Chinese Dumpling Guide: 11 MUST TRY Dumplings!

Hey guys, I've been doing a lot of traveling. I'm in Taiwan right now Taipei. It's really awesome place It's like my food paradise And I just wanted to take this time to wish everybody a happy year of the monkey Happy Lunar New Year and hope all you guys are having a good time You're with your families regardless whether you celebrate this holiday or not right now This is like a dream come true for me because I've been wanting to come to Taiwan for so long and today I'm gonna go film a bunch of videos about Taiwanese noodle soup, which is awesome And then tonight I'm gonna go to my first night market and film that for you guys as well in the meantime One must-eat item during this new year is of course the dumpling and about a year ago I did this video about the different types of dumplings. You've got to try this video was uploaded to a channel I'm no longer a part of so I wanted to bring that video here just in case you guys haven't seen it So there you go. Check it out. And if you want to follow my time here in Taiwan, definitely check out my vlog channel I'm gonna put the link in my description box again, whether you celebrate it or not I'm still gonna wish all of you guys a very happy Lunar New Year, and I'll just check it out my channel I realized that it went over a hundred thousand. So that's awesome And thank you guys so much couldn't do it without you and you're the excuse I mean reason why I keep eating and making all these food videos. So thank you all so much for watching and here you go Here's the dumpling video guys. What's going on? It's Mike. It's Dan. We're back at the Flushing Sorry, right and we just got done with Chinese New Year There's something we really wanted to talk about and eat anything obviously and that is dumplings You know, I just gotta say dumplings are just like my favorite Chinese. Really? Yeah more than noodles really because um, you know why because when I first came to America Yes, like that's like the best memory of like so you guys ate dumplings here all the time You know, I used to I used to be on the dumpling diet The dumpling diet actually is it's actually the reverse of a diet Okay, if you ever want to gain a lot of weight really quickly you go on the dumpling diet and you will gain the weight So let's talk a little about the origin of dumplings. Let's do it. There's a lot of different stories Of course with China with this long history There's a lot of variations of tales of how things originated the most popular story is about a doctor and also a government official called Zhang Zhongji who existed about 2,000 years ago in the Eastern Han Dynasty and one day he went home for New Year's and his hometown is very cold It's in the north and he noticed that a lot of his town folks they they were getting frostbites and particularly their years were kind of like like Pieces were like rotting. Yeah Because if you go outside the first thing that gets really cold is your years your extremities, right? So he wanted to do something to help the people in his hometown He cooked a big pot of soup and he made he made these wrappers and filled it with a lot of Chinese medicine right Chinese herbs and medicine, but also to make it kind of tasty better He filled it with some meats and veggies Yeah, so, you know a lot of Chinese medicine There are herbs and vegetables a lot of it does could taste pretty good if you mixed it the right way, right? So he made this into Into like a dough patty kind of a pocket thing and put it into the pot to boil with some lamb soup usually And he fed this to all his town folks and when they drinked it and they ate the dumplings it really helped warm their body definitely, so it helped with the frostbite their years weren't frozen anymore and because the Shape of the dumplings kind of looks like a year. Yeah. Yeah, so they called it Xiao R Okay, Xiao R, which R is like year, right so eventually I think maybe even during the 1700s That's when actually the term Jiaozi came around but it's perfect today because it's freezing outside Yeah, and it's snowing outside. So it's even colder than here. We're gonna order like an epic dumpling meal So we're gonna show you guys all the different kinds. Here we go That's a lot of dumplings buddy, did we get too much food? Nah, we can do this. Oh my goodness We just gotta eat like, you know 40 or so dumplings Yeah, well, I mean I'm super excited because I think we literally got one dumpling from every category I mean, yeah, we got it all. This is like if the dumpling family had a party. Yeah family reunion Yeah, everybody showed up. I mean we even got soup dumplings got all the dumplings. Here's what we got guys We have some steamed dumpling here. It's the traditional ones. We've got some Shaomai and shrimp dumpling, which is more like Kanto style. They call it crystal shrimp dumplings, right? We have some Tianbao Shengjian bao basically fried buns. So this is the dumpling in soup Those are shui jian bao. They're basically potstickers, right, but they're water fried buns They're bigger size than like a typical potsticker, right? Put them in water oil and that's how they kind of get the bottom all crispy. Yeah, I love that You see that? That's like my favorite part Of course you got your soup dumplings, my favorite. Sichuanese hongyou chaoshou, which is spicy wontons. Yep wontons in soup You got to have that. But you guys never will guess these are potstickers. That's the craziest thing I've ever seen That's the craziest potsticker ever. For dessert, we have these dumplings which are tangyuan, sesame, sweet rice mochi balls So we got everything. We got wheat dumplings. We got rice dumplings. We got buns in soup out of soup So we're gonna eat these right now First of all, my tradition of before eating any dumpling is I gotta have my