“Dumpling” Houses in New York City

Posted on August 8, 2013 by rundlea

My friend Dan has been analyzing the New York City Restaurant Inspection Data and did a search to find every restaurant in NYC with the word “Dumpling” in the name of the restaurant.  Below is a map of these restaurants, there are actually fewer restaurants that I would have expected.  My favorite discovery in the data is a spot called Dumpling King Pizza, on Avenue O in Brooklyn.

You can see his site at nygeog.com, I think his tag line “Geography, GIS, Geospatial, New York City, Computers, Music & Beer” says it all, although I don’t get his Phish obsession.

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Pu Pu Hot Pot replaced by The Dumpling Room, Cambridge, MA

Posted on August 3, 2013 by rundlea

I periodically visit Cambridge, MA and stay at a hotel across the street from the restaurant Pu Pu Hot Pot, seeing the sign always causes me to flash back to Beavis and Butthead. On my most recent trip Pu Pu Hot Pot was no more, it had been replaced by The Dumpling Room.  I had hoped to do a review, but unfortunately The Dumpling Room was not yet open for business.  A bunch of the Boston food bloggers are posting in anticipation of its opening and there seems to be a good buzz.  Dumpling Room will serve Beijing Ravioli (pork), Taipei Ravioli (pan-fried pork), Chicken Dumplings (chicken and cabbage), Kimchi Dumplings, Emperor Dumplings (beef, chicken and shrimp), Papa Chen’s Veggie Dumplings (Taiwanese vermicelli, chives and egg), Patty Chen’s Vegan Dumplings (five spice tofu, celery, carrots, shitake mushrooms), Soupy Pork Buns, Nutella and Banana Dumplings, and Sweet Red Bean Dumplings.

Artist's rendering of Dumpling House posted in the window

Artist’s rendering of Dumpling House posted in the window

I mainly report on this so that my traveling companion, the Butthead to my Beavis, will see “Pu Pu Hot Pot” on his Facebook news-feed.

The Location  The Dumpling Room will be in Central Square in Cambridge MA, near the MIT campus.

Posted in Boston, Chinese, Kimchi, Pan Fried, Pork, Vegan, Vegetarian | 1 Comment

Pierogi Fest, Whiting Ind.

Posted on August 3, 2013 by rundlea

Last weekend Whiting Indiana held its 19th annual Pieorgi Fest, its population of 5,000 planned for crowd of 250,000 people for the event.  The event includes pieorgi tastings  (19 pierogi vendors were represented), pierogi eating contests, a pierogi toss, a beer garden, a whole lot of Polka music, a polka dance off and The International Polka Parade with Mr. Pierogi the pierogi mascot, the Babushka Brigade and a Precision Lawnmower Drill Team (I am not making this up).

We at Dumpling Hunter love Pierogis and salute Whitting, Indiana.  A review of Neptune Polish Restaurant will be posted soon, with commentary from El Diablo.

Taking a bite out of Mr. Pierogi

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Dumpling Poisoning in China

Posted on August 1, 2013 by rundlea

Lu Yueting pleaded guilty on Tuesday to, in 2008, spiking frozen dumpling made by Tianyang Food in China with the pesticide methamidophos. It was reported at the time that 80 people fell ill from the dumplings, but reports of the trial say ten people in Japan and four in China were sickened by the dumplings.  The incident led to the recall of millions of bags of frozen dumplings.  Apparently Lu Yueting was unhappy with his wages and wanted to get the attention of his mangers.

Obviously we at Dumpling Hunter are outraged at the notion of contaminating dumplings.

Lu Yueting in court

The crazy reports over the past couple of years of food contamination in China have led my wife and I to avoid all food made in China.  But in all fairness the bacterial contamination issues we keep seeing with beef and chicken in the U.S. are part of the reason I don’t eat these two meats at all.

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Lobster and Butter Soup Dumpling

Posted on July 29, 2013 by rundlea

These dumpling attempt to mimic eating a steamed lobster tail dipped in butter as a soup dumpling.  The lobster and melted butter are contained within the dumpling wrapper like a soup dumpling.  I made these once and they came out well but alas I did not take any pictures.

