The Dumpling Shop

I love having dumplings in the freezer because they’re great for last minute meals because they’re so quick to cook.  Filling for the dumplings can be anything really.  There are vegetarian dumplings which is I think filled with vegetables, vermicelli noodles, and egg as a binder.  Meat dumplings can have pork, beef, or chicken, mixed in with some sort of flavouring, for example, shitake mushrooms, celery, bok choy, cabbage, leeks or chives.  The dumplings can be eaten alone as a full on meal, or they can be an addition to some soup noodles.  I personally like eating my dumplings as a full on meal, dipped in some dark chi kang vinegar mixed with chili oil.   

I usually like to make my own dumplings.  I have to admit that I don’t make my own dumpling wrappers.  It’s easy to do, but I’m lazy.  I just make my own filling.  My filling usually consists of a small portion of hand minced chicken breast, mixed with a bunch of vegetables (could be cabbage, leeks, watercress), shitake mushrooms and egg.  Lately I’ve been pretty busy and tired, so I wanted to look for a place that sells hand made dumplings as opposed to the generic ones that you find at the supermarket.  Handy Yelp, led me to the Dumpling Shop in the Yonge and Sheppard area.  Pricing is decent, around $8 for 30 frozen dumplings.  Disclaimer, they use MSG in their dumplings, I asked the lady that works there, and she told me that they do.  But there’s MSG in supermarket dumplings too, so while I try to stay away from MSG, it’s kind of hard to avoid. 

 Dumplings themselves were quite large, with a large amount of filling.  I bought the pork and chive filling dumplings.  The minor down side is that the dumpling wrapper skin is a bit thicker than I would like.  But I think I would still go back for more dumplings, it’s still better than the frozen supermarket ones.

Pork & Chive Dumplings

The Dumpling Shop

184 Willowdale Ave., 

Toronto, ON

M2N 4Y9

Phone:  (416) 512-2323

Hours:  Monday - Saturday 9:00a - 7:00p

             Sunday CLOSED

Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamers

It's nearing the end of the school term.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel sort of, not really.  This week, and the next 2 weeks will be pretty hectic for me.  So I didn't think I would be blogging again until a few weeks later.  But after eating my lunch, I felt obligated to post, to prevent all of you from eating this junk.

 I have a coworker that loves to eat these funny looking frozen dinners.  She said that they're sooooo good. The combination of this is soooo good, plus my head being stuck in presentations and studying the textbooks is exactly why I bought some Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamers to keep in the freezer.  That and I had coupons.  I think these Gourmet Steamers ended up being $1 or $2 each.  Last night was a day where we didn't have enough leftovers from dinner to pack a lunch for the next day.  So perfect opportunity to give this frozen dinner a try.

The idea of it is great.  The pasta, meat and veggies are separate from the sauce which keeps the pasta from going mushy.  Again, idea and design of the container is great.  While the food was nuking in the microwave, it smelled pretty good too.  It's not until I took it out of the microwave that my appetite began to decrease.  It looked kinda gross to be honest with you.  I was hoping that once I mix the sauce it, it would be better.  Nope.  Just as bad, just with sauce on it.  I tried a piece of the chicken, made me think of a news article I read a few years ago.  It was about pieces of meat, that used some sort of glue to reform them into 'whole' pieces of meat.   Needless to say, it was not a very enjoyable lunch.  I really should just cook a bit more pasta next time I make it for dinner, and portion it for lunches and freeze it.  My very own, healthier version of 'frozen dinner'.  So please don't buy it.......it's not even worth paying a $1 for.

Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamer - Pre Mix

Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamer - Post Mix