough to try it just from the name, then maybe you’d better have lunch at the Sizzler across the street.
       
Google Books
Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine:
The Fabulous Flavors and Innovative Recipes of North America’s Finest Chinese Cook
By Susanna Foo
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company
2002
Pg. 310:
STUFFED CHIVE POCKETS
MAKES 8 STUFFED PANCAKES; SERVES 8
OF ALL THE FAMOUS PEKING PANCAKES, I love chive pockets most of all. Small, round pancakes, they are stuffed with mushrooms, chives, cabbage and cellophane noodles.
 
11 June 2002, Village Voice (New York, NY), “Dumpling magic” by Robert Sietsema, pg. 95, col. 2:
(Dumpling House, 118A Eldridge Street.—ed.)
Tender and crisp at the same time, these dumplings are good enough to draw customers back, but even better is the meek—sounding “chives and egg pancake” ($1), which a friend tells me is affectionately dubbed “chive box” in L.A.
       
Google Books
The Food Lover’s Guide to the Best Ethnic Eating in New York City
By Robert Sietsema
New York, NY: Arcade Publishing
2004
Pg. 25:
chive box Northern Chinese empanada
 
13 August 2006, New York (NY) Times, “So Many Stores, So Little Time and Money” by Matt Gross, Travel sec., pg. 10, col. 5:
Dim Sum was directly across the street from Tim’s apartment; he woke up just as I arrived and joined me for two kinds of shrimp dumplings, fried pork dumplings, roast pork buns, chive boxes and—because I’d heard Calvin Trillin loves it—sweet fried milk.
 
Chowhound
Another great dinner at Z&Y Restaurant
luckytomato | Apr 2, 2009 01:07 PM
I recently went back to Z&Y Restaurant with a friend and had another great dining experience at one of my favorite restaurants in Chinatown (I’m addicted to the numbing qualities of the Sichuan pepper that is ubiquituous in the dishes I’ve ordered from here). The two of us ordered an appetizer of “chive boxes” (not on the regular menu, it’s on the breakfast menu underneath the glass on the tables), chicken with explosive chilli pepper, whole fish with bean chili, tan tan noodle and dry sauteed green beans.
 
The chive boxes really hit the spot. They came two to a plate, and were filled with chives, egg, and clear rice noodles. A blast from my childhood and were very good, although a tad oily.
(...)
Z & Y
655 Jackson St, San Francisco, CA 94133
     
19 June 2009,

(Wilmington, DE), “High culture, home cuisine” by Ryan Cormier, pg. ?:
(Chinese Festival at the Chinese-American Community Center, 1313 Little Baltimore Road, Hockessin.—ed.)
The chive pockets are thick with Chinese leeks.
 
flickr 
kattebelletje
Taken on July 31, 2009
How to make Chinese chive-pockets (jiucai hezi)
Making a snack with Chinese chives-filling. Make a dough with hot water and flour, fill with pork mince, Chinese chives and glass noodles. Fry on a slow fire for 20 minutes until crispy and done
   
2 May 2010, New York (NY) Times, “Slurp, Bite, Slurp: Shanghai Favorites” by David Corcoran, New Jersey sec., pg. 10, cols. 2-3:
(Petite Soochow, 607 Gorge Road, Cliffside Park.—ed.)
“Chive boxes” proved to be flaky fried pastry crimped around a saute of green onions mellowed by bits of scrambled egg.
 
GraceNotesNYC
How to Make Chive Boxes
By grace.g.yang · September 1, 2010
Under: Asian,Cheap Eats,Chinatown,Chinese,Lunch,My Life,Recipes,seafood,Snacks
My mom grows chives in her yard, something she started doing when we lived in Champaign, Illinois. They’re very easy to grow and maintain and when you trim them, the entire yard smells like fresh chives (which might not always please the neighbors). In Champaign, we used to stir fry chives with all types of other veggies and also make chive boxes (more like chive dumplings, but the translation from Chinese to English is literally chive boxes). This is an easy recipe, especially if you have lots of chives in your garden and you can incorporate different types of veggies for a delicious snack.
 
