The Dumps

Veggie Dumps Strikes Ba- On Second Thought…

New York, New York:  Not only a center of fashion trends, but a culinary playground.  Littered amongst the Big Apple are many hole-in-the-walls having little mouthwatering, savory appetizers that are unbelievably affordable.  I always will take note how many more options New York City has offer for any type of foodie.  Whether you are a vegetarian, a pescetarian, a vegan, a carnivore, etc., you can find a place that fits your taste.  

When I eat a dump(ling), I want to experience it, not just taste it. That being said, the environment does have influence over my experience.  I recently stop by a vegetarian joint by Washington Square Park called Vegetarian Paradise 2 (VP2).  I mean how can you not like the number 2 being in the name because the owners just really wanted you to know that this is the second restaurant of its kind.  Just note, you may notice a difference in how the restaurant looks based off the link I put with the picture on the blog.  Follow the picture in my blog.  I think they got the new orange awning after the google map pictures went up.

I went with my veggie specialist Deborah Kleinakowsky again to try out things here.    Much to my surprise, VP2 has a very modern, hipster feel to it (I had to remind myself that we were near NYU).  The waitstaff had a mix of temperaments, one chillin’, the other two having that New York rush-rush feel about them.  The dumps were relatively expensive here:

Rice Ball Dumps (4) - $4.00

“Crab” Dumps (4) - $4.50

Spinach Dumps (3) - $4.00

Something that stuck in my mind about the waitstaff was that one waitress asked us what we wanted to order and we took a little bit too long, so rather than say, “I’ll give you a few minutes,” with a smile then walk away, she first quickly turned 90 degrees and said, “I’ll come back later” while quickly walking away.  It took more time than I would think to bring out dumps, which made me think that the dumps were freshly made, which was a reassuring thought. 

The Rice Ball Dumps reminded me of eating the sticky rice wrapped up with lotus leaves, but wrapped in a boiled translucent dump skin.  It was an interesting appetizer.  The skin was not thick at all and not chewy.  It was simple, nothing spectacular, but good.  I didn’t quite think the price justified the experience for the rice ball dumps, but you’ll hear more of this in a bit.

The “Crab” Dumps were problematic for me.  They were boiled and the innards were decent in that they tasted like slightly seasoned imitation crab meat, BUT… The skin was so extremely thick.  They broke one of my main dump pet peeves!  At least they weren’t sticking to each other.  Overpriced spinach skin with imitation crab meat.

The Spinach Dumps were fried, which made them look interesting with the spinach dump skin.  For some reason, the green and friend brown look on the dumps just were not looking very appetizing to me.  The innards tasting a little bit like the “crab” dumps and again, the skin was similar to the “crab” dump: TOO THICK.  Not only that, you only get 3 instead of 4.  Way overpriced.

Yeah, they were all presented on a nice clean plate, but this, the environment, and the taste never justified their high cost.  

………

Environment:  5/10

+ clean, hipster/family friendly feel, - high price

Presentation:  6/10

+ nice clean presentation, no stick, - fried spinach dumps not looking appetizing

Taste:  3/10

—- THICK SKIN, + rice ball dump simplicity

Overall:  4/10

As you can already tell, the thick skin of the “crab” and spinach dumps killed dropped everything for me.  The high-cost dump just hasn’t been doing it for me.  Even if you look at the main entree menu, the spinach dumps with a side for $9.95 just makes my mind explode (and not in a good way).  If you’re going to a place to get dumps, I don’t recommend this place.

Next up:  China North Dumpling

VEGGIE TIME!

Vegetarianism.  In 2008, there was a “Vegetarianism in America” study that estimated there to be 7.3 million vegetarians.  Another 11.9 million claim to be interested in vegetarian diets.  Where the hell did I get this information?  I got it from this website:  http://www.raw-food-health.net/NumberOfVegetarians.html.

I know I know, it is information from the interwebs and may not be the most accurate of information, but I just needed some general estimates to throw at you readers.   

My blog has been me serving those of the carnivorous/omnivorous type.  What of my herbivore peeps?  Some of my friends do happen to be vegetarians.  I mean, I tried it once for 6 weeks and finally quit when I had gone with friends to eat pho.  I played and failed the vegetarian trial, so I give props to my vegetarian friends.

