What makes a great dumpling?
What makes a great dumpling? Is it the filling, the wrapper or how it??d made? As we often find on our San Francisco Food of Chinatown, it??s all three. There is something about a place that makes their own wrapper. It takes more time, mixing the rice flour, water and the other ingredients. Rolling it out, the shaping it into a round shape to fit the filling inside. It takes more effort; however, I can definitely taste the difference. It just tastes so much better. The filling is just as important, using fresh ingredients, cutting them up so they cook quickly and cooking them just enough that they are done, however not such much that by the time that they are steamed that they are overcooked. Next, you need to fill the dumplings with enough filling, enough that you get to taste the great filling, not so much that they are overfilled. After sealing the filing in the wrapper, you need to steam it until it??s done, but not so much that it overdone. And the, the most important thing is that you need to serve it quickly. Dumplings turn hard and don??t taste good when they cool down too much. For me, I always like a little soy vinegar and fresh ginger, and then I have my perfect dumplings.
On our San Francisco Food Tours, everyone has their favorite, whether it is chicken and corn, vegetable, pork and chives, lamb, and more. The important thing is that are made fresh and by hand. That makes for the perfect dumpling.