Making our way through the freezer sections of the Asian grocery stores: Gyoza, Chinese dumplings, and more (part 1)

A couple of years ago, a colleague mentioned to me that he loved Asian dumplings, but Asian-store freezers sections – with shelves and shelves of dumpling bags – kind of freaked him out. He couldn’t read the instructions or, in many cases, even the name of the dumplings. The pictures weren’t much to judge by. He’d tried the random-grab approach a couple of times, struck out, and then given up.

Well, one person’s freak out is another’s project. The kids and I threw ourselves into intensive dumpling research this past year. Some people might have called this eating a lot of quick meals out of the freezer when I got home late from work and was totally out of ideas, but that is a curmudgeon’s approach to the world. I’ve been called a thing or two in my life, but “curmudgeon” has never been on the list.

So welcome to the first installment of Dumpling Inspector!

OK, “dork” has made this list a few times. But let me just ask you, should I get a cape made? I’m thinking…purple…

Our first pick is in the thin-skinned, gyoza-like category.

Here is a picture of the bag. You can find these in the freezer section of the Asian Market on Colvin Ave. in Albany. All the dumplings in this line are good, but the chicken and vegetable are the best.

I was surprised by this. I typically go for leeks, mushrooms, pork and other such ingredients.

Chicken dumplings are usually a little, I don’t know, just kind of blah. But these have a wonderful juicy chicken flavor. They are a great dumpling for the novice, or someone who is just learning to explore Asian flavors. Just tell them it tastes like chicken. In this case, it really does.

I steam them first. And then after they are soft and the dumpling skin is translucent, I pan-fry them. Serve them with a dipping sauce of Japanese soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and a few dashes of hot chili oil.

(I really like boiled dumplings, but my kids aren’t fans.)

One caveat. The bag says that these dumplings are made in the United States in a place called City of Industry. That sounded a little weird to me. I googled it, and City of Industry is real place in California. According to Wikipedia (for what that is worth), it’s got a lot of import-export businesses, a huge mall, and a McDonalds that is used exclusively for shooting movies and commercials.

The bag also has a stamp on it that says it has been inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Of course, the stamp states that said department has insured the content’s “whole someness.” Which is good because I like my someness whole. It loses a little something when it’s cut up, don’t you think.

A friend suggested that perhaps I’d run across some pirated dumplings.

Maybe the poor schlub who makes the inspection stamps for the Department of Agriculture is related to the folks who made this election ballot.

The mystery continues, but I can tell you this. They are really, really yummy.