The Dumps means to never hate, so this blog is dedicated to all you vegetarians out there (especially to this week’s special guest, Deborah Kleinakowsky, because she chose the place)!  

I’ve never known Manhattan Chinatown to be anywhere near the king of vegetarian restaurants, but our journey took us there.  The day’s contestant was a vegetarian restaurant called Buddha Bodai.  Even the “meat” here is made of veggies.  Here’s the location, as described on the website:  http://www.chinatownvegetarian.com/Location.htm.  

Hell, they even has their own website: Buddha Bodai 

I noticed that the restaurant did not stand out any even with it’s green awning, but the inside of the restaurant looked fine and relatively clean.  After gazing at the menu, I thought to myself, “Who would’ve thought there’d be so much selection for a vegetarian?”  It can happen folks!  They even have vegetable SNAIL.  

But we came here for the dumps.  We ordered one set (6) of steamed and one set of fried.  At $4.95 each set, they are decently priced.

The fried was presented on a plate while the steamed was presented in a typical metal steamer.  What caught my eye was that the boiled dumps were touching each other and I knew what was coming.

I started with the fried dump.  The texture of the insides was not something I expected.  I suppose I thought most of the innards were to be tofu, but it was more of a vegetable mix inside.  What threw me off was the hit of sweet in the after-taste, but it was a sweet that I didn’t quite enjoy.  The little tack of sweetness curbed any moments to revel the dump.

The boiled dump did not have that end of sweet which was a relief, but it did have a different issue.  As I foreshadowed earlier, the boiled dumps that were touching stuck together.  I feel that when they take out the dumps like this, it just does not seem fresh or there wasn’t much care put into making the dumps.  I had to pull and rip a piece of the skin away.  Again, I was happier though that the dump tasted better.

……

Environment:  7/10

+ very neat and clean, decent waitstaff

Presentation:  5/10

+ overall fresh look for fried dumps, —boiled dumps stuck together (ALL OF THEM)

Taste:  4/10

+/- innards nice vegetable mix albeit a little unexpected, - sweet aftertaste threw off balance

Overall:  5/10

Buddha Bodai is a nice humble place that gives pretty large portions.  While the dumps here did have a foreign texture (to be found in a dump), they were still good dumps.  Other than the dumps we ordered other food that night and had to take home a load of leftovers.  If you happen to try the veggie snails, let me know how that goes!

Excuses, excuses, excuses… WHATEV’S

After weddings, extra work, a work-in-progress show, some music stuff, I am finally back.  I took a break from the dumps blog because life came rushing in with many different events that made me change my priorities for these past months.  

I felt guilty for some reason, until I realized that this is my blog and life happens.  So I’m not apologizing, but I suppose I’m just giving you my life update, because I’m just that important.

Anyway, time to move on.

Informercial Introductions!  WOW!

It’s deep into the holiday season, and while everyone worried about shopping the last thing you are worried about scenario A:

Sweetheart:  Honey Dearest, I haven’t eaten all day and you know the economy… being what it is, and my inexperience with cooking magical trickery, let’s go to eat some really good dumps.  Like, REALLY good dumps… like, the BEST.

Honey Dearest:  Well, Sweetheart, I don’t know where to go because it would take a lot of hard work to actually go out and figure out where the BEST dumps are.

Sweetheart:  … (disappointed look)

… (transforming to angry look)

… (quick hands on hips)

I’m seeing your boss.

WHOA NOW.  This does not have to happen to you this holiday season if you follow The Dumps blog!

Chinese Chess Battle Zone:

I called up two friends to join me on a return journey to find some good dumps.  I found myself wanting to start somewhere in Manhattan’s own Chinatown.  I happened to look up this particular place called Tasty Dumpling on Yelp:

Yelp’s Tasty Dumpling

It is conveniently located in front of Columbus Park: hang out for after school kids as well as what I presume are the Chinese Chess Kings next to the soccer field.  Of course, it’s what I think of when I see Columbus Park when it’s not frigidly cold outside.  On this particular day the kids were still in school and the elders probably didn’t want to freeze their butts off.  

