Dumpling Downer

The Dumpling Festival, that took place last Saturday in the lower east side, was anything but delicious... and a total letdown. For someone who loves dumplings I was really looking forward to the idea of all kinds of dumplings from all over the world. There was really only 6 stands, a Mexican, Chinese, Italian, serving up gnocchi (not sure how that's a dumpling?), Perogi, Filipino and Malaysian. It was really expensive and super commercial. You had to buy food tickets, which were $5 per ticket, and 1 ticket got you a plate from one of the stand. The amount you were given was depending on the stand. In the case of the Malaysian stand, you get 2 of these little dessert dumplings. (pictured here) And the Chinese potstickers came with 4 potstickers and 1 egg roll, neither of which were really good. I thought the frozen gyozas from Trader Joe's taste better! The malaysian one was packaged beautifully, 2 little green triangles, wrapped in a bamboo leaf. You unwrap it to find a soft mochi-like dessert dumpling inside. It was too sweet for the morning but much better than the other food I tried. Although the food was bad, the cause was good! All the proceed go to the New York Food Bank. And all the profit gets matched by this Chef One sponsor, so basically the $10 I spent is $20 that goes to feeding the hungry and homeless. I was surprised how many people turned out despite the rainy weather so hopefully they made a lot of money for the Food Bank.