It started with one tweet. Possibly this one…
In the matter of 20 minutes, about 7 people had tweeted interest in partaking in a Dumplings-Around-The-World party… Gotta.Love.Twitter.
So one February evening, Lillian (@beyondumami), Teresa (@DishcrawlYEG), Diane (@argenplath) and I met up over pizzas, salad, and gelato at Da Capo to conceptualize the dumplings evening, which took place this past Saturday.
The idea was to celebrate one of the most versatile and culturally-shared food items – the humble but amazing dumpling! It seemed that almost every culture has its take on the dumpling, there’s matzo ball, pierogies, tortellini, ravioli, wontons, xiaolongbao, spaetzle, kluski, takoyaki, and samosas… just to name a few. What better food-item to host an event around? What better way to celebrate this food than to cook and share samples from different cultures?!
We asked each couple (or single) attending the evening to bring one dumpling dish. There were 15 adults and 1 cow in attendance and man-oh-man, did we get a large variety of dumplings. To our dog Gracie’s chagrin, the house smelled awesome with dumplings frying, boiling, and baking (and yet no one dropped a morsel of dumpling on the ground). In one evening we managed to tour Russia, Poland, China, Italy, Moo-Land, etc all through the dumpling.
Wrapping Wontons
OUR DUMPLING LINE-UP:
- Vereniki with cottage cheese (sprinkled with sugar) – Diane & Amanda
- Ravioli with mushrooms, truffle, and shaved pecorino cheese – Lillian & Dan (@danprime)
- Two types of dessert wontons – Cabernet & Mixed Berry Wontons and Strawberry Nutella Wontons – Teresa & Ashley (@ashleyblaire23)
- Bacon, Mushroom, Potato Perogies w/ onion butter – Yung & Justin
- Two types of empanadas – Buffalo (aka gochujang) Wings and Andouille Cheddar – Phil (@baconhound) & Robyn (@joyfulfollies)
- Bittersweet Chocolate “Dumpling” Cupcakes filled with Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache – Wes, Eva, & Marlow (@MarlowMoo)
- Berkshire Pork & Tiger Prawn Wontons (two ways – fried and in soup) – filling made by me, communal wrapping
One dumpling tragedy – Michelle (@
michpetersjones) found her Goan Empadinhas’ filling too fibrous to bring, which was too bad as Phil was looking forward to an Empanada show-down but we forgot all about the Empadinhas when she brought over a bucket of her homemade Chai Ice Cream with crystallized ginger (yum).
We were also quite dessert spoiled as Teresa and Ashley brought extra cabernet & mixed berry sauce to be served over vanilla ice cream and Dong (@
buntcake) broke out his
Elephant Island dessert wines to be paired with Marlow’s bitter-sweet chocolate “dumpling” cupcakes.
When it came time for judging, it was a difficult decision what with so much yummyness. It was a close race between Teresa & Ashley’s dessert wontons and Phil & Robyn’s empanadas, but in the end the empanadas edged out 7 – 5 for a gift certificate to one of our favourite butchers –
Acme Meat Market.
Here are a few pictures from the evening (all photos by Dong Kim). Unfortunately, some food items were left out as our photographer was busy enjoying their deliciousness (ex. Michelle, Teresa, and Ashley’s wonderful ice creams, dessert wine, ravioli, wonton soup). For more pictures, please visit the
Dumplings-Around-The-World album on
my Facebook page.
Gracie & Marlow's first meeting drove the cute Moo to drink
Wonton Filling - Irvings Berkshire Pork, Tiger Prawns, Napa Cabbage, Shitaki Mushrooms, Black Funghi, Ginger, Green Onions, Seasoning
Partaking in Wrapping Wontons
Someone must have told a dumplings joke
Phil and Robyn's empanadas getting ready for the oven
Fresh-made wontons frying
Vereniki Frying
Bacon, Mushroom, Potato Perogies with onion butter
Dessert Wontons - Cabernet & Mixed Berry (Left), Strawberry & Nutella (Right)
Please somebody drop something!
Dumplings Spread
Chocolate Dumpling Cupcake filled with Ganache
Empanada takes the prize!
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foodkarma 
Such a great idea! Looks like it was a lot of fun.
Brilliant idea and what a bunch of fun by the looks of things. The sharing of food is a wonderful way to bring people together. Congrats to the newly crowned Empanada King!
Looks like you guys had a wonderful time – sad I had to miss it. Those strawberry and nutella dumplings are calling my name!
Thanks for checking out the post ladies – was such a fun night. I used to do Iron Chef dinners with friends in Calgary where we choose one ingredient/theme (ex. mango, chocolate, hot dog, etc.) and each make a dish using that ingredient.
This dumplings night was reminiscent of the creativity and fun from eating parties like that.
Brilliant idea – great photos! Fun to read about and see that some of my favourite Edmonton foodies gathered to cook and eat together. Makes my heart sing!
I can imagine no more gracious host and hostess. XO
🙂
V
Thanks for the kind words Valerie – was a fun night and glad people seemed to have a good time and share in dumpling eating too.
Looks lovely! why don’t you arrange something this year as well !