You can’t miss the place because there’s a large yellow awning outside that says “Tasty Dumpling” and has a menu in the front and a picture of one thumb up with “Number 1” above it.  Now didn’t want to assume anything, but a normal reviewer has two hands, and a total of two thumbs to use in rating…  

Humble Upbringings:

It’s a nice small space and they keep it as clean as I suppose they possibly can.  This place features over-the-counter ordering of your dumps, so no waitstaff needed.  Here was my fine menu with my two guests:

Chives & Pork Fried Dumps (5) - $1.25

Cabbage & Pork Fried Dumps (5) - $1.25

Chives & Pork Boiled Dumps (10) - $3.00

Cabbage & Pork Boiled Dumps (10) - $3.00

Total damage: $8.50 (for 30 dumps, pretty cheap)

I normally like seeing how a place makes their dumps because it makes me appreciate what I eat more, but I think Tasty Dumpling was opened to just feed the masses.  I immediately saw behind their counter 4 different metal soup containers which made me worry they were just going to immediately drop off some soggy dumps.  Thankfully, that was not the case.

Tough Situation:

After about ten minutes, I heard “#1, 2, 3, and 4!”  They came on three different styrofoam plates.  I already was not liking the look of the fried dumps.  They either had holes in the skin, or they were stuck to each other.  At least they weren’t stuck to the styrofoam plates I suppose.  The oil content seemed normal coming off the fried dumps.  When it’s so greasy it shines, that freaks me out.

The cabbage and chive pork fried dumps had a decent flavor, but nothing special:  the chives added a chive flavor and the cabbage was overpowered by the pork.  Sadly what was more memorable was the fact that the skin of the fried dumps was thick, tough, and a bit chewy.  When you have to pick at your tongue to remove the dump skin pieces from your molars, that’s a definite sign of tough skin.

The cabbage and chives boiled dumps had a similar flavor, but again the skin was very thick.  The thick skin tends to make me lose my appetite faster.  

Bonus, their golden pancakes are not good.  It’s basically bread.

Missing thumb(s):

Today’s review I think I will covering a slightly different problematic scenario from the one I gave earlier.  It would solve not going to a place and finding out the dumps aren’t that great.

Drum roll Maestro:

Environment:  04/10

+/- Relatively clean, + cheap prices, - metal soup containers right behind counter

Presentation:  03/10

- styrofoam plates, — holes in a few fried dump skins, — sticky fried dumps, + not much grease on fried dumps, +/- boiled dumps good, but did look to have thick skin

Taste:  04/10

+ tasty innards, — thick/chewy skins

Stay Warm [Overall 04/10]:

Nothing too much more to say really.  The dumps were mediocre, but at a cheap price.  The main reason had to be the skin thickness.  

As we finished our dumps lunch, the after school kids came rushing in from the cold outside to have themselves some cheap eaten’.  We walked out the spot blood surging towards our stomachs digesting and the cold freezing all other parts of our bodies.  

‘Til next time, stay warm.

Manhattan lower east side:  Full of good hole in walls to eat.  It’s easier when you figure out where they are of course.  I know I’ve sort of wandered around New York City looking for a bite to eat, but cynicism rumbles in my head at restaurants that may be serving sub-par food.  Of course, isn’t that the whole point of a blog such as this?

I remember walking around the lower east side with a good vegetarian buddy of mine trying to find a joint to get some good Chinese food.  He was looking up some places on his phone and came across a place called Lam Zhou Hand Made Noodle and Dumpling.  We walked by and noticed that the place had only meat dishes. 

So I apologize right now, this review will only help vegetarians in letting them know that this is not the place to go to if you only eat veggies.

Some other friends brought up going to this place to eat some dumps.  Anything with “Hand Made Noodle and Dumpling” in the name’s gotta be fantastic right?  When you walk up from the subway on to East Broadway, if you can’t read Chinese it’ll be a little difficult looking for the awning.  But now with my pictures, you can at least play a game of MATCH!! 

If it helps any at all, it’s something to note that the refrigerator holding all the drinks is outside of the small restaurant.  Inside is minimalistic:  bare walls with two menus hanging, few tables, bar seating, etc.  Hence the reason for the cheap food prices.  Although it’s fun watching them hand make the noodles!  In the back of the eating area, you normally see a cook whack the length of raw noodle against a marble slab.  My friends immediately whipped out their smart phone cameras and we took some shots, like shown above (thank you guest letter M).

