“Everyone likes dumplings,” says chef Ben Puchowitz of the newly opened East Passyunk hot spot Bing Bing Dim Sum. It’s a simple statement, but it rings true in a remarkably global sense. If you take a quick spin around the globe, you can land virtually anywhere and find a variation on the small, savory — sometimes filled and sometimes not — ball of dough. Potstickers, pierogies and pasteles are gimmes from Asia, Eastern Europe and South America, but the transcontinental proliferation goes so much further than that. There are Swedish palt, balls of dough stuffed with unsmoked bacon or even reindeer blood; pamonha, Brazilian tamales with corn and coconut milk; and pickert, potato dumplings from Westphalia, Germany, served with liverwurst. Judging by the wait times at Bing Bing, Puchowitz and his business partner, Shawn Darragh, have created a dumpling-centric golden ticket of a menu that has a wide-ranging accessibility and hits a sweet spot of comfort. Visit Philadelphia Citypaper to find out where more of the city’s tastiest dumplings can be found.
Where to get dumplings— from dim sum to pierogies— in Philadelphia
Neal Santos
