I recently had the opportunity to sample dumplings from Cali Dumpling Delivery – a new delivery service that delivers dumplings right to your door! This new dumpling delivery service is available in Northern California, Southern California, San Diego, and Las Vegas. I’ll be covering the San Diego Cali Dumpling Delivery service.
I tried three different varieties of dumplings. The cooking directions are clear and concise and they make it really easy to make these at home.
PORK PAN FRY DUMPLINGS
Here’s what the front of the bag looks like. It has your cooking directions and tells you what inside.
For the pan fried dumplings, you place the frozen dumplings into a hot pan with some canola oil. Cook for 5 minutes, then add water to the pan and cover with a lid. This will allow the tops to steam while the bottoms stay crisp. With heating time, the whole process takes about 15 minutes.
And here’s the result! I turned my dumplings a little to get them crispy on the sides, too, but you don’t have to do that. I just like having extra crispy sides.
The dumplings I chose were filled with pork and they were very juicy and had a great flavor. The dumpling wrapper is thick and slightly chewy and it does taste like it came from a restaurant – but instead I cooked it safely at home! I made my own dumpling sauce to go with these or you can add dumpling sauce to your order from Cali Dumpling Delivery if you want to take the extra step.
SHRIMP, PORK, CHIVE DUMPLINGS
For my next batch, I chose the Shrimp, Pork, Chive dumplings. This version is boiled in water – no pan frying involved.
This one is also very simple to make. Heat water until boiling and drop your dumplings in. Once they float, cook for another 2-3 minutes. I actually preferred to boil them a little longer as I found it needed a little extra time for my liking. Again, the whole process takes about 15 minutes to get the dumplings ready. Cali Dumpling Delivery makes it so easy!
For these dumplings I either drown them in my own homemade sauce..
Or just eat them plain with some fried rice. Either way, it’s a very easy meal to make when you don’t feel like cooking or want something simple to make. These are perfect for my work at home lunches since they don’t take much time.
I forgot to take a photo of the inside of these boiled shrimp, pork, chive dumplings, but it contains larger pieces of shrimp in the mix. I thought it had a few too many chives – but hey, I would still eat it. I prefer more chives on top then on the inside.
PORK XLB
The final dumpling type I tried from Cali Dumpling Delivery was the Pork XLB. I don’t have a bamboo steamer, all I have is a countertop plug in steamer so my dumplings did not get as hot as I would have liked, but I think in a normal bamboo steamer with boiling water underneath, it would get as hot as I think it should be!
I placed pieces of parchment under the dumplings. When I did this a second time, I make the parchment pieces smaller. You can also use cabbage or lettuce.
Here’s how they look after they’re steamed. Some of the juice seems to have escaped that one on the bottom!
For making these pork xlb at home, I have to say it’s pretty yummy. It’s not quite as good as having it in the restaurant since mine weren’t hot enough and some of the juice escaped, but it was still a yummy version.
You can see a little bit of the soup in there but some leaked out a little bit. In the restaurant I always have to be careful when eating these, but these were already a good enough temperature to pop whole into my mouth. The pork filling is flavorful and juicy though I do wish there was a bit more soup broth. I didn’t complain too badly, though. I was still really happy to be eating dumplings in the comfort of my own home!
All in all I would really recommend Cali Dumpling Delivery. The dumplings are easy to heat up at home and don’t take a lot of time or fuss. The fillings are flavorful and juicy and taste very similar to what you would get in a restaurant.
Cali Dumpling Delivery delivers twice a week – on Mondays to the northern part of San Diego and Wednesdays to the southern part (see neighborhood list here). Place your orders by 5PM the day before your delivery date to ensure delivery for that week. Delivery is a flat $10 fee. Dumplings come in 30 piece bags and range from $16-$18 per bag.
If you want to make your own dumpling sauce at home, here’s a photo and a tiny recipe of what I put into my dumpling sauce:
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon hot water
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1-2 teaspoons Umami Red (or sambal oelek or chili garlic sauce or whatever else you like)
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
Mix these all together in bowl. Taste. Adjust to your liking. Dip yo’ dumplings into it!
Visit Cali Dumpling Delivery to get you some dumplings STAT!
Disclaimer: I received complimentary dumplings with delivery. I was not further compensated for this post. All opinions and photographs stated here are my own.
