I Love Dumplings

I am a sucker for dumplings, not as in chicken and, but Asian dumplings, the kind my daughter used to ask for in three syllables  dump-a-lings. Whenever I’d ask what she wanted for dinner it was dumplings. Just the other day I saw something about a new place that’s opened here in Philly, and what is the photo of, yes, dumplings. I won’t copy the photo, but you can see it here. I saw the post yesterday on Facebook, and have been planning how and when to go since then. Did I mention I haven’t had much of an appetite lately? But like the kid who is too full to finish dinner, but has an extra stomach for dessert, my sleeping appetite can rouse itself for a plate of dumplings.

I like going to places like this with my daughter, who even though she doesn’t eat meat anymore, still loves dumplings, and this place, Street Side offers plenty of options that she’ll eat. I almost went tonight, but I have to get up really early tomorrow, and going out alone on a Friday night seems more pathetic than I’m willing to be, though if I saw you out alone on a Friday night I wouldn’t judge. Anyway I think we’ll go next Friday, unless I can’t wait, then I may do a test run this week.

Through my entire life I’ve been a dumpling fan, and I’ve had some strange dumplings. My daughter is from China, and I went there with a large group of people all adopting Chinese babies. We were there for almost three weeks, and our guides tried hard to keep us entertained between visits to offices to fill out papers and go through the legalities of the adoptions. One day they took us to a huge restaurant the specialized in a particular type of dumpling. Exactly what kind of dumplings they wouldn’t tell us. Some people just declined to eat them. They were dumplings though, and they looked and smelled good, I was in. When they finally told us it was donkey meat, it didn’t bother me that much. I don’t know if I would have tried them if I’d known. At the time I thought they might be joking, but perhaps not.

Have you ever eaten something while traveling that you’d never try at home? What is the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?