ottawa foodies

i have a craving for homemade veggie dumplings. i usually just buy the round wonton skins. does anyone have a specific brand they recommend?

I've never seen round won ton skins... are they won ton skins or dumpling skins? You'll generally find that dumpling skins are thicker. In any event, I prefer the brand where it's all red labelling =)Might be WING's which is Canadian made.

i have seen both round and square at some of the smaller chinese shops on somerset. i generally just buy by shape since i can't always read the packaging :)

There are two brands that I buy from Chinese grocery stores.

The one I use to make pan-fried potstickers is made in Ottawa (the brand is Everyday Fresh Food). The one made in Toronto (the brand is Hung Wang Foods Inc.) is also good. Remember that the round wrappers are used to make dumplings.

If I want to make won ton, I buy the square one from Hung Wang since I found the wrapper from Hung Wang better than the one from Everyday Fresh.

Anyway, you can refer to the old posts about potstickers:
www.ottawafoodies.com

I think it might be Hung Wang that I use as well. =)

i bought the everyday fresh food brand, which is made in ottawa.

ashley - thanks for the link, i never remember to search through old posts. i am going to cook them your way tonight, using my cast iron pan. what brand black vinegar do you use? i have tried almost all the brands and have found one that is ok. my favourite is served at northern han 2, but i don't know what brand it is. i imagine it might be a cheap brand. i just use black vinegar and chili oil for dipping - yum!

I prefer to dip mine in red vinegar with threads of ginger =)

i bought a bottle of red vinegar a while ago. it was actually pretty good. i love spicy, so i always use chili oil with chilis. how do you do your ginger? i will try that as an alternative sauce tonight. my husband also like a spicy peanut sauce, so we usually make a few options.

I just take fresh ginger and slice thin sheets of it and then cut the sheets into thin (1 mm or so ) threads, so I end up with little 2 cm x 1mm thread of ginger. I then put the ginger into red vinegar about 15-30 mins before serving to cut some of the heat. I use lot of ginger... about half of the volume I would say? The picture I've included is what I have in mind. You'll see this as a classic side to dumplings in almost all Chinese restaurants.

i seem to only eat dumplings at northern han 2 on somerset. their dipping options are bottles of black vinegar, soy sauce and chili oil and a white pepper.

where else serves veg dumplings that offers the ginger dipping sauce? i'd love to try some other places. though i love green onion pancakes as well, so that is often more of a draw than the dumplings :)

I'm not sure about veg dumplings. The only places I know that serve good veg dumplings are in Toronto unfortunately. I believe the ginger and red vinegar dipping thingy is more of a southern China/HK thing.

The brand of the black vinegar that I use for dumplings is called ChinKiang Vinegar (鎮江香醋). This brand is the most popular one. Chinese from Shanghai or Beijing or the northern area of China normally like to use the black vinegar mixed with light soya sauce. (I think some like to mix black vinegar with finely chopped garlic).

Some of my friends prefer to use the red vinegar (sweetened) mixed with finely shredded ginger (just like the photo from "snoopy loopy"). I believe that red vinegar is of Cantonese origin. The brand I normally buy is made in Hong Kong and is call Pun Chun (their website is www.punchun.com).

In the photo, the one on the left is the red vinegar and the one on the right is the black vinegar. I tried using balsamic vinegar once for the pan-fried dumplings. You can try it and let me know if you like it.

Second the ChinKiang Vinegar. It's my fav brand as well. I think I'm also using their red vinegar also.

Thirding Chinkiang vinegar. For all my dumpling dipping needs, it's about 75% soy sauce, 25% chinkiang vinegar (exact brand in the picture posted by Ashley), and a few cloves of minced garlic tossed in.

i have been using that vinegar too. it isn't the same as northern han, so i was wondering if there was another popular brand. seems like no.