June 14, 2021

The 2021 Food Issue: Rolling in Dough

The pandemic revealed just how connected we are as citizens of the world. Few corners of the earth escaped the deadly COVID-19 virus and nations worked in tandem to contain it. In many ways, it proved that we’re more similar than we are different. This got us thinking about how much we share when it comes to food.To get more news about taste of shanghai, you can visit shine news official website.

"If you put a human in a room with some kind of substance and flour and water, eventually that human will exit with a dumpling, a ravioli, a samosa, an empanada, or a pierogi,” says Zofia’s Kitchen chef and co-owner Ed Hardy. He specializes in clever flavors of pierogi and believes you can travel anywhere and find filled dough. "Any culture that’s trying to claim that it’s theirs can’t really do that because it was bound to happen anyway. It was inevitable. Humans love dough-covered items. It’s a primal urge.”

Thinking about people from all over indulging in bowls of dumplings or plates of pastelillos is comforting and unifying at a time when we need more togetherness. Adding to the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes with eating filled dough snacks is the fact that most of these treasures are made by hand, often with a little love baked in. Thanks to the D.C. region’s extensive culinary offerings from across the globe, you can try myriad filled dough dishes. We only wish we had room for more, both in our bellies and in this issue. While the items featured aren’t the only exemplary offerings in their categories, this collection shows the breadth of options in the region.
Restaurateur Tim Ma had a specific goal when he was conceiving of Lucky Danger, which he runs with co-chef Andrew Chiou. "When we were putting together the menu, we wanted American Chinese classics,” he says. "We want you to be able to order Lucky Danger without looking at the menu. You know, every Chinese restaurant will have certain things.”

One of them is crab rangoon. "If you think about kung pao or even fried rice, they have origins in China, but crab rangoon has no origin in China,” Ma says. "Dairy doesn’t exist in the diet there. That is for sure something that came about in Chinese restaurants here in America.”

Chinese restaurants have become such a treasured part of American culinary culture that it’s hard to fathom that their numbers boomed 100 years ago because of xenophobic immigration laws. At the beginning of the 20th century, anti-Asian sentiment was so strong that the U.S. enacted policies that barred Chinese workers from immigrating or becoming U.S. citizens unless they held a merchant visa. A court ruled in 1915 that restaurant owners qualified for such visas. Chinese restaurants proliferated as a result and restaurateurs adapted menu items for Western taste buds. Since anti-Asian hate is still a serious problem, Ma cofounded Chefs Stopping AAPI Hate earlier this year.

Lucky Danger’s crab rangoon stands out because the chefs use a spring roll wrapper instead of a wonton or egg roll wrapper that typically gets formed into a four-point fold. "We do it like a beggar’s purse,” Ma says. The result is a crispy crown. When Ma and Chiou first started selling crab rangoon, they took a cheffy approach by using real crab and crab roe instead of more traditional imitation crab meat. "But we started getting emails,” Ma says. Customers couldn’t figure out why they "tasted funny” or "smelled weird.”

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