My mom makes the best gyoza.
I still remember making them with her when I was in elementary school in Japan. Stuff the skin and seal it tight, stuff the skin and seal it tight, stuff the skin and seal it tight, the crinkles forming gradually faster as my fingers learned the routine.
When I became an adult, throwing gyoza parties just seemed like a natural thing to do. I would get shiitake, napa cabbage, gyoza skins and the other ingredients together, wrap them up and then fry them in batches when my friends arrived. I hosted innumerable gyoza parties both here and in Japan long before I had any inkling that I would become a cook.
There is no recipe I use when making gyoza. The childhood memories of how my mom did it lay the path for me to follow.