What This Country Needs Is a Good Twenty-Cent Dumpling
I want to make a case for walking a few hundred feet further, for passing by a devil you know, in favor of one you don’t… yet. Practically every ‘Cheap Eats’ guide to NYC published in the last two or three years has mentioned Dumpling House on Eldridge Street, and with good reason: the food is stupefyingly inexpensive and generally pretty good. At the same time, it seems as if every one of Manhattan’s several million residents knows about the place– lines curl out the door and around the block during most lunchtimes, and even on a languid Saturday afternoon, we’ve seen patrons queueing up for cheap snacks. We have also found that, depending on how busy the restaurant is, the quality of their dishes varies in a wide range from excellent to absolutely subpar, and worst of all, the service is brusque. But just south of Dumpling House sits a bright, clean storefront, where word-for-word, mung bean-for-mung bean, a nearly identical menu is offered, and the food? It’s better than what you get up the street.
Prosperity Dumpling is too new yet to be heaving with throngs of diners, but the locals know it’s there, and they stop in every minute or two to chat with the very affable owner– but more telling is that nobody leaves the restaurant empty-handed. Well, almost nobody; there are five bar stools and a short, 8-foot eating counter here, so it is possible to actually sit down inside the restaurant while you eat your food– something that is nearly impossible to do at Dumpling House. If you do choose to sit, be aware that you also will probably end up talking with the owner. He’s a precise, very attentive sort, a man who likes to check three or four times with you to make sure he’s got your order correct, even stepping out from around the counter to look up at the menu display to confirm he’s preparing the correct dish for you. His pride in his cooking also comes through when he talks about how every food item in the shop is made from scratch, or ‘made from flour,’ as he puts it. 
Not only is everything made in house, it is all prepared to order, so absolutely everything is as fresh as it can be.
The people in the neigborhood know this, because the instant a sesame pancake is spread out into a pizza-like 16-inch circle, sprinkled with seeds, and slid onto a round griddle, customers start to appear for a slice. We found this out after we ordered one piece ($0.50), and realized too late that the owner would have to prepare an entire 10-slice round in the bargain. But we shouldn’t have worried, because the instant the smell of the yeasty dough on the stove escaped through the front door, a line of people materialized to buy up the other nine slices. The pancake sat, still warm, on the counter for a grand total of four minutes before it had disappeared. Once we tasted it, we understood instantly why this was the case: tasting uncannily like a Chinese version of a focaccia, the pancake was crisp and salty on top, while still steamy, springy and light on the inside. I have never eaten a better pan-fried bread.
We expected the Stuffed Sesame Pancake with Vegetable ($1.25)– a dish not offered up the street at Dumpling House– to look very similar, but were both surprised to see something from a different genus of baked goods emerge from the kitchen. The pancake– more accurately, a flat, pan-seared bun– was a palm-sized pocket of dough filled with shredded pork, Chinese greens, and lots of green onion. It was also very moist, even juicy, inside, just like a hand-held version of a pork pot pie.
But what about the dumplings? After all, it is on the quality of this dish that the success of Prosperity Dumpling hinges. Unsurprisingly, given the restaurant’s attention to detail and concern with freshness, the dumplings are wonderful. Our favorite, the Chive & Pork Boiled Dumplings (10 for $2), are filled with nearly the same mixture as the Stuffed Pancake, but here, the soft, slightly tacky steamed dough takes on the texture of a noodle, rather than a pastry. 
Dotted with Chinese vinegar and dipped in Sriracha hot sauce, this generous serving of well-seasoned dumplings makes a quite substantial dinner or a gut-busting lunch– no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t finish all ten after snacking on both varieties of Sesame Pancake. Don’t miss the fragrant, gyoza-like fried dumplings on sale here as well. We do wish that Prosperity Dumpling would serve their vegetarian dumplings fried, as well as boiled, but that is really our only complaint about the place; and when you consider that our meal cost $3.75, that is a phenomenal achievement. A bargain dinner on its own is a great thing, but when it comes from such a genial and conscientious cook, it’s a modern-day miracle.
Prosperity Dumpling, 46 Eldridge Street (between Canal and Hester Streets), 212-343-0683
Great review. I really enjoy your site, wish I didnt live so far fromNYC. re the vegetarian dumplings, is there any reason you can’t ask to have them fried?
