About two years later, Du did exactly that, opening Dumpling Queen in Flower Mound in late May. She has
joined forces with her daughter and co-owner, Ruby Sun, and head chef Andy Fan, who has lived in Dallas for
about 30 years, opening and cooking in restaurants including the franchise Lover’s Egg Roll.
It’s perhaps most accurate to call Du a dumpling chef.
When she was around 20, Du learned to make mian dian, or Chinese pastries primarily made from wheat and
rice flour, in her hometown of Qingdao in eastern China. Over the next 30 or so years, she has made dumplings
and buns in acclaimed Qingdao and North Texas spots, including the now-closed Tian Tian Restaurant in Dallas
and Shanghai Taste in Plano.
“She is really well-known in Plano,
” Sun said in Mandarin.
“It has been my mom’s dream to open her own place.
”
Preparing dumplings entirely by hand is not easy. There are the wrappers, and then there are the fillings. Both
have to be good for the dumpling to be great.
Steamed dishes at Dumpling Queen include xiao long bao ($13), soup dumplings with thin wrappers and pork
and soup inside, and four-color rainbow dumplings ($16) with fillings such as pork and shrimp, chicken and
mixed vegetables.
Customers can also find sheng jian bao ($10-12), or pan-fried dumplings that are crispy on the bottom, soft on
top and juicy inside. The pan-fried thumb bun ($12), a dish rare in Dallas, Sun said, features 10 small buns that
each can be eaten in one bite. Guo tie ($13-$16), or honeycomb potstickers, is a local dish in Qingdao featuring
a sheet of crispy flakes at the bottom.
Sun was introduced to Fan by a friend of her mom and invited him to bring classic American Chinese staples
such as orange chicken ($18), honey walnut shrimp ($23) and broccoli beef ($18). All recipes and sauces come
from Fan.
The duo of Chinese American dishes and dumplings is intentional.
“It’s combining what’s trending at the
moment,
” Fan said.
The dumplings are hand-wrapped right in front of customers, with chefs, including Du, working behind a sushi-
bar-turned-dumpling bar in the middle of the restaurant. The wrapping goes on for about eight to nine hours a
day.
The store may host dumpling-making events in the future, Sun said.
Du’s pastries recipe, a business secret, is meticulous down to the weight of ingredients. She said she doesn’t use
cold water to mix the flour like many other places, which helps her create a dough that is very soft and better for
the stomach.
“I just want to make healthy food,
” she said. She takes her understanding of American eaters’ preferences and
knowledge of authentic Chinese pastry to create products that appeal to both U.S. and Chinese customers, she
said.
Du is confident her dumplings are among the healthiest in Dallas, with no MSG or additives. The rainbow
dumpling wrappers are made with natural vegetable coloring. Every dumpling is made fresh each day, as is
every wok dish by Fan.
Sun, who helped her mom open the restaurant, chose Flower Mound due to the relatively smaller Chinese
population and the friendliness of the neighborhood.
Both American and Chinese customers have visited the restaurant since it opened.
“I’ve always thought that
flavors travel across cultures,
” Sun said.
Kathy Wang
The Dumpling Queen team is dedicated to bringing you the best Chinese dining experience.