Kingdom of Dumpling

1713 Taraval St

San Francisco, CA 94116

 

Occasion: Saturday night dinner for 5 with Henry's siblings and bff.  So simple but so delicious. 11.26.11

Dumplings

We ordered three different dumplings with the same exterior look, but completely different tasty fillings.  My favorite was the pork with spinach filling followed by the pork and chives filling and lastly the shrimp, pork and chives filled ones.  The skin was not too thick and just the perfect size to pop into your mouth.  Be careful though, they're hot and can burn your tongue or the roof of your mouth.  I dipped it in the little tray of soy sauce they provided for each of us for a little more flavor, but the dumplings itself were so flavorful, I could have eaten each one with out the soy sauce dipping.

Xiao Long Baos

I take a little bite to create a hole on the skin of the buns and slurp up the soup from within the bun then dip it into the sauce and stuff it in my mouth.  Probably the best I've had in the city.  The skin is perfect and not too thick, though it wasn't filled with as much soup than I'd like for it to be. Flavorful and delightful little treats. YUM!

Cucumber Salad with minced garlic and sesame oil

Crunchy, flavorful and refreshing.  It was delicious and very addicting.  Right off the bat, we could taste the garlic in it, which made it even more tasty.  The sesame oil adds a great aromatic flavor to it.  Two of my favorite seasonings combined on one of my favorite veggies.  This was a winner appetizer.

Fresh cilantro bean noodle

I really really liked it.  It's my kind of dish.  It's amazing knowing that the noodle was made with bean curd.  It had a springy, yet crunchy texture.  Flavor was simple, but delicious! It was one of my favorite dishes of the night.  It's definitely unique and not something I've had before.

Marinated Beef

Cold appetizer.  My least favorite dish.  It was cold, the meat was dry and rough.  It wasn't that flavorful either.  I only had 1 piece and that was more than enough for me.

 Beef Noodle Soup

It was good, but not your typical northern beef noodle stew.  The broth was pretty "qing" and simple.  There were mushroom and mustard green with the flat rice noodle in it.  I enjoyed it on the cold winter night.

Onion pancake

Greasy and delicious. One of my favorite things to order at a northern Chinese restaurant.  The pancake batter was thin, crispy but soft and chewy inside. My favorite! YUM!!