Dish · 9 kitchens in 5 cities
Dumplings
Dough folded around a filling and boiled, steamed or fried — khinkali, mantı, pierogi, xiao long bao and more.
Nobody paid to be here. Each kitchen is described from its own menu where it publishes one, unranked, so each note says how that kitchen makes it.
In London
Khinkali
Little Georgia (Hackney) · Hackney · ~£30 pp
Khinkali, Georgian dumplings, pleated by hand and boiled. The main we'd share once the bread is gone.
Shanghai steamed dumpling
A. Wong · Pimlico · ~£80 pp
Xiao long bao — pork dumplings with hot broth inside
Xiao long bao, a pleated skin around pork and hot broth, with ginger vinegar. Lunch starts here.
Pork Pan Fried Soup Dumplings
Dumpling Shack · Spitalfields · ~£18 pp
Shengjianbao, pork soup dumplings, made fresh and pan-fried, with hot broth inside. Start here, and bite carefully.
In Budapest
Húsleves maceszgombóccal
Kádár Étkezde · Erzsébetváros · ~Ft 7,500 pp
Húsleves, clear meat broth simmered for hours, with matzo dumplings. The bowl that starts lunch.
Túrógombóc
Stand25 Bisztró · Krisztinaváros · ~Ft 16,000 pp
Túrógombóc, curd-cheese dumplings, served warm with sour cream and sour cherries. The dessert we'd end on.
In Warsaw
Pyzy
Pyzy Flaki Gorące · Praga-Północ (Brzeska)
Pyzy, potato dumplings made by hand and served in a jar the way the bazaar sold them, with a topping of your choice, from pork cracklings to turkey with chanterelles. What the bar is named for.
Pierogi ruskie ze słoniną
Bar Mleczny Bambino · Śródmieście (Hoża) · ~zł 30 pp
Pierogi ruskie, boiled dumplings of potato and curd cheese, with pork fat. The milk bar's staple.
In Istanbul
Mantı
Sayla Mantı · Caferağa · ~₺550 pp
Mantı, tiny dumplings of dough made that day, filled with mince, under garlic yogurt and hot butter with red pepper. The bowl we came for.
In Paris
Wontons de boudin noir
Le Servan · Saint-Maur · ~€52 pp
Fried wontons filled with blood sausage
Boudin noir, blood sausage, folded into wonton wrappers and fried. A plate to share at the start.