Steamed Shrimp and Pork Dumpling Red Monster
by Celia Cheng
March 13th, 2005
DUMPLING MAN
100 St. Mark’s Pl
(1st Ave & Ave A)
212-505-2121
It never ceases to amaze me how poor the selection of Chinese food is in New York. I actually feel sorry for people who have not tasted real Chinese food because based on what is served in the majority of the restaurants here, one would never know how good it can be.
Dumpling Man is the perfect example. I think the idea of a specialty dumpling store in New York is great, but the execution here is significantly lacking.
The main problem is in the dumpling skin, the doughy part. In Asia, it would be a disgrace to serve someone dumplings with skin as thick as Dumpling Man. It is unrefined and lacks the quality of a specialty store. While Dumpling Man is more geared towards fast food, the high price (about 4 times as expensive as Chinatown dumpling joints) doesn’t justify the thick skin, except as a way to fill people up on the dough so that they don’t really focus on the taste of the dumpling as a whole.
The Red Monster is an interesting twist. It is basically a tomato sauce, so it combines the concept of western pasta sauce with Chinese dumplings. It seemed to work okay with the pork dumplings, but was not an ideal combination with the shrimp since the shrimp stuffing has more of a cream base with corn inside.
I’m hoping that they kick it up a notch and try to improve their quality instead of just thinking about this as a moneymaking fast food venture.
Posted in Chinese , Dumpling , East Village
