Olympic dumplings
I don't think anybody could have missed there are Olympic Games in China next year. The Chinese have been preparing for years and years now: all kinds of wild architectural buildings, plans to definitely tackle the polluted air, and machines to shoot down clouds in the possibility of rain showers in August. It is all going to happen in 2008! And what is going to happen food-wise? I read something about McDonald's going to be around for food. Now that sounds reassuring, doesn't it? But what are the Chinese going to throw in? I know. The large Synear food company from Henan province (close to Beijing) is going to deliver jiaozi, or dumplings. The athletes will eat the jiaozi. The visitors will eat jiaozi. And one year from now, we will all eat jiaozi probably. Even you. However, you are very lucky, because you can eat them right now! Just go to your large Asian superstore and hunt for the Synear brand of frozen dumplings, because they are the company which signed a gigantic deal to be the official supplier of frozen dumplings to the Olympic games!
I was lucky enough to spot 3 kinds of this brand's Olympic dumplings in the Asian store: a green package, a blue package and an orange package, surprisingly all with vegetarian filling. The green package had a filling with Chinese chives [jiucai], shiitake mushrooms and cabbage; the blue package had a filling with Shanghai paksoi and shiitake mushrooms; and the orange package had a filling with tofu sheets and Chinese chives. All in the Olympic spirit we had a contest. I asked a group of Chinese-food-loving friends to come over and try them all out. The judges were fair, and hungry.
We had the blue ones. I mean the ones from the blue package. You get the idea. We had the green ones. And then we had the orange ones. They needed supervision while cooking: some skins would boil and tear, spilling out the filling in the boiling water. I found out one shouldn't overcook them; they still looked undercooked but then turned out too soft. We had them with the lovely jiaozi sauce and took notes. I had my favorite, for sure. It is the green one. But the other judges favoured the orange one, much to my surprise. Not that they differed much: the blue one was flavourful, but with the paksoi not very special in flavour, nice, but OK. The Chinese chives make it really tasty, and because (I think) I overcooked the green ones slightly, the orange ones won the match: 9 for flavour! Will definitely stock up on these frozen dumplings, only 1.90 for a package of about 30; enough to feed you when it is night and you are have an Olympic appetite!
I was lucky enough to spot 3 kinds of this brand's Olympic dumplings in the Asian store: a green package, a blue package and an orange package, surprisingly all with vegetarian filling. The green package had a filling with Chinese chives [jiucai], shiitake mushrooms and cabbage; the blue package had a filling with Shanghai paksoi and shiitake mushrooms; and the orange package had a filling with tofu sheets and Chinese chives. All in the Olympic spirit we had a contest. I asked a group of Chinese-food-loving friends to come over and try them all out. The judges were fair, and hungry.
We had the blue ones. I mean the ones from the blue package. You get the idea. We had the green ones. And then we had the orange ones. They needed supervision while cooking: some skins would boil and tear, spilling out the filling in the boiling water. I found out one shouldn't overcook them; they still looked undercooked but then turned out too soft. We had them with the lovely jiaozi sauce and took notes. I had my favorite, for sure. It is the green one. But the other judges favoured the orange one, much to my surprise. Not that they differed much: the blue one was flavourful, but with the paksoi not very special in flavour, nice, but OK. The Chinese chives make it really tasty, and because (I think) I overcooked the green ones slightly, the orange ones won the match: 9 for flavour! Will definitely stock up on these frozen dumplings, only 1.90 for a package of about 30; enough to feed you when it is night and you are have an Olympic appetite!
5 Comments:
what kind of dipping sauces did you use?
I used my favorite dipping sauce (Yinyin sauce): a mixture of mashed garlic, sugar, chinese vinegar, soy sauce and spicy chili oil. View a picture and the recipe here.
Update: I asked in the store about Synear brand dumplings with meat fillings, and it turns out due to European import regulations, selling Asian meat products in Europe is prohibited.
This explains why all the other dumpling types I have seen, Korean ones and Japanese ones, are all vegetarian.
The wontons and other dim sum snacks you see in the stores are all made in Europe, they do not come from Asia. Nor, it turns out, do frozen Peking ducks and that kind of thing really come from China. Perhaps for the better, because there are many Chinese food scares.
oh wow, that almost doesn't surprise me. the chinatown here in new york have stores that sell store-made frozen dumplings. those are actually pretty good.
We compared the orange and green ones today. And between the two we both preferred the green one, just like you.
The ingredients on the label weren't very informative. Mushrooms, it said. But I had the feeling it were tree-ear-mushrooms and that gave them the little "crunch" or texture we liked.
Maybe the chinese label gives more info? Do you know?
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