The search for the world's best dumplings

Every now and then a buddy of mine, who goes by the name El Diablo, sends me musings on dumplings, mainly on Pierogies.  So to kick off the second year of Dumpling Hunter here are El Diablo’s thoughts on Neptune Polish Restaurant.

I’ve been going to the corner diner in my neighborhood for over 15 years. Each time, I insist on sitting at the counter. Even though I’ve been doing this for 15 or so years, the guys who work in the diner always recommend that I sit in a booth. True, there are many lunatics who have been known to adorn the counter area (some dominating certain eras, others…..relegated to the Neighborhood Lunatic Cooperstown). I have picked up on the fact that the reason I’m encouraged to sit at a booth is not because of the vocal outbursts of the lunatic regulars, but because it is assumed that a booth is more desirable for a customer. Each time a booth is recommended to me, I respectfully decline and say that I would like to sit at the counter (and I do sit there each time). After several of these “No, the counter, please” conversations, I heard one of the employees say to one of the other employees in Spanish while gesturing to me “He’s sick in the head.” Rather than reflexively respond with the only appropriate response (i.e. the between-song Jello Biafra quote from an old Dead Kennedy’s bootleg:  “Autograph my dental charts.”), I instead just kept sitting at the counter, tipping enough to offset the asymmetrical doubts the diner employees have about me. After all, Webb Wilder said: “Do right. Do right all the time.” What the diner employees didn’t understand, and still don’t, is that, whether prepared on-the-spot or long-preserved, diner food tastes better while seated at the counter…at least it does to me.

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P.F. Chang’s Pork and Leek Dumplings

There has been FDA recall of P.F. Chang’s frozen Home Menu brand Pork and Leek Dumplings due to “the possible presence of undeclared allergens, crustacean shellfish (shrimp) and fish (pollock)”.  Its not clear if this is a cross-contamination issue or if P.F. Chang’s is slipping shrimp and pollock into their dumplings so they can scrimp on the pork.  The presence of the shellfish in the dumplings is only a food safety concern for people who are allergic to crustaceans.  The recall doesn’t affect the dine-in food at the restaurants, only the frozen dumplings in the supermarket.  As many of my readers know I begrudgingly don’t dislike the dumplings at P.F. Chang’s, and under some very limited circumstances even recommend eating there.

Page views by country

This week marks the one year anniversary of Dumpling Hunter, thanks to all my readers and those I have dragged out to sample dumplings with me; special thanks to El Diablo for his Pierogi reviews.  I have written a total of 76 posts and 14 pages and garnered 6,409 page views.  The top searches that bring people to Dumpling Hunter cluster around “vegan”, “ravioli”, “cheese” and “ricotta”.

In year one the top dumpling spots were:

1.  Myeongdong Gyoza in Seoul, South Korea.

2.  Shanghai Asian Cuisine in New York City’s Chinatown.

3.  Oriental Flavor in Amherst, MA.

My favorite recipe for the year was Kimchi and Pulled Pork Dumplings and my favorite field trip was to Seoul, South Korea.

After a recent trip to London (see below) I realized that in addition to being a sucker for dumplings I am a sucker for scotch eggs and make a point to order them whenever I have the opportunity.  So I decided to launch Scotch Egg Hunter as the companion blog to Dumpling Hunter.  Since my opportunities to eat scotch eggs are a little more constrained than my dumpling eating opportunities, postings to Scotch Egg Hunter will be at a slower pace than here; Dumpling Hunter will remain my main foodie blog.