One thing I think MTLrs take for granted is the fact that we have the option to have any kind of cuisine we crave on any given night. The immigrants that have made their way to this country and settled here are what make MTL the cultural mosaic that it is. It’s something you only realize once you leave the city and spend time abroad. Today, I decided to go the “Far East” to try a unique restaurant called Qing Hua, which basically serves one thing and one thing only: dumplings. STOP RIGHT THERE, I know what your going to say next (it’s the same thing all my friends say)… peanut butter dumplings? NO, there is no peanut butter anywhere in this restaurant. If peanut butter dumplings are all you’ve ever had, then what you’ll eat at Qing Hua are nothing like you’ve ever tried before.
Trying to describe them is proving to be very hard, so to start off I’ll repeat to you the same sentence that I first read in the Concordia newspaper that got me interested…”They’re dumplings with the soup on the inside.” What does that mean you say? I thought to myself it was impossible to have the soup on the inside of the dumpling… right? I don’t know what kind of witchcraft they practice at Qing Hua but consider the laws of physics officially defied.
The only things you can order from this place are literally just dumplings with the exception of a few entrees, which are, nothing compared to the dumplings. The menu offers you a choice of about 40 different combinations of stuffing. My personal favorites are the Pork/Shrimp or Lamb/Coriander dumplings. Once you make your choice and you get your plate, you’ll probably think to yourself what a plain looking plate of plain looking dumplings (no peanut butter sauce anywhere in sight). You know how they say not to judge a book by its cover? Well that applies here too, don’t judge a dumpling by its plain exterior because it’s the inside that counts!
The biggest mistake you can make next is to try and bite the dumpling in half, the whole experience is lost if you do this. Just take the dumpling and put the whole thing in your mouth and bite down. Only then will you understand what I meant by “the soup is on the inside”. Its like soup comes gushing out of the dumpling. One way to describe it is like taking a bowl of soup and dumping it into a little piece of dough. Or another way of describing it is like an orgasm of the taste buds. Or yet another way of describing it would be in your own words! So go try it if you’re looking for something different and refreshing for a change.
