Zeene Eatz & Rates Dumplings @ Yuanbao Jiaozi

[Music] happy lunar new year for asian countries that use the lunar calendar new year's is the biggest holiday of the year about as big as christmases for the western countries this year the two week festival kicks off on february 16th and concludes on the 26th each year the date is slightly different because the lunar month is shorter than the christian gregorian one which is now the global standard in the chinese culture new year's traditions revolve around ushering in the old and welcoming in the new we house clean to get rid of last year's misfortunes wear cool new outfits and hang signs on the front door to welcome a new year of prosperity we also have special foods we eat to represent our hopes for the upcoming year uncut noodles for long life oranges for success nyan gao or steamed rice cakes for improved social status and dumplings for wealth and prosperity because the raf shapes look like the chinese gold ingots that were used as currency in the olden days in recent years dumplings have become super popular here in the u.s and you can buy them almost anywhere costco on your local supermarket have them in the freezer section and there are tons of little restaurants popping up all over that make them fresh to order the most famous one has got to be taiwan's din taipan which undertook a massive global expansion in the last decade out here in the bay area there are a ton of these little hole in the wall mama pop shops cranking them out in the back kitchen while chinatown is historical the outer sunset is where all the new immigrants are at and where we're going to find some good dumpling shops so let's go it's always kind of a crap shoot with these establishments but i found a place called yambal joslyn which has got stellar reviews on yelp plus the name yuemba means money ingot so it's got to be a celestial sign right this is a tiny little establishment so usually there's a big long line for dining but with provide they're offering frozen dumplings for takeout which is much better than the cooked and the beef noodle soup is also supposed to be pretty spectacular here okay let's take these home to cook wrappers are really simple salts water and flour dough the filling is typically a seasoned ground pork that is mixed with some kind of a veggie usually a napa cabbage but what i like about yemboja is that it has a whole variety of very unusual fillings like this green pepper and fish shrimp and zucchini pork shrimp chive and egg and chicken with shiitake mushroom generically the name jojo refers to this kind of a crescent-shaped dumpling with the pleated seal at the top and then depending on how it's cooked it's also referred to as suijo or water dumplings for boiled water meaning stuck to pan or pot stickers for pan fried and sunja for steamed and we can't forget the dipping sauce you can buy it pre-made at the store but it's so simple to make yourself the basic is three-part soy sauce to two-part chinese black vinegar or you can use balsamic vinegar instead from here you can also add minced garlic grated ginger chopped scallions or chili oil to taste okay let's try the pan fried shitake mushroom and chicken wow that meat is pretty tender and it's super savory and the shiitake mushrooms give it a really rich umami flavor the texture of the dumpling wrapper is up to personal taste some people like it very thin and some people like it thicker these ones are thicker which i love and they hold up really really well to the pan frying method this is the shrimp and zucchini so this is little bits of frying shrimp zucchini very thin rice noodles and egg in it too i made a little bit of a judgment era and i boiled these and actually for something as delicate as this where there's a lot of shredded pieces of zucchini in here it probably would be better to use a steam method on this i'm going to give it a try anyways yeah so my feedback on this one is a little bit mixed not sure if i quite like this one or not i'm used to this being more of a vegetarian option and the shrimp gives it more of a briny ocean quality that i'm not quite used to but i do love the skin even boiled chewy and fabulous i've really been looking forward to this fish and green bell pepper dumpling bottoms up so yummy that's a winter combo right there the mince fish is salty and savory and it goes so well with the spiciness of that bell pepper and that steaming method works so well with the fish it leaves the fish nice and moist and tender the only downside to the steaming because the skin is much thicker i had to steam it for twice as long and last but not least the pork shrimp egg and chives that's pretty good again very tender meat and you just can't beat that classic combination of chives which gives a nice pungency to the filling the scrambled egg is not bad in there either it gives it a really nice lighter and fluffier texture all right on to the ratings out of ten i give granba jazza a nice respectable savage the flavors are super interesting and out of the four fillings that i tried i only really dislike one the seasoning is very well done and the proportion of protein to veg is spot off despite me liking a thicker chewier skin the dough on this one is only about average thus the lower score a really good thick skin should have some cucu or that chewy turgidness that this one somehow lacks this is more of a soft chewiness rather than a springy chewiness if you know what i mean but otherwise would totally do this again not half that whether you get your dumplings at yam baja or a costco best wishes for a prosperous new year and have a happy celebration with your family and kyla and bonhoy fat choy

Channel: Zeene InRealLife

Views: 1,407

Keywords: Zeeneinreallife, Zeene In Real Life, ZeeneIRL, Zeene's Epic Eatz, Epic Eatz, San Francisco foods, Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year foods, Chinese New Year traditions, Chinese dumplings, Jiaozi, jiao zi, potstickers, Yuanbao Jiaozi, best dumplings in San Francisco, shui jiao

Id: CBGsee6yT7o

Length: 6min 17sec (377 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 12 2021