perfect dumpling sauce. I have here some vinegar, right? Oh, yeah, Chinese black vinegar Hot oil. All right, some soy sauce. So for me like I grew up I only use one thing to eat with dumplings. Vinegar? Black vinegar. Okay, that's it. That's all I use All right, but since I've been hanging out with you a lot I have been using some hot oil from time to time So we'll start from this end with the boiled dumplings and this is the most common traditional type of dumplings Can I just say to me this is the right size for a boiled dumpling. What makes a good dumpling? Oh, well meat, thin skin, juicy inside. Yes. The meat has to have natural juice. I agree So we have here some fish dumplings and also we have pork and veggies This is a yeah pork and veggies. So now we have some fish. This is like lava Dumpling sauce right here. Fish, if you do it wrong, like if it's not fresh enough Then it comes off like a little fishy smell. Very nice texture to the fish. It's not like just like biting into like maybe Like a like a fish stick or something. It's kind of tough. It's beautifully tender. Yep. It's wonderful. Also it has a scallion I mean cilantro. Cilantro? Which I love. Let's move on to the southern part of China. Okay, we have a xiaomai. Okay One thing about xiaomai, I just had xiaomai from the northern part and they put meat in it This has rice in it. Why does it have rice in it? I was gonna ask you This is a xiaomai. This is the first time I'm eating xiaomai with like with the rice stuffed in it, right? I I gotta say I do like it like this. I've had it like this. I've never had it like this. The xiaomai I know has meat This is really heavy. That's how you know, we've been spending way too much time together We don't finish each other's sentences. We say each other's sentences. This is a very typical breakfast breakfast food in down south It's made with rice flour. Yep, and shrimp on the inside. I'm more of a northern food guy as you guys know So this to me is like it's not my favorite type of dumpling I have to say I understand its existence, but I'm not that's not my favorite type You know, I'm more of a southern food guy, but I'm a northern dumpling eater. All right, let's try the sheng jian bao This often appears a lot in southern China. Yep. Well from from my neck of the woods. Yeah. Hi. Yeah, this is my favorite item on the food stalls of Shanghai That's actually really juicy That's actually really juicy I could taste the MSG and it's not a bad thing The bottom is crispy This is where they pan-fried this this dumpling oil. It's crispy. It's soft on top It's still very juicy on the inside, which is important in a bun Worst thing you can have is a dumpling or a bun that's overly dry This here what we're eating is a pork and celery dumpling a little bit. Actually, I like I like Chives more than celery. I don't but celery what it does. It gives it a nice crunch. Celery is probably my favorite filling This is also not my favorite type of soup to eat dumplings with. Okay, I'm used to the sour and spicy soup up north Oh, yeah, put that. Yeah, put dumpling in that. Yeah, and this is more like this is lamby. I think the soup is lamb Yeah, oh, this is actually really delicious. It's so good this The Fragrance in this dumpling is really really really nice because that's that's a very famous one called that Sanxian three the three freshness or the three Deliciousness usually it's pork shrimp. Yeah, and the veggies veggies Yeah, like the dumplings is heavy the soup actually kind of washes it down gives it a nice surrounding base to it I mean kind of reminds me of the story you were telling about the sick people I could literally picture myself in a village in China Drink that drink that while warm and my frostbitten ears heal, you know, all right moving on. This is a shui jian bao Right. It's a potsticker. This is a well, it's bigger than a potsticker. It's a bun Right, and this is like a fried bun basically, but this is really popular type of food item, especially like in areas like Kaifeng and The meat is different from any of the meat we have. It's rice noodles and ground beef It just tastes so different from any dumpling there's no veggies in here is this very normal Or is this their own recipe? I think this is their own stuff, which there's a lot of meat I'm not gonna complain about that, but it's missing some of the veggie You know that is because a dumpling you kind of need a veggie So I kind of balance out the heartiness of the meat that otherwise the dumpling becomes a little too heavy Yeah, moving on to the ever so popular soup dumplings to use soup dumplings usually, you know you put it on a spoon and you want to Not let the soup drip everywhere, I mean we're gonna do a whole video about this but for the sake of this time I'm just gonna eat it Soup dumpling in this Flushing mall basement. It's really good. It's so good. It's so good This is your favorite type of dumplings. I love it. I eat this all day The other ones I'll get sick of these ones all day all night. It's really good. Let's do that This is the Sichuan wonton. Usually they put this inside hot oil with that peanut sauce. Yep I feel like there could be more hot oil. Let's try that. I think the seasoning on this is pretty good. I agree There's nice amounts of peanut sauce. I wish the filling was bigger Because I'm tasting a lot of dough. The sauce is good The vegetables are good complements, but overall it's kind of lacking a little bit. It is. So this wonton I'm really excited about this is Qi Cai wonton. Qi Cai is basically the best wonton ingredients. I love Qi Cai. I don't know how to translate that like shepherd's purse or some kind of weed Although it tastes delicious It's a leafy green vegetable with a with a pretty strong flavor. It's kind of peppery This is my favorite vegetable in Dublin. Hands down. It's