what makes a nice dumpling
Winnie explained why the dough should be thicker in the middle:
and the dough was busily being folded, crimped, and sealed.
There were food writers to recognize (including this former Gourmet staffer rocking a yellow apron),
lively shrimp,
and pans at the ready for dumpling magic.
The dumplings nestled close in their pans,
before the momentous flip and a tap.
And we all passed the scallion sauce and the beautiful dumplings along the long table of colorful plates.
I had to duck out of Winnie’s to head over to Kombit restaurant on Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn, meeting Daryn (not pictured), Dave, Jessica, and Nick for the energy of this Haitian gathering place—we were taken aback by the happy noise and prodigious amount of food.
Goat, pork, beans and rice, and sweet potato cakes are only part of the appeal—there was a band we had to try and talk over, a film crew, and a really nice sense of community at the bar and with the staff.
Saturday morning, I stopped to congratulate the Waffle Truck (@waffletruck) on their win over Bobby Flay during the week, and I ordered my usual: a Liège wafel with spekuloos.
Meeting up with my friend Jenne, she chose an Asia Dog from the Brooklyn Flea vendors after we had a Red Hook Lobster Pound roll, of course,
and someone from the new Milk Truck (@milktrucknyc) staff held their “classic with a twist” sandwich for me; with its champagne-soaked onions, two kinds of cheese, and homemade mustard, I cannot wait until their truck opens at month’s end.
For now, I’ll content myself with their sandwiches at the Brooklyn Flea near the new Greek food vendor, Anthi, who tempted me with his Galaktobounko. “It’s like flan,” he assured me; in fact, with a beautiful creme middle with a crispy baklava-like top and a soft dough on the bottom, it might be better. And it may have brought me luck as I happened upon a birthday party for a friend of a friend that night.
Sunday morning began with a blindfold walk with Rosie and Faris from Union Square to Times Square full of misadventures (adore these two) as a group of us meandered toward our destination with burgundy blindfolds and tentative steps crossing streets,
and continued with Jessica reading her honest poetry (“I want poets to have something at stake”) at Zinc Bar that night.
This afternoon, I cooked skate wing with the bone (it’s really cartilage, but referred to as “the bone”) in duck fat for a few minutes on each side, then reduced wine and thickened the reduction sauce with butter, before blooming capers to sprinkle atop the skate and the baby sprouts from Evolutionary Organics at the farmers’ market. I find a Gavi white wine perfect for this classic dish.
With newfound knowledge about dumpling dough, inspiration from visiting friends (it’s always so nice to see Dave) and their artistic proofs (Jessica, congratulations again on the reading, and Jenne, good luck as this MFA semester begins), I feel ready to begin the week…
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Posted Monday, January 25th, 2010, 6:42 pm * Filed in Food, brooklyn. * Tags: cooking, kitchen, kristen, kthread, taylor. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 25th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Ahh, homemade dumplings! After a few embarrassing attempts at Chinese New Year parties, I have finally gotten the crimping and sealing technique down. Yes!
I saw the “Throwdown” with the waffle truck, and I was very excited to recognize it from kthread. I’ve never had Spekuloos, but it sounds delicious. Do you think it’s available outside of Belgium/waffle trucks?
January 26th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Mica, congrats on your dumpling technique :)
I’m having more success searching under ‘speculoos’ online, but I will promise to find some before I visit in the spring. If I figure out how to make it, I will certainly blog it.