There’s a reason the word dumpling is a term of endearment—we love them. A version of them exists in nearly every culture—from gyoza to pierogi to ravioli.
The act of wrapping dough around a filling and applying heat turns ingredients into a universal thing humans would very much like to eat… except when those dumplings are bad, like at the hotly anticipated new Yong Kang Street in Pioneer Place Mall. I was dreaming of lingering dim sum lunches downtown, but instead I had multiple failed attempts at getting something that didn’t taste of dirty frying oil or just too bland to care about. So skip it (and especially the aggressively bad shrimp dumplings) in favor of these two new places.
Master Kong isn’t only about dumplings, but at least one order of their hand-formed goubuli happen every visit.
Resembling xiao long bao soup dumplings in form, goubuli’s function is heartier, with a thicker skin, a rougher construction, and little juice on the inside. Soup dumplings are ephemeral, demanding you consume them within minutes of their arrival to the table, lest the soup soak into the thin wrapper, goubuli are the workman’s dumpling, ready to go from bamboo steamer to a lunch pail.
