Chūka man: Japan's answer to the meat pie?

The Australian Meat Pie: A shell of baked pastry, filled with any of the following: beef, buffalo, camel, cattle, deer, goat, hare, pig, poultry, rabbit and sheep. The manufacturers will make a special point of telling you if the meat involved is beef; otherwise it's just a "meat" pie. "Meat" can include snouts, ears, tongue roots, tendons and blood vessels. Manufacturers are obliged to tell you if they use offal (but noses and ears are OK). Meat pies are usually served with a sachet of "dead horse" (that's tomato sauce to you), and can be purchased at just about any deli, office canteen, supermarket, tavern or servo.

Chūka man: A steamed bun, (usually) filled with pork mince (sorry--I don't know anything more specific than that) and vegetables, and accompanied by a sachet of very hot mustard. You'll find these in just about any convenience store, and also in many supermarkets. I don't know if you can get them at the service stations over here, but, like the meat pie, they can also be purchased cold and whacked in the microwave.

After re-reading what I wrote above about the Aussie meat pie, I think it's safe to say that I'm off meat pies from here on in--and I'm sure many of you are as well. (You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but you can, evidently, make a meat pie. Even so, you can't make me eat it.) Chūka man, on the other hand, are absolutely fantastic. Especially at the end of a night on the tiles (kebabs are rare in Japan), which makes me regret not getting one last Saturday night. If there's anything I should know about the mince, please keep it to yourself and don't spoil this for me.

(P.S. For some reason I've been calling these things gyōza.)