Dumplings

Disclaimer: This is a Manhattan post. There is no shortage of great dumplings in Brooklyn and Queens, but for right now let's assume you're in Chinatown and hungry.

When I moved back to NY in 2006, after a few years of living in Japan and wandering Southeast- and Austral-asia, there were a few things that made me very, very happy. Pizza and bread topped the list, but five-for-a-dollar dumplings were not far behind.

Back then there were two standard-bearers: Prosperity Dumpling and Tasty Dumpling. There were plenty of other contenders, but those two were consistently plump, juicy, and hot. Unfortunately, both have long since been discovered by the foodies. Tasty Dumpling fell victim to its own popularity by cleaning up their act, renovating, putting in shiny menu screens... and forgetting to focus on the quality of their product. Prosperity Dumpling went the opposite route, sticking to their quintessential hole-in-the-wall guns, and eventually getting shut down by the health department.

(About which: Look, they're cheap-ass dumplings. They're delicious. It's Chinatown. I'd be suspicious if they weren't being assembled in a rat-infested back alley. Save your A ratings for sushi or spend your dollar elsewhere but leave my dumplings alone!)

So what do we do now? Surprisingly, one of your best options for classic pan-fried dumplings is actually a mini chain, Vanessa's. The price has gone up -- it's now only four-for-a-dollar, but it's still hard to complain when you can feed two hungry people with a fiver. Actually, half the time I don't get the dumplings at all, because Vanessa's is also pretty good at their sesame pancake sandwiches. Crispy and oily on the outside, pillowy on the inside, and stuffed with veggies, an egg, or some roast pork, it's hard to go wrong. My only caution is: if you're in a hurry, stick to those two options. All the other dumplings are cooked to order, and I've seen other people wait upwards of 10-15 minutes for the more obscure boiled varieties.

If you have difficulty with the number of non-Chinese people in Vanessa's, you don't have to look far for more "authentic" experience. Four doors up is Shu Jiao Fu Zhou. Dumplings are the same price here, though phrased differently at eight-for-two-dollars, and they are excellent -- boiled, and much herbier and more sophisticated than their pan-fried cousins. For another two bucks you can get a plate of peanut noodles, and be very happy.

Both Vanessa's and Fu Zhou offer bags of fifty frozen dumplings to take home. And let me tell you, it is a wonderful thing to remember those in your freezer when you get home at 1am a little worse for wear. In any event, neither of these locations offers much in the way of ambient seating. If you're looking for a nicer dine-in experience, swing around west to Shanghai Asian Manor. They're soup dumplings are solid, and the Szechuan wontons some of the best. This has become my go-to brunch spots because yes, dim sum made to order is so, so much better than coagulating hollandaise.

MAP
RECIPE: Baked Risotto. I make this, on average, every few weeks. Sometimes as-written, sometimes totally stripped down and with different ingredients all together.