The Deep-fried Dumplings with Shrimp at Chinatown in Halifax were novel in form but turned out to be quite good. They got a 3out of 5 Rating.
On a recent visit to the Chinatown Restaurant in Halifax, my sister ordered their ‘Deep-fried Shrimp Dumpling’. We had already tried the Har Gow there, which is the Steamed Shrimp Dumpling (蝦餃) ubiquitous on Dim Sum menus, and I was rather expecting something along the lines of a deep-fried equivalent. What we received, and pictured above, turned out to be nothing like Har Gow at all.
I have to say, that when I saw this dish as it arrived, I was not terribly impressed. In the first place, it didn’t look like a dumpling at all, but more like a crisp, flat wafer sort of affair. On closer inspection, however, it turned out that the ‘wafer’ was a thin version of the sort of wrapper usually that is used for Egg Rolls.
Despite the initial appearance, Shrimp did turn out to be included in this delicacy. It appears as though individual ones were laid out on a large sheet, half of which was folded over top of them, and then individual ‘turn-over’ style dumplings were created by (partly) cutting through the dough before deep-frying. If you look closely at the above picture, you can see that there are large pieces which can be snapped along the incision lines to produce pieces, each of which encloses a Shrimp.
The mayonnaise style dressing on the side also looked a little bit unappetizing at first and I really didn’t think these would end up being very good at all. As it was, the whole affair wasn’t all that bad.
The ‘wrapper’ as such, was nicely crispy and not oily at all. The Shrimp were necessarily very tiny, but they were still very fresh and tasty, while the dipping sauce, which seemed to be of the ‘Kewpie’ style popular in Japan, provided a nice tanginess, and offset the dryness of the wrapper.
I can’t say I would rush out and order these again, any time soon, but the Deep-fried Shrimp Dumpling at Chinatown turned out to be a lot better than it looked.