The rise of the casual dumpling restaurant

Can you believe it’s November already? Hope you’ve all fallen back successfully and aren’t too depressed by the fact it’s pitch dark by 5 p.m. Today we’re talking turkey, dumplings, a great little French place called Maison Matho, and more. I’m columnist Lucas Kwan Peterson, here to bring you this week’s Tasting Notes newsletter.

A tale of two dumplings

*Knocks on door* Excuse me, but do you have a minute to talk about dumplings? Specifically, I’d like to talk about a wonderful trend that’s been happening over the past couple of years: a proliferation of casual dumpling spots in and around Los Angeles.

More dumplings is always, always a good thing, and I’ve been thinking about two businesses lately: Bafang Dumpling, a Taiwanese chain that made its U.S. debut last year, and Jiou Chu Dumplings, also from Taiwan, which opened in Rowland Heights this summer. Bafang Dumpling already has four locations in the area. The renowned 85C Bakery Cafe is behind Jiou Chu Dumplings, which has just the one location in the U.S. so far.

Pan-fried dumplings at Jiou Chu feature a crispy lace of starch around the bottom.

(Lucas Kwan Peterson)

They scratch different itches, but both are good. Jiou Chu is more of a full-service hybrid restaurant — there is abbreviated table service, where the food is brought to you, but you order on your phone through a QR code. Bafang is purely fast-casual with counter service, where you order and pick up food yourself at the front (there’s also no expectation to tip when you pay, if that kind of thing is important to you).

Both do a mean Taiwanese beef noodle soup, that iconic, comforting dish that should perfectly balance savory and sweet, flavored with star anise and brimming with chewy noodles. They’re comparably priced, but the bowl at Bafang was a bit more generous and had more spice, as well as a couple of fat chunks of tender radish.

I liked the broth better at Jiou Chu, however: It was deeper and had legs to it. I also liked the fact that it came with a small dish of pickled mustard greens on the side. The noodles in Jiou Chu’s soup had more of the springy, bouncy “QQ” texture that we prize in certain starchy foods.

Jiou Chu offers a xiao long bao (soup dumpling), which Bafang does not. But I found the XLB slightly puzzling — the wrapper was on the thick side, as opposed to the usual gossamer-thin. The pork flavor was excellent, but they almost resembled more of a chewy dim sum har gow than what you’d typically expect: pyramid-shaped and swelling near the bottom, with liquid nearly bursting from the sides.

Bafang has a more slimmed-down menu than Jiou Chu but still serves several types of dumpling, including one with corn, a spicy version with kimchi and a standard fried potsticker. Bafang’s is long and rectangular like you’d get at SGV favorite Hui Tou Xiang. The pan-fried version at Jiou Chu is more crescent-shaped, as opposed to rectangular, and comes with a crispy skirt of starch lace around the bottom. Some of my absolute favorite foods come with a skirt — pupusas, grilled cheese sandwiches and dumplings, to name a few.

As for flavor, the edge goes to Jiou Chu’s potstickers, which were juicier and very well constructed. But at Bafang, you can get an order of six for just $5.25. An order of eight dumplings at Jiou Chu will run you close to $11.

My feelings about the dumplings mirror my overall feelings about both restaurants: Jiou Chu has the edge on flavor, but Bafang is easier and provides great value. Jiou Chu’s menu is more expansive, but sometimes you want your options streamlined. In my opinion, you can’t really go wrong with either.

Get ready for Thanksgiv-Jing

Sorry about the pun. Our indefatigable Deputy Food Editor Betty Hallock has a great feature this week on Jing Gao, founder of Fly by Jing, the condiment company known for its Sichuan chili crisp.

Gao, who once lived in the corporate world as a product manager at Procter & Gamble, founded her company in 2019. It’s been hugely successful, with over 2 million jars of her chili crisp sold. Fun fact: The name Fly by Jing is a reference to her native Chengdu, and small restaurants that were so delicious that people would swarm to them like flies. Read the article, and don’t overlook all the recipes at the bottom of the page.

Incidentally, have you tried the L.A. Times Food section’s dry chili crisp, made in collaboration with Burlap & Barrel? You can buy a jar of that here.

(Shelby Moore / For The Times)

Do you have your tickets yet?

Are you ready? It’s time, once again, for the annual 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles list! The event takes place on Tuesday, Dec. 5, and will almost certainly be an exciting time. Featured restaurants, in no particular order, include Tsubaki, Damian, Alta Adams, Morihoro and the inimitable Jitlada. Dress to impress and bring a date, or your appetite. Preferably both. Get your tickets here.

And don’t forget to check out ...

• Restaurant review alert! This week, Lucas Kwan Peterson (that’s me) reviews Maison Matho, a tiny French place serving sandwiches, pastries and coffee on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. It serves a mean jambon beurre, a decadent, cheesy French ravioli and an incredible omelet sandwich. This is a daytime place, and it’s worth traversing the traffic to get your hands on chef Daniel Matho’s food.
  
• Stephanie Breijo has all the restaurant news you can use this week, which includes the lowdown on the new outpost of Brothers Sushi, opening in Culver City. Central American restaurant Si! Mon also debuts in Venice. Read all the news here.
  
• Jenn Harris checks out Vietnamese restaurant Ngu Binh in Westminster and sings the praises of the pupusas at La Pupusa Urban Eatery.