- The plate is still warm.
So you just wanna hold it like the entire plate is mine.
- Hey guys, my name is Brian.
- Hi, my name's Michelle.
- Hi, my name is Cathleen.
- Hi, I'm John.
- I am Chinese American.
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.
My ancestors are all from China.
- I'm from Maryland.
My parents are Chinese immigrants
and they're from Fujian, China.
- I am born and raised in China.
I came here since college.
- I was born and raised in Ohio.
My parents are from Shandong.
- But yeah, I love all types of dumplings.
I don't really discriminate.
- I'm expecting everyone
to bring some fire dumplings, to be honest.
I hope they like mine.
- I have no expectations,
but I know it would be great.
- I grew up eating Chinese food at home,
but it didn't feel like it was something
that I wanted to do.
I wanted to make pizza, or Mexican food,
or something like that.
It didn't become something
that I wanted to make for myself until I grew up.
And dumplings just hasn't ever taken place until now.
It's a pork and chives dumpling.
It's pretty straightforward and simple.
There's nothing crazy going on.
Sauce-wise, it's just sesame oil and Lao Gan Ma.
As long as it's edible, like we're good here today.
- It's smells so good.
- I think this is a chives dumpling.
- Is it pork?
- I can definitely see pork.
Some type of green,
it could be green onion.
- The folds are missing a little bit.
It just kind of looks like he just folded the skin in half.
- I'm excited to try them.
- It's a lot of filling, which is good.
But looking at the sauce,
it looks like it's almost like pure oil.
- I don't know how much of the sauce I should dip.
- That is pure sesame oil, so.
(suspenseful music)
Can I only eat one?
- So the skin's like a bit sticky.
- This is some damn good dumplings.
- It kind of sticks in a roof of my mouth a little bit.
- A thin skin, most likely store bought skin.
So you can't really go wrong.
The meat is very well seasoned.
- I think the ratio is perfect
and the meat is really nicely chopped.
- The chives are cut a little bit thick.
- I definitely like how these taste for sure.
And the sauce, I think I like it a lot,
but I think I would've appreciated a little bit more spice.
- I wish it was just like a little bit more flavor.
- This is hard, cause this is the first one.
I don't wanna go too high,
but I also don't wanna go too low.
- I would give it a eight out of 10.
- Maybe a six or seven out of 10.
Depending on how the rest of the dumplings are.
Generally speaking, I think these are above average.
- Overall 8.5.
And I think it's pretty good.
I did learn about dumplings growing up.
I feel like it was kind of like
a family thing when we made it.
You know, when you make it with love
and you put intention into it.
It tastes so much better.
It's so cheesy, it slap.
He's literally laughing right now.
I just made simple dumplings
with just pork, and shrimp, and there's bamboo,
and then marinated in the soy sauce.
And then the sauce is a really regular soy sauce.
So nothing special about that.
I can't make any promises about the flavor.
I'm so sorry to my father.
He's gonna watch this, he's gonna be like,
"How dare you?"
- I feel like this plate of dumplings
is the one of those where you get really emotional for.
It's like your mom or your grandma made it for you.
Just wanna hold it like the entire plate is mine.
- They look 10 times better than mine.
- They look really nice presentation -wise.
- When you had the pleats rolled up
more than three or four times,
you can tell a lot of skill and precision
was put into the dumplings.
- You see those folds? Damn.
My ancestors arise from their graves
and say how good it is.
Mm.
- It's good. It's very good.
- These are really good.
- There's something really crunch in here.
Either it's fungus or it's bamboo.
- I can really taste each individual ingredient.
- Can I eat another one?
- [Chris] There's a lot on there. Go ahead.
- On the scale of how many dumplings I could eat of this,
yeah, probably 15.
- If I had this at a restaurant,
I would be like, "I want two of those."
- Skin, not too doughy, not too sticky.
- The only thing that I think is room to improve on
is probably the skin.
I like my skin a little bit more doughy.
