After eating some amazing pan fried dumplings in Sydney, Adam and I were on the hunt for the next best thing in Adelaide. A hunt that started and ended in one single trip.
The Dumpling King sits at the front of Adelaide?s Chinatown, just behind the entrance gate. I assumed since they are the ?king? of dumplings they would have to kick ass, so that was our first stop. It had a lot to live up to to beat the Chinese Noodle Restaurant. There are plenty of seats in the Dumpling King, but they are almost always filled, no matter what time of day it is. Seating happens quickly, and just like the Sydney restaurant, it had the customary pictures of menu items on the wall, only this time illuminated with light. Nice touch.
But it really is handy to know what you are ordering looks like, because sometimes, especially in foreign restaurants, you just never know what you?re getting into. Thankfully, all the choices at the Dumpling King seem to hit the spot. The pan fried pork dumplings (15 for $7.80 AUD) were the first item tried, simply to see how they would stand up next to the pork and chive dumplings from Sydney.
Quite frankly, they whooped the Sydney dumpling?s ass. First of all, they give you a truck load of dumplings. 15.
The farthest I have ever come to finishing a plate has been 8. They had the same bursting effect when you bite into them, just like the Sydney version, only this dumpling has a strip of ginger at the bottom of them, which really gave them a leg up on the competition. The other advantage was the chili jam at each table. At the Sydney restaurant, we received chili flakes in oil, but here at the Dumpling King, they use a homemade chili jam with caramelized onions.
Oh. MY. This is what sells it for me. The flavor of caramelized onions is so pungent you can taste it through the customary soy sauce-Chinese black vinegar blend. It is simply delectable, and bonus?they sell small packages of the stuff too. Just don?t let the delicious caramelized onion scent trick you into thinking you can handle more chili than usual. Trust me. You may choke a bit. Or so I hear. Other hits at the Dumpling King: the hot and sour soup ($3.50 AUD), or what I like to call hot sauce soup.
It tastes like my favorite American hot sauce, Frank?s Red Hot, in soup form. Thickened with an egg and specked with chunks of tofu, scallions and other goodies, this is a very addicting flavor combo. The steamed chicken and prawn dumplings (10 for $6.80 AUD) are nice mellow break from the salty pork ones, but slippery little f-ers. Those with remedial chopstick skills beware. My first trip there, I saw the table next to me go to town on a plate of short ribs with tons of sauce that looked delicious, so I tried to order them off the menu on my second trip (one day later!). The only ones listed were the fried ribs in garlic sauce ($5.00 AUD), basically chicken-fried ribs that had an entire head of garlic shoved into each one.
While they were tasty in their own right, they were not what I was looking for. On yet another trip, I finally found them?the sweet and sour ribs ($3.80 AUD). They were on the lit up picture menu, but not on the written menu. See, I told you they were good for something! The ribs arrived 3 out of 4 times cold, which was a fun twist. The sauce was bold, with flavors or plum and tamarind, sort of like an Asian barbeque sauce. As with most menu items, you get a ton of food for little money. The seaweed salad was ready made and refreshing, a slightly different flavor than I am used to, yet I can?t quite put my fingers on it.
Friends raved over the jellyfish salad, and while it was good, it didn?t do anything for me.
I?ve had jellyfish twice now, and the texture is a bit weird to get used to, almost crunchy. I really like it when it has sesame oil on it, but these did not have any. I also don?t have the exact prices for these two items because they were in the front case, where all the names are written in another language and not on the menu. I want to say the jellyfish salad was $4.80 AUD and the seaweed salad was $2.50 AUD, but don?t quote me on that one. Other goodies in the front case include pig ears, pig feet, and various bits of fish you normally wouldn?t expect to eat, like spleen and such. I tend to obsess a bit about new flavors in my life, and everything at the Dumpling King was great. So great, in fact, that I have managed to eat there around 8 times in three weeks. Yeah. I need help. But even when I had four people eating, we never broke the $30 mark on the bill. I once was a whore for dumplings, and now I just a whore for the Dumpling King. ~LTG Dumpling King Restaurant Shang-Hai Cuisine Shops 4 and 5 85 Grote Street Adelaide, SA 5000 08 82121886