As far as the dumps, here’s what we decided on:

1 order of fried pork dumps (12) - $3
1 order of steamed pork dumps (12) - $3

(Note: This place has pretty nice noodle soups, costing around $4.50 or $5 although I normally like my noodles a little more al dente)

Do the math folks and yes each dump comes out to be a quarter.  I expected to see itty bitty dumps, but was surprised to see normal-sized dumps.  Quite honestly though the skins looked too see-through for me for both the fried and steamed dumps.  But props on putting them on a metal plate!

The fried pork dumps had a really nice balance of scallion, garlic, and pork.  Although in hindsight, it may have been seasoned a little too much because I couldn’t finish anymore after a while because of the lingering saltiness.  The skin was a bit more chewy than I normally like, but at least they didn’t stick to each other.

The steamed pork dumps tasted exactly the same as the friend pork dumps.  The skins were very similar.  Really no other comments. 

And now for those number score things:


Environment:  07/10

+ Really cheap, +/- bare walls, + witness the making of the noodles


Presentation:  06/10

+ metal plates and no sticking


Taste:  07/10

++ really nice flavoring for the dumps, - skins a bit chewy


Overall:  07/10

Decently priced dumps at a humble dumphouse.  So, it doesn’t have all the lights and bells and gadgets, but they do certainly put their effort into their food.  It may not be the best, but it’s still pretty good.  The restaurant is small, so you can bring along three of your friends comfortably to Lam Zhou Hand Made Noodle and Dumpling.  I like this place, it gets my seal of approval. 

NOTE:  I think I will have to buy their frozen dumps and have to try them out myself.

The summer heat is a bit ridiculous right now.  Today, I worked in a nicely air conditioned space to walk outside into a walk of humidity.  A sauna throughout all of New York City. 

So then, why did I choose to go to a dumps place at that time?  Dumps are not cool and refreshing, they’re hot and filling.  Well I did it BECAUSE THE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW!  ONWARD!

Today, I went to a spot in Chinatown my friend took me once to have some great noodles.  Old Sichuan Cuisine Inc:

CLICK ME TO SHOW OLD SICHUAN CUISINE INC’S LOCATION

I never noticed it before, but they actually have made the inside have a bit of a old school Chinese garden feel to the place.  With some rock-like walls and a little wooden bridge leading to some room, possibly the storage room, or perhaps the bathroom.  Overall, it had a very nice little atmosphere going for the place.  There was a little middle-aged hostess who reminded me of my mom back when my parents ran their restaurant.  My mom would always bring up some sort of conversations with the customers and she’d always seem to love the socializing part of work.  This hostess had the same style.  (That reminds me, I need to call Mom)

The service was very pleasant here, perhaps not the most accurate (my food was taken to another table, and then someone’s food was almost brought to mine), but they were nice about it.  The prices were decent.  This was on today’s menu:

1 order of Soup Pork Dumps (8) - $4.50
1 order of Fried Pork Dumps (8) - $4.95
1 order of Scallion Pancakes - $1.95

The soup dumps were the first to come out.  They looked fresh, steamy, and the skins also didn’t look too thick.  Rather than the cabbage under the soup dumps, I noticed they used thin paper under the dumps.  The skins were a nice thickness and there was a good amount of soup within each dump, but the taste of the soup was a little sour.  I did not get that nice pork flavor in the soup.

Then the fired pork dumps came out and by the looks of them I was thinking I was going to be disappointed.  I do not enjoy the greasy fried pork dumps sheen on a dump.  It makes the dumps look very plastic and fake.  It reminds of that spray tan that celebrities will put on.  The texture of the innards was like a standard dump, but they tasted bland and the skin was a chewy. 

Drum roll:

Environment:  7/10

+ Humble design and atmosphere, + pleasant hostess/waitstaff


Presentation:  4/10

+/— Soup dumps fresh/fried pork dumps very greasy, - Fried pork dumps did not look fresh


Taste:  3/10

- Bland fried pork dumps, - somewhat sour soup in soup dumps, - skin chewy for the fried pork dumps, + soup dumps had soft skin


Overall:  4/10

I don’t recommend the dumps here.  It is a nice, humble restaurant, but the pricing does not do much justice to what you actually eat.  I loved the nice waitstaff there, but the dumps weren’t talking to me.  They were just staring at my tongue.

