“Knaidel” Yiddish for dumpling wins National Spelling Bee

Posted on June 2, 2013 by rundlea

Arvind Mahankali, 13 of Bayside Hills, won the National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling Knaidel, the Yiddish word for dumpling (links, links). However, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has challenged the result, arguing the correct spelling is Kneydl.  Apparently, Arvind’s win is safe as the Spelling Bee uses the 3rd edition of Webster’s dictionary as the reference spelling guide, and Webster’s has it as Knaidel.  With this win Arvind  announced he is retiring from competitive spelling to focus on physics.

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Legend Upper West, New York City

Posted on May 29, 2013 by rundlea

Legend, part of a local chain of Asian restaurants, is a relatively new Szechuan style restaurant on the border of the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights. They serve a fair amount of American-Chinese dishes, but also some interesting items listed in the “New Style Szechuan Food” and “Traditional Szechuan Food” sections of the menu (see Beef Tendon With Spicy, Peppery Flavor; Braised Pork Intestines With Tofu Pudding; Braised Whole Fish With Pickles & Mustard Greens; Sautéed Homemade Bacon with green leeks).

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Shrimp wonton with red sesame sauce, Shrimp sui mai and Juicy little pork buns

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Posted in Buns, Chinese, New York City, Pork, Sichuan Dumplings, Soup Dumpling | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dumpling Tour of Paris

Posted on May 26, 2013 by rundlea

I am planning a trip to Paris and thought I would try some dumpling houses while I was there.  According to my web reading Chinese food in Paris is pretty poor, while Korean food in Paris gets very good reviews, as do the Vietnamese restaurants.  Given France’s colonial history I am not really surprised to learn there is good Vietnamese food there, but dumplings seem to be absent from Vietnamese cuisine.  So far I have found four dumpling spots that get good reviews: Delices du Shandong, Guo Xin Restaurant Raviolis, Ravioli Chinois Nord Est and Gyoza Bar.

Anyone have other suggestions?

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Shrimp and Water Chestnut Pot-Sticker Dumplings Recipe

Posted on May 22, 2013 by rundlea
Shrimp and water chestnut dumplings

Shrimp and water chestnut dumplings

This is a recipe I have worked on and tweaked for a couple of years. The diced water chestnuts give the dumplings a nice crunch texture and mouth feel. I use some of the shrimp and water chestnut to make a shrimp/water chestnut paste so the mixed ingredients stick together and are easier to handle when wrapping the filling.

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Posted in Chinese, Gyoza, Pan Fried, Recipe | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Tom Cruise making soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung

Posted on May 20, 2013 by rundlea

Several blogs and news outlets have posted an odd video of Tom Cruise making soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung in Taipei.  See the post at Grub Street.

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Philadelphia Vegan* Dumpling Road Trip

Posted on May 15, 2013 by rundlea

I recently took a road trip to Philadelphia and since my traveling companion was a vegan we did a mini-tour of places serving vegan dumplings. We hit New Harmony and Sammy Chon’s K-Town BBQ in Chinatown and Su Xing House on Sansom street. The “Vegan” in the title of this post gets an asterisk because Sammy Chon’s K-Town BBQ has some strange ideas about what vegetarian and vegan means.

New Harmony Steamed Dragon Dumplings

New Harmony Steamed Dragon Dumplings

New Harmony is part of the Loving Hut chain of vegan restaurants run by the cyber-sect Supreme Master Ching Hai International, which is the corporate entity behind Ching Hai’s Guanyin Famen / Quan Yin Method. If you travel a lot and need to find vegan food, sooner or later you will run into a Loving Hut. I have been to Loving Huts in San Francisco, Seoul and elsewhere in Korea and now Philly. They are not all called Loving Hut, but after you have been to a few you learn to spot the tell-tale signs – the portraits of Ching Hai, the reading materials and the videos of Ching Hai’s lectures playing on wide screen TVs. Each Loving Hut is free to create their own menu, as long as it meets the dictates of Ching Hai, but regardless of what is served there is a flavor profile that I have come to associate with Loving Hut.

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P.F. Chang’s

Posted on May 11, 2013 by rundlea
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The oddly glistening steamed vegetable dumplings

When you are a vegan, stuck shopping in a mall in the suburbs and don’t want to eat french fries for lunch, P.F. Chang’s starts to look like a non-terrible idea. It doesn’t ever rise to being a good idea but they have a vegetarian section on the menu, which has dumplings.

The Dumplings. The vegetable dumplings are available fried or steamed, although somehow the steamed dumplings still came glistening with oil. The filling had a really strong ginger flavor that overpowered the otherwise nondescript vegetable filling.

The Dipping Sauce. The dipping sauce was unmemorable, while the sambal chili paste was memorable for being over-salted.

The Location. At a mall or airport near you.

Posted in Chinese, Vegetarian | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Vegan Potato Momo Recipe (Himalayan Dumplings)

Posted on May 7, 2013 by rundlea

Momos are Himalayan dumplings found in Tibet, Nepal and Northern India. They are commonly filled with potato, chicken, yak, or beef and are flavored with ginger, coriander, cilantro and garlic. I tried making potato momos with a recipe I cobbled together from several recipes found online. These came out really well.

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Home made momos about to be steamed

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The KimcheeZ Rant

Posted on May 6, 2013 by rundlea

I saw the following post on Facebook, and while it is not directly related to dumplings, I completely agree with it.

Real Kimchee Jiggae

Real Kimchee Jiggae

“So the current foodie kimchee fad has gotten distinctly annoying. First of all, kimchee is a generic term, like cheese. Thus nappa kimchee is one type, like cheddar is one type of cheese. Second, I’ve yet to see a single kimchee recipe in the food media that isn’t a total insult to the art that my mother and aunts have mastered over a lifetime of study and generations of lore. There needs to be a new word developed for faux-kimchee bastardization equivalent to the word cheeZe.” Copied with permission

Has adding kimchee to everything become the new adding bacon makes everything better? Although Bunn’s new bacon and Kimchee bun is quite good.

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Pierogi recipes at Huffington Post

Posted on May 6, 2013 by rundlea

The Huffington Post recently published a short piece on pierogies with some mouth watering photos. Pierogis are East European style dumplings that come in either savory potato, cheese or meat filling styles or as sweet desert style dumplings.  I am planning a tour of the East Village’s Polish and Ukrainian restaurants soon.

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