Comment by rooney — August 21, 2006 @ 9:32 am
No, and in fact, I bet they would fry them for you if you asked. We were just surprised not to find a fried veggie dumpling on the menu. It’s not on the Dumpling House menu either, interestingly (but good luck getting them to do anything off-menu for you).
Thanks for the compliment, too.
Nosher
Comment by Nosher — August 21, 2006 @ 2:07 pm
Nosher–I have long been a fan of your site, thank you! I have to say, this review is killing me because now I wish I lived in NYC (though San Fran is not a bad place to be)! How would you characterize the stuffed veggie pancake? Is it as thick as a bun? I am trying to find a recipe so I can try and make these–the photo has been tempting me all day!!!!
Comment by rebecca — August 21, 2006 @ 5:27 pm
Rebecca,
Thank you for the kind words. I’d say that the best analogy I can make is this: picture a steamed bao zi bun, and then imagine cooking it in a panini press, and that’s the stuffed pancake. It’s about an inch tall.
Good luck with the recipe hunt; let us know if you find a good one.
Nosher
Comment by Nosher — August 21, 2006 @ 6:05 pm
Thanks Nosher! I may have found a good recipe to start with–will play with the recipe this weekend and report back. I am settling for dim sum for dinner tonight since I have no time to cook.
BTW–I should have thanked you a long time ago for all the info you have here. Last fall as I was planning a trip to NYC, I stumbled across your site and found out about the Vendy awards. Lucky for us, we were in town for the party. I bought tickets immediately and I am so glad I did!! The Vendy’s were one of the highlights of our trip, and my husband still talks about what a great time we had that night. I need a dosa!! The chicken man!! Yum………..it also made me sad to realize that San Francisco has no real street food (nasty hot dog carts don’t count!
We are planning another trip to NYC to coincide with this year’s Vendy awards (Oct 22). And to go to Prosperity Dumpling (among other places!)
A million thanks! Keep up the good work!
Rebecca
Comment by rebecca — August 21, 2006 @ 7:30 pm
YUM! thanks for the great tip. i can’t wait to check this place out.
Comment by bexn — August 23, 2006 @ 1:51 am
Nosher, thank you! This review is great. That sesame pancake looks suspiciously like the one found in Chinese Muslim cuisine (zhi ma da bing). Since moving from California three years ago, I have been desperately searching for this type of sesame pancake; I grew up in the LA area eating it all the time at Tung Lai Shun.
If this is what I think it is, you’ve stumbled upon a true treasure.
Comment by kathryn — August 23, 2006 @ 10:57 am
Let us know if that is what it is, Kathryn.
Comment by Nosher — August 23, 2006 @ 3:01 pm
Great post! I checked this place out just last night and while they weren’t serving the pancake (it wasn’t clear why exactly, but they were certainly effusive in their apologies) the fried pork and scallion dumplings were some of the best I’ve had in New York. For whatever reason these dumplings were far superior to those served up the block - many more scallions and softer dough.
Regardless, thanks for the find. The proprietors seemed like great people and while I’m typically given to keeping such finds such as this one close to my chest - for obvious reasons - I’ll certainly tell all my friends to make the switch to Prosperity ASAP.
Thanks again!
Comment by Patrick — August 24, 2006 @ 9:51 am
I went yesterday and it was pretty good, especially the fried dumplings (crisp, but not overly crisp). And Kathryn, the big pancake is called zhi ma da bing in chinese, and it is the same thing that is at Dumpling House. Didn’t try that as we didn’t want to get it unless it was fresh.
It was a bit busy and the workers seemed to be a bit stressed out as they sounded like they were arguing.
Comment by Spencer — August 24, 2006 @ 1:13 pm
Yes, the pizza-like pancake is also available up the street (although it is rarely as fresh), but the stuffed pancake is not.
We’ve never seen the arguing Spencer, so I hope it’s just an anomaly– I understand that the shop has been extra-prosperous over the past few days, so perhaps they’re getting used to larger crowds. We’ll keep an eye out though!
