Year of the Takeout Day 62: New Peking
Pork Dumplings from New Peking (76 Bushwick Avenue, 718-388-8866)
Dumplings have a long and storied history in China.
There are fossilized dumplings! Which, in a less than perfect historic approximation, means that they have been around a really, really long time (maybe even, like, forever), as detailed by the Los Angeles Times.
Most intriguing, though, is one particular folktale surrounding the mysterious, meaty morsels: a Han Dynasty doctor, Zhang Zhongjing, would treat frostbitten ears "with a tonic of medicinal herbs and lamb wrapped in dough. He also fed his patients a soup containing two dumplings that were said to resemble a pair of ears."
Whoa!
Year of the Takeout has had the chance to sample various approaches to this classic throughout the city -- and we'll surely cover more -- but it seemed a little odd that we had yet to try pork dumplings, which are perhaps the most common variety of the staple.
So how did New Peking's hold up?
The porcine pick actually reminded YotT of the dumplings at Kavkaz, a Georgian restaurant in Ditmas Park, more than those typically encountered at a Cantonese canteen.
That's because the dough was so thick, the meat so mild, that the $4.75 selection felt more like Caucasus comfort food than a quick Chinese-American treat.
But we're not going to confuse quality with authenticity. Not only was the plate cheap and filling -- it was satisfyingly simple.
Follow Victoria Bekiempis @vicbekiempis.
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