More dumplings, and oh so good

For my free Friday in between cooking sessions, I focus on eating. For lunch, it will be twice-recommended dumplings. The recommendations came from, one, Candice from Black Sesame Kitchen and, two, Beijing Eats. The locale: Shun Yi Fu dumpling house, not too far of a walk from my accommodations. I find it in a hutong and it is surprisingly well-appointed: white tablecloths, closed doors. I settle in and make my order.

As a starter, I order the tiger salad, or cold sliced pepper salad. It comes and surprises me in two ways. First, it is not spicy in the least. My understanding of tiger salad, or laohu cai, was that the nickname comes from the fact that there are julienned spicy peppers in the salad. Alas, not the case, at least in this instance. Second, however, it was delicious and refreshing. It is comprised of julienned vegetables, including at least green pepper and cucumber. It is dressed lightily in oil and a clear vinegar. It is finished with a garnish of cilantro. And it brightens my palate, awakens my taste buds, and I am ready to eat.

As the main, I have fried dumplings with donkey meat and scallions. I do not know (nor will I find out, is my guess) if it is actually donkey meat inside the dumpling. I can vouch for the scallions, however. As a whole, these dumplings are very good. The skin is well fried, not too crisp and charred, but firm and with some crunchiness. There is a small bit of soup inside that is a nice surprise. And the meat and scallion mixture works well together, remaining juicy and a bit crunchy. These don't get old, even as I polish off 15 of them (just one order, folks).