The Thousands

Dumplings. It’s a beautiful word, encompassing all that I hold dear. There’s the pretty little packages of prawn and coriander at yum cha; the cheap, ungainly and delicious blobs from Dumpling King; or slippery, ginger-filled pork gyoza (Wasai’s are the best). Then there’s the European side: some made of dough sitting in a stew, some made of potato, filled with meat. The real king of dumplings though is the Polish variety: pierogi. Savoury and sweet; vegetarian and meatatarian; steamable, boilable, fryable! So many dumplings…

If all this is making you hungry, the best place to go for pierogi is Mama’s Pierogi on Port Road. You can buy all the flavours of the rainbow – mushroom and sauerkraut, meat and sauerkraut, lentil, potato and cheese (yes!), spinach and fetta, sour cherry, blueberry, strawberry! They also have goulash, bigos (Hunter’s Stew), stuffed capsicums, cabbage rolls, gherkin soup… yeah, it’s made of gherkins. Take your bag of treats home and cook them how you want, or sit down with a plate of pierogi in the shop cooked in brown butter, onion and breadcrumbs. Hells yes.