[Pigging by Wilfrid: February 8, 2010]
Sometimes, of course, one doesn't eat to review - one just eats to eat.
And in fact it was my daughter who hauled me into the new premises of Plump Dumpling on Second Avenue.
The new frontage certainly has a bright, Disney-esque appeal. I used to visit the Plump place occasionally when it was in a smaller space just around the corner. Like Dumpling Man, I viewed it essentially as an inexpensive take-out place for dumplings, steamed or fried, with a few chairs for eating in.
Whether the menu grew before it moved, or has only now blossomed into an extensive listing of Vietnamese-Chinese dishes, I don't know. What surprised me on this visit was how hard it was to track down the dumplings at all. They are confined to a small box, upper left hand side - you could easily miss them. Just a few options - pork or chicken, shrimp or "seafood," vegetables.
Dumplings were my entire agenda, but confronted by a choice of everything from General Tso's chicken to bánh mì, my daughter could not be dissuaded from ordering a heaping plate of lo mein with Chinese sausage. If nothing else, I have taught her to love Chinese sausage.
The mixed dumplings are color coded in part - green means vegetables. For the rest it was guesswork. The seafood was filled, as I rather expected, with a kind of indistinct fish-type substance. Pork was finely minced and herby. We got a separate order of the pork, steamed too, and ended up taking them home. Prices range between four and five bucks the half dozen, which seems about right.
I did enjoy a mango bubble tea, served in a little girly cup because the waiter assumed it wasn't for me.
I can't say the dumplings amazed me; the noodles were standard Chinatown okay. But that's what we ate.
You can order here - from what looks like an abbreviated version of the menu, believe it or not.