amazing even more than celery because I said celery was like five minutes ago Yeah, you tend to like just up yourself all the time when it comes to like things that you like like this No, I like that. No, I like this. Oh, I didn't know I like that Alright last but not least. This is really amazing because this is the first time I've seen a Guo Tie come out like this before Man turn it over. Oh, look at that. Wait, wait, look at this. This is really beautiful. Look at that thing Look how beautiful this is. Oh my goodness. Look at look at that. I've never seen a dumpling like that Alright, let's try this out. Can I just say one of my favorite smells on the planet is like fried dumpling dough It's got this really awesome smell to it. Let me know if you guys agree. These are chive dumplings some of my favorite And the way that they're pan-fried I really like this because now they can fit more filling like into the dumpling Plus pizza where they extend the ingredients all the way to the edge of the pizza. This is this awesome This is better than they own. This looks like a dumpling taco doesn't even look like a dumpling. It's a dumpling It's an overstuffed dumpling, which I have no problem. No problems with at all. And finally Did you guys know there's a dessert dumpling and we got it? This my friends, there you go is Tangyuan rice mochi balls, we call it it is considered a dumpling Don't be like, oh, it's a rice ball. It's considered a dumpling. It's a dumpling. Okay, so Mochi ball on the outside sweet black sesame filling on the inside. You can actually find anything in here these days Oh, so good red bean, whatever We're gonna dive in now or forgetting something. We're forgetting something When you make your own dumplings, here's something you have to remember dumpling soup Yeah Because after you boil the dumplings all the flavor soaks into this soup Yeah, the water that you boil the dumplings with and that water turns into Dumpling soup and this is what Chinese people love to drink because Chinese people we don't drink cold water usually during meals Especially when eating dumplings we drink dumpling soup. Well, don't get it confused with this is not like a soup broth It's not a heavy flavor, but it's almost refreshing after you had all these doughy dumplings There's a hint of the meatiness in there. I'm not gonna do this right now. But here's what we used to do at my house We support some of the vinegar in here. We don't do that. Yeah, we do that We drink this like water doing a dumpling meal So I always remember the times when I think like all the times I've had with my friends and family was always around There was dumplings involved. So there's some of the best memories. I have dumplings represent to a Chinese family at least You know, I'm not speaking for other Asian groups, but at least for Chinese people is a sign of like unity Yeah, because cooking dumplings not like hey, it's Friday night. I'm home alone. I'm gonna make some dumplings by myself It doesn't happen. It's a family or friends up there Together and it's like a big thing, right? You're like big thing. You roll the dough, right? You start mixing the inside ingredients. I mean you guys will see like there's everybody for every task, right somebody Rolling the dough putting it inside. They always make fun of people for making it too weird How good is your dumpling skills my dumpling skills guys is absolutely Yeah My dumpling skills are really bad. It's not really bad. I I can I can get them to come together It just might not look like sometimes like all the ones I don't even put it together and it breaks open in the boil And I and I get yelled at all with the meat with the molding everywhere loading Every know what what people do in Chinese New Year as well is they put coins into the dumpling? So if anyone bites into the coin dumpling, that means you're gonna have good fortune War it means you're gonna go see the dentist tomorrow. I also heard something else, too I sometimes they'll put other ingredients like dates or nuts And if you get those it could be like good fortune for your health or relationship Can I just tell you the best dumpling memory I ever had in my life? Okay. It was actually when I was younger and my mom made chestnut dumplings Which no one's ever heard of it. Have you heard of that before? No, I mean, I've I'd love chest It's one of the most delicious things I ever put in my mouth and it's just I never had it since But I was crazy. Yeah, you gotta call your mom All right, so after all that what which one was your favorite one my favorite has to be The one doing actually really cheese. Hi. I love cheese. Hi. I love them. I think they're the best I also love boiled dumplings. Okay, I really ever eat fried dumplings Because I feel like you know, I don't need it to be fried. I like fried up like right now more than boy I love this. Okay, I think Southerners like fried dumplings more than boiled dumplings. I know there is we love boiled dumplings Yeah, no, you guys definitely do so for me like that Was my favorite one? Well, I mean the soup dumplings my favorite but aside from that the fried ones, okay, okay Hi guys. Well, thank you so much for joining us today on this dumpling adventure Yeah, hope you ate a bunch of dumplings this new year. Oh, did you know there's a thing? There's a thing. Okay, if you don't eat dumplings during the day of winter, okay, which is the winters? Solstice your years gonna fall off. Oh my gosh, so you better eat your dumplings If you didn't if you missed it, you better like like do what we do Just like make it up and you know order like 80 and just just hope your ears don't fall off Hey, hope you and your friends and your family get together and have a huge dumpling party because that's a lot of fun Okay. All right guys. Thanks for watching later. See you later