- Like the filling to wrap ratio
is very good in my eyes.
I could not make dumplings like this myself.
Only improvement, maybe I would've put something like
slightly spicy in it.
- The sauce isn't my favorite.
It kind just tastes like soy sauce.
- It's 10 out of 10.
- I'll give it an eight and a half out of 10.
- I think these are a solid eight and a half out of 10.
- I'm down. I'm down.
- I would've wanted to come to this challenge
saying that you know,
"I've made dumplings with all of my life.
We do this every single year."
I've never made dumplings before,
even though I was born and raised in China
I made a pork dumpling with fungus (speaking Chinese).
And then there's shiitake mushrooms as well as leaks.
I try to make it the traditional away,
where it's like you fold it pretty,
but I couldn't necessarily do it.
So I made two UFOs on the side.
I hope you guys enjoy the heavy on the meat ratio dumpling.
- [Chris] Say meat one more time.
I dare you.
- These look so amazing.
- This one is a really weird shape.
- The dumpings look interesting.
- Doesn't it kind of look like,
like an empanada or something?
- It looks like a UFO.
- It looks like two dumplings just (beep) mashed together.
Am I allowed to curse?
- It adds personality to the dumpling.
- Oh my God.
- Wow. These are so good.
- This is just a really chunky boy.
- The whole point of the dumping
is so you can eat it all in one bite if you want to.
- I've never had a dumpling that's this flavored.
I think there's like mushrooms in here.
- There's mushroom in here.
- I like the mushrooms.
- When you chew it, it spreads out.
So I think this is chopped really nicely
- Three out of 10,
because it doesn't really fully resemble a dumpling.
The taste is there,
but at the end of the day,
like it's a dumpling challenge.
- Taste-wise, I think they taste fine.
The sauce really compliments these dumpings,
but the weirdly shaped dumpling
that's gotta be a minus.
- I would rate this an eight out of 10.
- I would give this a seven.
And I'm kind of scared
cause I don't cook that often, to be honest.
Especially not Chinese cuisine,
just because I'm always worried if I'll do it justice.
I went for a spicy wanton recipe.
Just pork and shrimp
and I made separate spicy sauce to drizzle over.
It's just soy sauce, cane sugar,
some chili oil, garlic.
I tried really hard and I hope everyone likes it.
- I'm not sure if they're dumplings.
They look more like wantons.
- I love me some wantons.
- Are wantons dumplings?
- [Chris] Wantons I think,
- In the dictionary that you think.
- I love the garnishing.
The display, immaculate.
Immediately, yes.
- He or she put sauce on it already.
- I appreciate the garnish a lot.
- Love the garnish, love the plating.
I think the black plates really make the yellow pop.
So whoever did this very creative.
Okay.
- It's a little spicy.
- Wow.
That was the best bite of food I've had today.
- This is the first dumpling
that literally just all meat on the inside.
- The meat is so good.
I think there's shrimp in here.
- So much flavor.
- Very well seasoned.
- The good flavor is the green onion.
- The sauce on the bottom with all the garnishes
it just made it all come together.
- Very good. I really like the sauce.
- That was really good, actually.
- I would eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
- It's a little unfair
to rank a wanton versus a dumpling
because they're literally different things.
But if we're a little bit lacks on the rules here,
this is a nine out of 10.
- I mean, I'll give it a nine out of 10.
The only reason why it's not a 10,
gotta follow the rules.
- [Chris] No mercy.
- And because that's the only way I come back.
- I don't even need to judge it.
I just feel like I'm just enjoying the dish
and that's why I feel like this is a 10 out of 10.
- I'm happy that people enjoyed my dumplings.
I definitely Googled.
And I was like, "Are wantons dumplings?"
Google says that wantons are dumplings.
Didn't really try to go too overboard with anything.
Kind of just mixed stuff for the sauce
until I thought it was spicy and tasty enough.
And here we are now.
So this was really fun.
(gentle music)