Comment by Nosher — August 24, 2006 @ 2:44 pm
The “Stuffed Sesame Pancake with Vegetable” looks like what is called a “Jiu-Cai Hezi” or “Chive Box”. Basically a flattened dumpling with chive and pork filling that is pan-fried. The type I am accustomed to (Northern Chinese) usually has glass noodles and egg in it.
Comment by Kinkistyle — August 24, 2006 @ 10:50 pm
Actually they have Jiu-Cai Hezi as well and it’s called Chive-Egg something (that’s a bad description if that’s what I think it is). The Stuffed Sesame Pancake with Vegetable is called Cai Bing (I think) in chinese, never heard of it before. They also have a “Bai Cai Zhu Rou Xian Bing”, which is what I would think sounds more like what the picture looks like.
Comment by Spencer — August 25, 2006 @ 11:14 am
i tried it out today and the veggie dumplings were great! the owner was as nice as you said. the female staff were pretty rude to me, however. one woman took care of a regular as i stood there waiting (i’d gotten there first), and they said they didn’t have the stuffed vegetable pancake. the second woman tried to persuade me to order the pork dumplings instead, as they were already done in the pan. well, i don’t eat meat. i definitely got the impression she just didn’t want to make the veg dumplings or the stuffed pancake for me. oh well. what i got was great, and the guy came in later and made up for their behavior.
Comment by emma — August 27, 2006 @ 5:56 pm
We saw her when we were there too, and while she didn’t serve us, she was very smiley. Next time I go, I’ll see if she’s surly.
Comment by HungryMan — August 28, 2006 @ 12:07 am
thanks for the tip — will check it out soon. i love dumpling house’s dumplings, but the service and super chaotic “line” always made me groan. don’t get me wrong, chaos can be good, but that place is just whack. i put up with it only for the dumplings. even if prosperity’s dumplings are not as good as dh’s, but close, i’ll be there all the time if the owners are as great as they sound!
that’s why i love cong ly for pho. great pho, sweetest owners in the world. my idea of heaven.
Comment by boo — September 6, 2006 @ 9:25 pm
Wow, thanks for turning me on to this place! I like the dumplings better than Dumpling House’s. The meat is about the same, but the dumpling skin is much better. To me, that’s the crucial element.
I went there around 5 or 6 p.m. recently and, like most other dumpling places at that time, they were out of a lot of non-dumpling items like the chive-and-egg pancake, but they did have the Stuffed Sesame Pancake with Pork etc. The friendly guy even gave me two of them for a dollar instead of just one, I think because he was so apologetic that they were out of everything else that I was interested in. Or because they were the last two of the day and he wanted to get rid of them. It wasn’t clear. Anyway, those were tasty too, if a smidgen greasy. I’ll have to get over there for lunch soon, when things haven’t run out yet presumably.
Anyone ever tried the dumpling joints at around 25 Henry St. just east of Catherine St. or at the intersection of Catherine & Henry? The one at the intersection has a lot of other stuff too. I walked past these places recently but haven’t had a chance to try them yet. And hmmm, let’s see, I walked past another dumpling place recently that I’d never noticed before. Hmmm, can’t remember where it was….
Comment by Ike — September 8, 2006 @ 10:23 am
nice photos. the flat stuffed pancake looks like something I had in Xian, which people buy for breakfast and snacks- except no sesames, but filled with curry meet and scallions/leeks/chives. Hand-made in batches , then flattened on a big panini press cooker so they became crispy. Have not had it in NYC but maybe someone out there has? best street food I have had
Comment by yummy food — September 29, 2006 @ 2:59 pm
[…] While there are places you must eat while in New York (namely Katz’s, Papya King, Grimaldi’s) I would highly recommend 2 places in Chinatown. Prosperity Dumpling and Saigon Banh Mi. Ridiculously cheap and delicious. […]
Pingback by The New York highlights — March 31, 2007 @ 3:40 am
Hey fellow pancake lovers,
I am totally addicted. Kathryn was right, it is very similar to a zhi ma da bing. However the problem of a rcipe still exists. I cant find one anywhere. I asked the guys at dumpling house and for some reason, laughed, whispered amongst themselves and ushered me quietly out the door without my food. If anyone finds anything please let me know
Comment by matt — July 3, 2007 @ 12:49 pm