BONUS:  FYI, The scallion pancakes had a nice flaky texture.  They were a more on the bland side though.

I’ve been reading and performing.  Aaaand making excuses so I apologize for not posting in such a long time.  So here we go!

Manhattan Chinatown oh here I come!  After taking a bit of time off from reviewing any dumps, my friend reminded me of my blog and a dumps place he always saw when he was hanging around Columbus Park in Chinatown.  It’s a place called… Shanghai Cuisine.  Click ahead if you are wondering how you get there. 

WHERE IS SHANGHAI CUISINE??

As you walk towards Shanghai Cuisine, you’ll already notice something different about the design inside from the windows.  This place does not look at all like a place you get dumps.  Oddly enough, it likes like the type of place you would get a nicely cooked pizza or pasta.  Main reason for this: All the tablecloths in the restaurant are plaid white and red.   Other reason:  Everything inside had a woodsy look.  I was beginning to wonder if this establishment really served dumps.  I am assuming that the restaurant used to be an Italian joint.

My friend (the gentleman with the umbrella in the first picture whose name will be kept anonymous by giving him the name Helo), Helo, and I sat down.  Helo asked for some hot tea because water glasses looked a little skeptical in the cleanliness.

I have to say that these dumps were more on the expensive side.  It came to about a dollar for a dump.  The waiter, who I will call Angus, then came to receive our orders.  He didn’t seem to be writing down anything, so either he was a genius or not the sharpest tool in the shed. 


… Turns out Angus was not the sharpest tool in the shed and brought us out the wrong order.  The greatest part of the whole interaction was he tried to pin it on me with the wrong order.  Hah!  Too bad, Helo was there to back me up and he went back in with our correct orders.

As Angus brought out our dumps, I noticed something wrong already.  I was about to say, “Heeeey, silly restaurant.  You can’t fool me!  Those are plastic dumps!”

But… they were the real thing.  First thing’s first, the skin was a little on the thick side.  Second, the texture of the innards were mushy and looked like it was made from corn beef.  The taste of the dumps was a bit bland, but I was mainly thrown off by the texture.  I felt like these dumps were sitting on a counter somewhere in the kitchen for a while, then microwaved and then brought out.

I love my soup dumps to have some good soup in them and I like them fresh.  I mean that the whole point right?  Soup in the dumps!  BUT, these soup dumps had so little soup in them AND they didn’t seem fresh.  The skin was also chewy.

And drum roooollllllll…


Environment:  3/10

+/- clean establishment in general but dirty water glasses, - pizza shop design, — overpriced disappointing dumps


Presentation:  4/10

+ on plates, - fried pork dumps looked like plastic, - all dumps looked old


Taste:  3/10

+/- light flavoring, - corn beef innard texture, - chewy skins, - hardly any soup in the dumps

Overall:  3/10

Easy enough.  The dumps were overpriced for what you get.  Perhaps you are paying for the weird atmosphere.  The dumps were presented in a nice clean manner, but they just weren’t to my liking because the pork dumps were chewy on the outside, mushy on the inside, and the soup dumps had about 3 drops of soup.  Yeah, you can sit down here and have some space, but you are not getting much out with the dumps here at Shanghai Cuisine.  It gets my seal of disapproval.

Bonus:  The scallion pancakes here are about the worst I’ve ever had because they were crusty.  Not flaky, but crusty.  Yuck.

Another Bonus:  Helo showed me Chinatown Fair, possibly the last arcade in Chinatown.  I’d never known about it.  Now I know.  Thank you Helo.  Gods bless Battlestar.

I apologize for not getting in a review for such a long time.  Times have been fairly busy lately.  Here we go!


I don’t want to say K-Town is a hip place to be as some cheesy tourist-y TV show would say, though it is a small bustling section of Manhattan.  K-Town is densely packed with restaurants and a few karaoke joints filling in spaces, oh and did I mention there’s not one, but two frozen yogurt places to cool off that tongue after a spicy meal?

