The name and website of this hole-in-the-wall place sound like a bad Hong Kong comedy-action flick:

But it’s no joke. There are two rooms here (that I could see). In the back room are a few people seated around a round table making dumplings and buns by hand. In the front room (the store) are a bunch of freezers with the wares: Shanghai dumplings (xiao long bao), dumplings (jiaozi), wontons, and pot stickers. And they are all delicious.

They are more expensive (about $6 for a bag of about 21-25 dumplings) than the stuff you can find in supermarkets ($3-5/bag), but it is worth it:

• The dumplings are better constructed; they don’t disintegrate in boiling water as the supermarket stuff is wont to do.
• The dumplings are bigger.
• The dumplings do taste better.
• The store is closer to home; we don’t have to drive so far.

As soon as we walked in, the storekeeper looked at Patrika and asked her if she spoke Chinese (in Chinese, of course). She started to shy away, but we then realized he just wanted to know which language he should use (he speaks perfectly understandable English) to gush about his dumplings, how everything in the store is fresh and hand-made, not sitting in some supermarket freezer for months with preservatives (“Ugh, I don’t know how people eat that stuff”). Pretty entertaining.