My Little Dumplings

Growing up, dumplings were not a part of my vocabulary. In point of fact, I was well into adulthood before I had my first matzoh ball, a light and heavenly snowball bathed in chicken stock. Or its Southern cousin served with yellow gravy and fried chicken. And that was not to mention its plethora of Chinese ancestors, each wrapped around a mind-boggling variety of fillings from chicken to corn to scallops and peas to shrimp to…well…we'd best not go there lest the list consumes the whole post.

Needless to say, each one was its own revelation, a bit of doughy wonderment made of the simplest ingredients, mostly flour and water artfully combined with centuries of tradition.

So when I read my brother's description of the soup dumplings of Shanghai that he found on a trip there a couple of years ago, I was transfixed. His description of his first encounter with XLBs was telling: "As nice a husband as I am, if it came down to survival and that last xiaolongbao could get one of us off the desert island alive, [my wife] may have regretted her marital choice. I'm talking not just dumplings here. I'm talking barely held together bundles of translucent doughy joy, filled with a dab of meat gelatin which melts upon steaming."

See what I mean?

So when I heard that my neighbor Susana was offering a class on making these and other Asian dumplings at her new cooking school, Portland's Culinary Workshop, I was all up-ons. The class description says it all: "From Japanese gyoza to Chinese soup dumplings (xiaolongbao), learn to make these pockets of dreamy goodness and all the dipping sauces that accompany them at this hands-on workshop."

Shu Mai, for you dim sum fans, is also part of the syllabus, so come prepared for some major consumption of goodness as well as some dynamite appetizer action at your next party.

Details: Dumplings: Pockets of Goodness. Mar. 2, 6:30-9:30 pm; $65. Mar. 16, 6:30-9:30 pm; $65. Preregistration required. Portland's Culinary Workshop, 807 N Russell St. 503-512-0447.

Dumplings of Joy

My brother pretty much summed it up in a post about his first experience with soup dumplings in Shanghai: "As nice a husband as I am, if it came down to survival and that last xiao long bao could get one of us off the desert island alive, [my wife] may have regretted her marital choice. I'm talking not just dumplings here. I'm talking barely held together bundles of translucent doughy joy, filled with a dab of meat gelatin which melts upon steaming."

Since reading that I've had a serious longing, verging on jonesing, for one of those dumplings. I've had a few that came close to the transcendent experience I imagined, but they always somehow fell short. At one food cart, the soup had leaked out of several of them. At another place, the dough was too thick, and at a third the filling was a tasteless lump of some meat-like substance.

But today, today I finally had that experience I'd been waiting for, a xiao long bao worth singing about, and certainly worth going back for in the very near future.

Handmade noodles with beef.

I'd heard that Frank Fong, long famous for his handmade noodles at Du Kuh Bee in Beaverton, had recently taken over the late, unlamented location of Eagle Thai on NE Broadway. Retooling the interior and rechristening it Frank's Noodle House, he's featuring many of the Korean and Chinese dishes he was known for in Beaverton and adding a few new twists to the offerings.

I hope to explore more of his handmade noodle offerings on future trips, but at our lunch there my friend Ivy and I ordered two of his noodle dishes, which were toothsomely appealing, as well as a crispy-skinned fried mackerel that may well turn out to be another dish that will draw me back.

But I gotta tell you, it's those little dumplings of joy that are going to haunt my dreams for awhile. With enough structural integrity to contain the broth inside, the translucent wrapper is delicate enough to practically melt in your mouth when you bite into it. And the filling, a combination of tender ground pork and ribbons of greens, gives just enough heft to satisfy.

As my brother said after he had Frank's dumplings, "Mmmm-mmmmm."

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Update, 10/11/10: I talked with Frank today and he said that his dumplings are not classic xiaolongbao, but are boiled dumplings. Though his eyes lit up when I said that XLBs are almost impossible to find here, and there's a huge pent-up demand for them. So if you go in, you might mention it…just in case he can be convinced!

Details: Frank's Noodle House, 822 NE Broadway. 503-288-1007.