The restaurant interior is bright and well lit and the party piece is the open concept kitchen where they make their dumplings or jiaozi (饺子). Dumplings are the staple dish in Dongbei and the Dongbei people eat their dumplings like the Southern Chinese take rice. In Jiaoziying Dongbei Restaurant, the dumplings are freshly made when you order. I caught the chefs hard at work making the dumplings I had just ordered.
The boiled pork and cabbage dumplings (白菜猪肉饺子) arrived and the fact that it was freshly made and the fresh ingredients instantly made a huge difference. Normally, I douse the dumplings in a sauce mixed from vinegar, soy sauce, chopped garlic and chili. This time I ate the dumplings without sauce. It was that good. The pork filling was juicy and the cabbage retained some of the crunch from not being over cooked.
The pan fried pork spiced with fennel dumpling (茴香猪肉饺子) arrived next and it was done pretty well too. Only not as good as the high standards set by the pork and cabbage dumplings. That is not to say that the pork and fennel dumplings are poor. They are excellent. The fennel spicing made the pork more fragrant and the dumplings were pan fried just right with a light crispy outer and a juicy filling.
Cucumber dipped in bean sauce (沾酱黄瓜) is a traditional Dongbei meal and it is certainly very healthy. The sauce is made from fermented soya beans and in most Dongbei restaurants in the south of China, this sauce tends to be commercially made and taste overly salty and lack the taste of bean. The sauce here is almost close to home made quality which speaks volumes. I normally like to have this if I am in need of a heavy detox from overly rich meals. It is to me the Chinese equivalent of a fresh garden salad with its own unique salad sauce.
Stewed pork ribs (酱骨架) is another classic Dongbei dish. There are restaurants in major cities in Dongbei like Shenyang, Haerbin, Changchun and Dalian that are packed solely because people are queuing up to eat their stewed pork ribs. The pork ribs were ordinary and I felt that the chef did not spice it up a little bit more to make the pork more fragrant. They are not bad. In fact, they are above average but just not great.
The deep friend yellow catfish (炸黄鱼) is a nice snack to have if you fancy a nibble. The flesh of a catfish is always tender and in this case, these are little ones that go great almost any way you choose to make it. If you do not like to pick through a fair amount of tiny bones in your fish, you are best advised to proceed with caution. The catfish, while light on tiny bones, still has some on them and you have to eat this with care. The taste more than makes up for the trouble, in my opinion.
The last dish was beans stew (炖油豆角). Unfortunately this did not go too well. The beans were old and no amount of stewing and sauce was going to save it. This is a major blemish to an otherwise decent outing.
In all, Jiaoziying Dongbei Dumpling Restaurant offers a decent meal that is filling and nutritious. It is worth a go and definitely order the dumplings. I will be back for more too.
The address:
Jiaoziying Dongbei Dumpling Restaurant, Donghaiwanhao Plaza, Shenzhen High Tech Park, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 饺子营 深圳南山科技园东海万豪广场
Directions using my Shenzhen Food Map
My initial impressions? Just Great Stuff!!
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