Ingredients:

Dumplings wrappers

A lobster tail ~ 1 lb

Butter

Old Bay seasoning

Lemon juice

Instructions:  Lightly season the lobster tail with Old Bay seasoning powder and they cut the tail meat up into small bite size pieces.  Hold the dumpling wrapper in the palm of your hand and use a knife to place a generous amount of butter in the middle of the wrapper.  Add a few drops of lemon on top of the butter and then place a piece of  lobster meat in the middle of the wrapper on top of the butter.  Moisten the edge of the wrapper and fold the wrapper together to completely enclose the filling and crimp the wrapper edges tightly together.

These dumplings can either be steamed or pan-fried, but I think with steaming more of the butter stays as a liquid inside of the wrapper.  Careful when you eat these, as the butter will be melted and scalding hot.

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Ping’s Dumpling House and Market

Posted on July 22, 2013 by rundlea

On past trips to Seattle I had read several good reviews of Ping’s on Yelp and in the Seattle Times and decided to try the spot on my next trip.  Ping’s started out as a market with a small dumpling counter in the back and has since cut back the space dedicated to groceries to make room for a small dumpling cafe area on one side of the store.  Since I was staying with a group of people and we were going to be eating big family style meals, I decided to try Ping’s frozen take-out dumplings, ~$12.00 for 50 dumplings.

The Dumplings:  Ping’s serves eight styles of dumplings for eating-in, including: pork and napa cabbage; pork and chive; beef and yellow onion; lamb with carrot and green onion; shrimp, pork and napa cabbage; wood ear fungus, tofu, chive and egg; and mixed vegetable. The menu also notes there are 20 varieties of frozen to-go dumplings and considering the list the server ran down for us, this number is probably about right.  I got the pork and chive and the vegan mixed vegetable dumplings – both of which were a bust.

Ping_pork_chive

Pan-fried frozen pork and chive dumplings

Continue reading →

Posted in Chinese, Seattle, Vegan, Vegetarian | Leave a comment

Return to P.F. Chang’s

Posted on July 10, 2013 by rundlea

Sometimes you just can’t avoid going to the mall and, as I noted recently, P.F. Chang’s is a bright spot in the food desert that is the typical American mall. In its favor it has vegan and gluten free meal options and it sells beer, even some local and regional beers, and it is an alternative to the carbohydrate or protein smothered in cheese approach to cuisine of the other apostrophe S corporate chain restaurants. In short, it beats the other options in a typical mall. This time out we tried the pan-fried pork and the pan-fried vegetable dumplings.

Pan-Fried Pork and Vegetable Dumplings

Pan-Fried Pork and Vegetable Dumplings

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Posted in Gyoza, Pan Fried, Pork, Vegan, Vegetarian | 1 Comment

Empanadas in the NY Times

Posted on July 6, 2013 by rundlea

The NY Times printed an article last week on empanadas, linking them to the Cornish pasty, the French chausson, Indian samosa, the Jamaican patty, Middle Eastern borek and the knish. I think empanadas, like pastys, fit the description of a dumpling – a un-leavan dough pocket enclosing a filling – although there is some controversy on this.  The article included recipes for corn and beef empanadas.

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Kansas City Dumpling Maker

Posted on July 6, 2013 by rundlea

There is a great article (here) in the Kansas City Star magazine about Mr. Hok Kun Ng who used to run Bo Ling’s restaurant in Kansas City.  The article is about his life and his process for making dumplings at home.  His home made dumplings take two days to make and are filled with “ginger (“Clean taste and good for digestion”), onions (“I like onions in everything”), scallions (“Good for flavor and color”), wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, dried scallops reconstituted with boiling water, celery, green cabbage, bok choy, cilantro, pork and shrimp.”

Watering his back-yard garden

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Buddha’s Belly, Santa Monica

Posted on July 3, 2013 by rundlea
buddha_belly_spinach

Spinach Dumplings

I was in Santa Monica for work recently and spent an evening walking along the beach and through the 3rd Street Promenade.  I ended up stopping in at the Buddha’s Belly, an Asian-Fusion joint.  Usually I try and avoid Fusion places (also I avoid any restaurant that use “Wok” in its name as a play on words), but it seemed like most places in this area were either chain restaurants or local places aimed at tourists.  However I was pleasantly surprised, the Spinach Dumplings at Buddha’s Belly turned out to be very good and are vegan. Continue reading →

Posted in Chinese, Gyoza, pan-Asian, Steamed, Vegan, Vegetarian | Leave a comment