In any case, I was there for really only one reason, to review some dumps!  Mandoo Bar was my specimen.  I met a girl that went to a Rock Band convention and told me about having a red extension put in her hair because that was the only way she could “really rock out”.  Sounds silly, but I actually did the same thing except with a blue extension.  Oh to be a kid… wait, I was actually in my mid 20s when I did that…

Mandoo Bar link, CLICK ME

“MANDOO BAR?????  WHAT IS A MANDOO???  YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE REVIEWING DUMPS!  D-U-M-P-S.  DUMPS.  What is this a joke?  I am outraged and will no longer visit your blog!” you scream into your lonely display when everyone has gone out and you’re home alone… lonely being lonesome.

WELL, since you didn’t know, a Mandu is a Korean style dump.  So there you go, I’m still reviewing dumps.

Conveniently located right across from a Pinkberry, right from the get-go, you will see the cooks at work from the front window.  I always like being able to see how my food is being prepared.  Mandoo Bar’s design is simple, but they try to give it a hip feel.  It actually reminds me a little bit like Ikea with the green-yellowish color on only the left wall.  Nothing really fancy pants at all, but I did like the more of a relaxed atmosphere despite the lunch hour rush.  Girl from Rock Band Con noticed the little holes in the walls where there are little lights giving the place a kind of 3D fun look.  Anyhow, service was very nice throughout my lunch. 

Here’s what we ordered:

1 order Goon Mandoo (appetizer, 4 fried pork dumps) - 5.50
1 order Kimchee Mandoo (10 kimchi steamed dumps) - 10
1 order Steamed Combo Mandoo (4 pork, 4 veggie, 4 seafood) - 12

The prices for the dumps were a little steep for me.  If I’m paying a dollar or more for a dump, I will some pretty high expectations, but will the Mandoo Bar give me what I need?

-Fried Pork Dumps
The seasoning of the fried pork dumps was simple, and never lingered in my mouth.  To some it may actually taste a little bland, but thought it was just enough to say it had flavor.  The dumps were all fresh off the pan or steamer which was definitely nice and there was no annoying stickiness to any of the dumps (also none of the greasiness).

-Kimchee dumps
The kimchee dumps weren’t anything crazy.  They literally are just that, kimchee inside the dump skin.  So if you like kimchee, you can get them in your order of dumps!  Wow.

-Combo Dumps
The combo dump plate had three types of dumps shown by the different colored skins: White for pork, Green for veggie, and Orange for seafood.  The steamed pork dump actually tasted just like the fried pork dump on the innards.  The steamed veggie dump had a nice light cabbage flavor, but it wasn’t overpowering, though I didn’t quite like the stringy texture of the innards from the strips of cabbage.  The seafood had a very light seafood taste, a hint of seafood and the innards weren’t really all too exciting.

-Mandoos
All that being said, I had one overall comment.  The skins were not extremely thick, but all the dumps had a bit of a chewy skin.  The fried dump actually had was dryer and hence more chewy.  Chewiness in the skin puts me off a bit. 

And here we go:


Environment:  06/10

+ simple design made as a sit-down place, - expensive dumps, + clean/nice service


Presentation:  07/10

+ fresh, + different colored skins are fun, - a little small


Taste:  05/10

+ no lingering aftertaste, - but no wow factor, - chewy skins


Overall:  05/10

Mandoo Bar is simply decorated and cute I suppose, but I just felt like I did not get my money’s worth.  Yeah, I love that they do have so much variety, but as I left I did not really feel any reason for me to continuously come back other than those kind of cool square hole in the walls.  This is a place where you can check out if you want, but it’s not a place that I recommend for going back to.  I can say that it is a place where you can sit down with friends and have their other dishes (which I didn’t try).  So remember, this overall score is based off of their dumps.  Word.

Brattleboro, Vermont:  A quiet country home away from that loud, crazy New York City home.  The Nerve Tank (our theater company, and while you’re reading this, our next show coming up from July 9-11, details click here!) went away for a little retreat in Vermont and my companions were kind enough to come along on a dumps outing.  The downtown area is a very quaint and beautiful scene.  You can see wide landscape of trees along a mountain incline as you approach Main Street to get to Shin-La Sushi Bar. 

