Manti (baked minced beef dumplings served w/ light yogurt sauce)
by Celia Cheng
July 28th, 2008
ANTIQUE GARAGE
41 Mercer St
(Broome & Grand St)
212-219-1019
$$
Manti is one of my favorite Turkish foods. Small dumplings with minced beef stuffing, drizzled with a yogurt sauce and paprika mixed with melted butter, the manti at Antique Garage come closest to what I’ve had in Turkey (though I prefer lamb or a mixture of lamb and beef stuffing). While there are several other Turkish restaurants I enjoy in the City, none of them seem to make manti just right. It takes craft to make them as small as they should be, but it’s important in order to get the dough to filling ratio correct. And Antique Garage has gotten it right! But this craft doesn’t come at a low price: $20 is by far the highest price I’ve seen. But hey, I’m willing to splurge once in a while for good manti.
Posted in Dumpling , Lamb , SoHo , Turkish
Kalitsounia (lightly fried traditional Cretan cheese & mint dumplings served w/ clover honey)
by Celia Cheng
July 27th, 2007
S’AGAPO
34-21 34th Ave
Astoria, Queens
@ 34th St
718-626-0303
$$
S’agapo’s fried dumpling is fluffy, flaky and delicious! The key is to drizzle clover honey over the dumpling, which makes it good as either appetizer or dessert in my book. The Cretan cheese is smooth like ricotta and the mint is subtle. While you attend to eating other appetizers, fried dumplings can lose their appeal as they cool, but a revisit to these after consuming the main dish proved them to be equally delightful as when they were first served. Now that’s a winner!
Posted in Astoria , Cheese , Dumpling , Greek
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Sour Cherry Vareniki (dumplings)
by Celia Cheng
April 28th, 2007
CAFÉ GLECHIK
3159 Coney Island Ave
(Brighton Beach Ave & Brighton 10th St)
Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
718-616-0494
$
Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? The sour cherry dumplings at Glechik are a real treat, but there are twenty-five of them to an order. Sour cherries enwrapped in dumpling dough in just the right way — not too thin and not too heavy — already wets my palate but topping it with sour cream is like adding a cherry to a sundae – ecstasy! I totally expanded my waistline in one meal. That’s because I did have the other goodies and potato and mushroom vereniki as well. Next time I will share instead of hogging. But sometimes when you’re eating something good, you just can’t part with it.
Posted in Brighton Beach , Dessert , Dumpling , Russian
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Chive & Egg Pancake
by Celia Cheng
April 24th, 2006
M Shanghai Bistro & Den
129 Havemeyer St
(Grand & S 1st St)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718-384-9300
$$
Let’s start out by saying that the name of the dish is completely misleading. I ordered it by mistake because I wanted to order the “egg pancake” that used to be on the menu. However, this was a happy mistake. These chive and egg pancakes should be called “chive and egg dumplings,” since what you really get are deep-fried dumplings filled with fresh scrambled egg and chive. It’s certainly a western modification/invention, but it works and is really tasty. I’m just surprised that one order comes with only two of these little suckers at a hefty price tag of $5.
Duck Dumplings
by Celia Cheng
February 18th, 2006
DIM SUM GO GO
5 E Broadway
(Bowery & Catherine St)
212-732-0797
$$
Posted in Chinese , Duck , Dumpling
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