Chive Boxes
 
Simple dough (2 cups flour: 3/4 cup water)
1 pound chives
1/2 pound shredded carrots
1 pound cocktail shrimp
4-5 Shiitake Mushrooms, sliced
2-3 pieces bean curd, diced
3 eggs
2 bunches of glass noodles, soaked in warm water
 
Eater—New York
Soup Dumplings Learn Martial Arts at Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao, and Other Cheap Eats
by Robert Sietsema Dec 5, 2014, 3:22pm EST
(...)
The menu also includes an extensive selection of dim sum, one of which is “fried bun with chives and egg” (a specialty known in Los Angeles as “chive box”), sweet red bean pancakes, and sesame rice ball with osmanthus sauce. The distance from the Main Street station to the café is walkable, in which case you may want to stop at the Queens Botanical Garden at the halfway point. 59-16 Main Street, Queens, 718-661-2882.
         
Eater—Los Angeles
Luscious Dumplings: Inside the Wonton-Wrapped Dynasty
A second generation of restaurateurs takes the mantle.
by Clarissa Wei Jan 6, 2016, 11:47am PST
(...)
In the back, Wu starts on the stuffing for the chive pockets, combining three pounds of ground pork, a dozen eggs, glass noodles and chives in a mixture. Chive pockets, or jiucai heizi (韭菜盒子), are heavenly hand pies infused with the aforementioned toppings and deep-fried in oil.
 
31 August 2017, Newsday (Long Island, NY), “Review: Grain House brings authentic Chinese to Uniondale” by Erica Marcus, pg. B11, col. 2:
(Grain House, 1002 Hempstead Turnpike, Uniondale.—ed.)
Grain House offers nine dumplings, and my favorite were the pan-fried leek dumplings, aka chive pockets, a Northern Chinese street food. They’re big, semicircular envelopes - two to an order - filled with chopped flat chives and bits of scrambled egg and strands of vermicelli noodles.
 
The Wok of Life
CHINESE GARLIC CHIVE “BOXES”
PUBLISHED: AUGUST 7, 2018 BY JUDY
(...)
There are a few English translations for this popular treat from Northern China: Chive Pockets, Chive Cakes, and Chive Pie. The Chinese name for these is 韭菜盒子 (jiucai hezi), which translates to “Chive Boxes.” So that’s what we’ll call them!
 
From my research on various Chinese recipe websites, I got the brilliant idea to use spring roll wrappers to make these little chive boxes (instead of traditional dough wrappers). The result? Less effort, speedy execution, and a crispy outside. The best part is, even though they’re spring roll skins, you don’t have to deep-fry them! Also note, the chives used in this recipe aren’t the regular chives you might find in your local grocery store. They’re actually Chinese garlic chives, which have thicker, meatier stalks and a garlicky flavor.
 
Twitter
Caroline Fan
@carolinefan
Already missing my grandma’s #cooking. Most chive boxes have egg and tiny dried shrimo. My grandma made these with pork & #love.
1:02 AM - 10 Sep 2018
 
Eater—New York
The Best Dishes Eater Editors Ate This Week
Mining the latest dining gems NYC has to offer
by Eater Staff Updated Jan 7, 2019, 11:56am EST
Jiucai hezi at Qing Dao
The counter in front of Qing Dao restaurant is filled with all sorts of breakfast pastries for sale at very low prices, including this $2 turnover called jiucai hezi, which translates to “chive box.” It’s a street food specialty of Beijing, and is often eaten with millet porridge. The filling is garlic chives, scrambled egg, mung bean vermicelli, and dried shrimp for extra zip. Nothing better to snack on which wandering the streets of Flushing. 40-46 Main St., between Kissena Boulevard and 41st Avenue, Flushing — Robert Sietsema, senior critic