Soup Dumplings: It's What's for Lunch

It remains to be seen whether it'll help me get accepted to medical school, but eating Dim Sum Garden's soup dumplings ($5) for lunch--everyday for a week, I kid you not--sure did help me finish my applications.

"Dumplings are good," replied Baker Boy when I suggested it for our Center City lunch date. He had no idea...

See, it isn't dumplings in soup, it's soup inside dumplings. Don't ask me how they do it. All I know is that it's good--hot, wet and messy like good...yeah. The pork filling is sweet and juicy and the dumpling dough is chewy but thin. Perfection. It comes as no surprise that they're made to order by hand. The scallion pancakes ($4) are simple, savory and also worth trying. And if you're looking for a vegetarian option, The Prodigal Jameson enjoys the steamed vegetable buns ($4).

If the restaurant looks a bit ghetto--neon signs and plastic chairs and all-- the soup dumplings are, well, ghetto delicious.

Dim Sum Garden
59 N. 11th Street

On my recent trip to NYC with The Kosher Kid, I tried the soup dumplings, also called "pork juicy buns," at the midtown location of the well-known Joe's Shanghai restaurants--as did The Kid formerly known as Kosher. (I'm a bad influence, it's true.) Impossible though it seemed, Joe's pork dumpling filling was even juicier than Garden's. Unfortunately, the Philly-to-NYC train fare makes this a decidedly less than cheap lunch option...

Joe's Shanghai
24 W. 56th Street
New York, NY