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On The Tummy Spot: Tasty Dumplings Hong Ma!
I’m sure by now you guys know that I am an avid fan and Binondo food addict. There is just something comforting about delicious and well-prepared dim sums and other Chinese dishes that I just can’t resist them. It’s a lifelong love affair from eating at my Angkong’s table with the dishes he has prepared when I was still a little kid to the weekend Binondo forays with the mum. It’s in my blood!And as a yearly tradition, we make sure that every Chinese New Year we are in Binondo to take part in the revelry of it all. From the dragon dances, to the red ang pao’s, busy streets, and of course the delicious food, we really try and make it in Binondo yearly. This year as with last year, we had one of our stop-overs in Tasty Dumplings along Ongpin road. Presently though they have transferred to Condesa Street which is just near the old location in Ongpin. Since we tried some of their best sellers before, we decided to try some dishes that my friend C recommended. We ordered their Meatball soup, Hong Ma, and the Silver roll bread that was best together with the Hong Ma. We just ordered these 3 because we were going to another restaurant later.
The meatball soup was a revelation. The delicious and beautifully seasoned meatballs floating in a clear but very flavorful broth was something else. We all loved it. It was a great starter and personally I think it’s good to share since the meatballs are quite filling.
The star of our orders was the tender, soy and anise flavored (pork belly, I think) Hong Ma drenched in its own sauce with the right proportions of meat and fat. It was literally a melt-in-your-mouth tasty piece of morsel and the Silver Roll bread was the perfect foil for it.
Hong Ma 
Hong Ma The Silver Roll bread was a fried and crunchy bread on the outside with a soft and light inside. You could put pieces of Hong Ma inside the bread and eat it like a sandwich. They were absolutely perfect together. A match made in heaven if I do say so myself.
Silver Roll I do suggest that if you guys check out Tasty Dumplings, be sure to order the Hong Ma and the Silver Roll bread and you will be glad you did. The Silver Roll bread will also go well with the Pata Tim!XoXoEV -
My Binondo Foodie Adventures Part VIII: A 2nd Foray into Tasty Dumplings
Binondo, how I love thee? Let me count the foodie trips! JChinese New Year is something that we really look forward to every year and what’s best is that we get to celebrate it in the Philippines Chinatown capital – Binondo. This year, the streets were packed as usual with tsinoys, foreigners, dragon dancers and visitors trooping straight to Binondo to take part in the New Year festivities happening. It’s red all over the place with lots of firecrackers loud enough to rival New Year’s celebrations.We had fun strolling as I brought along mom, sister and Z. Their feet got tired but they were all happy with what we had experienced. It was getting closer to dinner time and everywhere the restaurants were packed of course. I headed off to Tasty Dumplings. I just love their cool exteriors after the humidity outside and all that firework smoke. It was a welcome refuge.We had some Fried Kuchay Dumplings, these deep fried morsels were yummy together with the dipping sauce we had. It could rival that of Dong Bei’s.
Mama had their sweet and sour chicken rice and I must say I was pretty impressed with it. I don’t normally order sweet and sour anymore because it’s so commonplace but their version definitely was worth its salt. It had tender and moist chicken pieces drenched in just the right amount of the sweet and sour sauce.
Sister had some spareribs rice and it tasted like the patatim I used to have before in Cdeo. It was really delicious. Soy flavored sauce with some spices and the meat was just right. Not tough and quite easy to eat. It’s a different take on spareribs from the ones in WaiYing. They are both very different and each of the spareribs has their own unique signature. For myself, I ordered their signature dish Pork Chop rice with those gigantic Ala schnitzel pork pieces. Huge thin and crispy pork chop pieces designed to satisfy your fried pork craving and more. I had no problems sharing this as it was really a lot and I couldn’t finish it alone.
It’s been a while since I updated this blog and I apologize for the absence. Life has been hectic lately with another venture I have been experimenting with.
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My Binondo Foodie Adventures: Part I – Tasty Dumplings
It has been a while and I have collected a dozen pictures and a dozen more thoughts about food and restaurants in general and I am sorry to be so remiss in updating my blog. I have been meaning to but I have been bogged down with wedding pictures and work related stuff that I haven’t had the time nor energy to take care of my foodie blog.I have been in and out of Binondo countless times but it still doesn’t fail to charm and excite me everytime. The purple firetrucks, the great and cheap chinese food, the blabber of Chinese everywhere and it’s delightful nooks and crannies. Blame it on my Chinese heritage but there is just something about Chinatown that keeps me coming back for more.My first restaurant on focus would be “Tasty Dumplings”. Located at the side of the Binondo Church – it is a fully airconditioned Chinese restaurant that offers great value for good food. The interiors of the restaurant are very clean with attentive waiting staff. Their restaurant menu is not that comprehensive so that it doesn’t confuse you so much and their food is good.I was with a foodie friend during this exploration and she was the one who introduced me to Tasty Dumplings. We first ordered some fried dumplings which came in due time and it was accompanied with a special sauce which I thoroughly enjoyed. Pegged at less than a hundred pesos and about 10 pcs. in 1 order. I consider this a great buy.
There were the fried ones so we also had to try the steamed ones. Still at the same price and same quantity. Another good buy.
After the dumplings, we proceeded to real food. They have this porkchop meal which is just PHP99.00 and you will be surprised because the porkchop is so huge that I wasn’t even able to finish it at all. Yummy! We had some free green tea to wash away all that grease and full feeling because we had another restaurant to go to.
After trying out that porkchop, we actually ordered mushroom balls. Really good stuff. Fried mushroom balls which were a welcome change to all the fried dimsums I have eaten lately.
Overall rating, I’d give them 7 out of 10. Their surroundings were really clean and you will be very much comfortable eating inside. They also serve free soup with their porkchop btw. A worthwhile foodie exploration.
exploring food forever! among other things…
