New York. New city, new year. My transplant to Metropolis has gone over fairly smoothly, but since our economy is still circling the recessionary whirlpool, a new job is nowhere to be found. I’ll eventually adapt to the higher cost of living, but until I’m gainfully employed the pricing differences between New York dining and California dining could not be more obvious. That said, I was all too happy to skip out on this season’s restaurant week, instead spending most of January scouring lower Manhattan for the best meals under $10. In honor of the lunar new year, I’ll be devoting this entire week to an examination of Chinatown’s most valuable contribution to the unemployed soul: the fried dumpling.

For a food that has such universal roots, the dumpling has a peculiarly unattractive name- in the English language, at least. I can’t say much about the cultural values associated with jiaozi, gyoza, mandu, pierogi, pelmeni, vareniki, khinkali, momos, karanji or manti, but I’m fairly certain that none of their names can be literally interpreted to denote a wee dump.

Schoolyard giggles aside, dumplings are a worldwide culinary staple as old as human civilization and with a much better flavor-to-mass ratio. Bite-sized dumplings, filled with potato, cabbage, cheese or meat, then boiled or fried, are a particularly reliable source of joy on every continent (according to Morgan Freeman’s booking agency, even penguins enjoy the occasional fish dumpling). Manhattan’s Chinatown is no exception to the rule, offering some the city’s tastiest bites at the recession-proof price of $1.00 for five crescent-shaped pieces of pan fried relief. Most of the eateries that uphold a dollar dumpling menu also serve various other northern Chinese treats at prices just as cheap, served over styrofoam to customers in cramped, stall-sized eating quarters that curtly throw a greasy elbow into New York’s status as restaurant capital of the world.

At the top of my list of New York Chinatown’s fried dumplings stands the local hero: an entryway of an eatery named Prosperity Dumpling. Nestled in the thick of dumpling house row (also known as Eldridge St), Prosperity Dumpling deals in the staples of Chinatown takeout: fried dumplings, steamed dumplings, green onion sesame pancakes, hot and sour soup and the rest of the usual suspects, each priced at $2 or less. With two stand-and-eat counters and precious little else between the counter and the door, Prosperity is at once impossible to crowd and impossible not to crowd- unless it’s a weekday afternoon and gaggles of middle school girls have just gotten out of class, eager to grab an after-school snack and fill a tiny space with some of the most strangely phrased gossip I’ve ever overheard.

Prosperity’s fried dumpling is the most balanced and flavorful example of its kind: the dough is rolled just thin enough that when it soaks up the oil from the frying pan it becomes faintly transparent, hinting at the generous portion of juicy, fatty ground pork and chives within. The dumpling skin is perfectly crisped on nearly every side without being overcooked, producing a harmony of chewy, crunchy, greasy and soupy textures in each short-lived bite.

Prosperity’s cooks fry fresh batches of dumplings and pancakes fairly often and cook them in smaller batches than most dumpling houses, ensuring that unless you show up at odd ends of the day you will have a consistently delicious way to maximize the power of your walking around money. This consistency, added to the masterful quality of its goods, makes Prosperity the best fried dumpling house in Chinatown. It’s an indispensable comfort to know that in uncertain times, it takes only a dollar to make me feel like I still live in the most prosperous country on the planet.

Prosperity Dumpling
46 Eldridge St
New York, NY 10002
212.343.0683

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 6:56 am and is filed under Manhattan, New York.