After some research, I didn’t find too many Asian themed restaurants that popped up on Google maps, but I really wanted to check this one out because it was in downtown Brattleboro.  Check out the Google info on this place.

Shin-La Sushi Bar is a Korean/Japanese joint and you’ll notice two eating areas when you walk in.  The first eating area looks more like a normal American restaurant while the other eating area is dressed up in more of a Japanese style restaurant.  They do have a sushi chef making, what I assume to be, fresh sushi.  It is a little bit of a weird design but whatever section you eat in, you don’t really see the other section.  We happened to choose the Japanese decor for our dumps.

Our waitress, who I dub, Needs Helping Hand, was on her own on Friday night.  She had two whole areas to cover and was a little tied up with other tables.  Service was unfortunately pretty slow, but I think I’ll give them a little slack as she couldn’t possibly have expected some hungry New Yorkers to come busting in with one enthusiastic dumps reviewer such as myself.

We ordered a whole set of different dumps this time around.  We ordered fried pork and veggie dumps and even some shumai, though shumai wasn’t my focus hence I did not review it (they were good here though, because they were of softer and more moist than the typical shumai).  I was a little bit surprised that each dumpling came out to be a dollar.  Perhaps we were paying for the atmosphere as well?  In any case, we didn’t quite see Needs Helping Hand for several minutes as our stomachs began digesting themselves. 

Our dumps order:

1 order Fried pork dumps (10) - $9.95
1 order Fried veggie dumps (10) - $9.95


She finally came out with our fried pork dumps.  They looked like they were cooked very nicely, with a light golden color and browned section where they were fried.  The innards were not at all greasy or moist looking.  I wondered what that would do with the taste of the dump.  I popped the appetizer in my mouth and was a surprised, but not in a good or bad way.  The pork innards had a barbecue sort of flavor.  No, not barbecue sauce, but the meat seemed to have been barbecued.  I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it, it was interesting, and very unexpected.  The skin was the right thickness, but the dumps were not too temperature hot.  They seemed like they were left out for a little bit.  Perhaps Needs Helping Hand was struggling to get everything out on time?

Needs Helping Hand then brought out the veggie dumps.  It had the same nice cooked look as the pork dumps, but the inside had a mixture of tofu and veggies.  I enjoyed the flavor and fluffy texture of the innards.  What I enjoyed about the veggie dumps was that the innards were not too greasy or wet.  The skin was the right thickness, but again, the temperature on the veggie dumps were a bit too lukewarm.  I think these veggie dumps were pretty good.

The other food here seemed alright.  My main course was nothing special though as I simply had a stone bowl Bibimbap.  We finished are meal stuffed and happy.

I would like to mention that this place has crazy… toothpicks.  We saw someone using it as a toothpick so we followed suit.  I suppose it worked for me.  A picture of it is above.

So here’s my verdict in the very first out of New York City dumps review:


Environment:  07/10

+ very clean, + nice ambiance, - expensive dumps, -/+ weird setup


Presentation:
Fried Pork Dumps:  08/10

+ nice light golden color with brown fried marks, + innards looked dry and homemade

Fried Veggie Dumps:  08/10

+ nice light golden color with brown fried marks, + innards looked dry and packed with not only veggies but tofu


Taste:
Fried Pork Dumps:  06/10

+ skin thickness right, + barbecue flavor is different, but don’t hate it or love it, - not fresh

Fried Veggie Dumps:  08/10

++ fluffy tasty veggie innards, + skin thickness right, - not fresh


Overall:  07/10

Shin-La Sushi Bar is a nice quiet spot in Brattleboro and offers some typical Korean/Japanese dishes.  The dumps are a little expensive for my taste, but I thought the veggie dumps really won me over.  The non-freshness made me drop the score, but they really made the insides of the veggie dumps delicious.  The pork dumps were good, but the barbecue-tasting meat did throw me off a bit.  For the dryness of their dumps (which was fine for me), the thickness of the skin was right.  I wouldn’t make my way to Brattleboro for the dumps here, but if you are in Brattleboro for any reason, stop by Shina-La Sushi Bar and try out their dumps.  Hopefully Needs Helping Hand will have another waiter/waitress.