Elevating the Chinese dumpling

By Whitney Pipkin

Dan Zhu grew up eating dumplings, both at his childhood home in Montgomery County, Md., and on biannual trips to see his grandmother back in China.

He said he didn’t appreciate them or the homemade labor they required as a kid. But, when he decided to start a food business with his two best friends a couple years ago, they were the first thing that came to mind.

“We made the decision that we really want to elevate this kind of food,” he said, referring to Chinese food that, in America, is often relegated to takeout and buffets. “Dumplings were a natural place to start.”

Zhu, 29, who works as an attorney by day, started Pinch with friends Benjamin Cuttitta, 27, and Patrick Exon, 31, a year ago. The trio (and its staff; they all still work their day jobs during the week) are now selling at eight D.C.-area farmers markets and counting, pumping out more than 10,000 dumplings a week.

The dumplings come in more than 16 flavors, stuffed with either lamb, pork, chicken or vegetarian mixtures. The dough is kneaded and formed into dumplings by hand and vegetables like cabbage are chopped by hand, too.

Zhu said one of the hardest parts of running a handmade dumpling venture has been finding and keeping the skilled labor to perfectly pinch each product. Though the business partners plan to open a bricks-and-mortar restaurant in the future, the seasonal nature of selling at farmers markets has so far required them to retrain new dumpling makers each year.

The wrappers are simple, made with warm water and wheat flour, “but, as with anything, it’s all about the process,” Zhu said, and that’s the secret ingredient.

Pinch also focuses on sourcing local ingredients, like pork and vegetables, from nearby farms. This grants them a natural home at farmers markets and helps them keep preservatives out of the dumplings.

“My mom never used organic, free-range pork before. It’s so good,” he said, noting how the ingredients have elevated the dumplings, too.

The dumplings are boiled after being cinched together and then steamed or pan-fried to order at the markets. They’re served with two sauces: a sweeter, soy-based variety that’s what most Americans expect to accompany their dumplings and a more traditional, dark vinegar sauce that would be served alongside them in China.

“Nine-to-one, people like the soy-based sauce over the vinegar. But people who are Chinese know that they eat it with the vinegar,” Zhu said.

Pinch’s stands sell a half-dozen dumplings in varieties like chicken-and-dill or lamb-and-leek, for $8.50. Zhu and his partners are building out their own kitchen in Rockville now that will allow them to roll out a line of pre-packaged dumplings to sell at local retail shops and RelayFoods.com. They “100 percent plan” to open a quick-serve dumpling restaurant in D.C. or Montgomery County in the very near future and are “continuously looking for the right location. This would allow a year-round crew to make the dumplings to order while keeping them affordable.

“Asian fusion is usually high end, and those are not accessible to a lot of people,” Zhu said. “Our basic principal is to get as many people as possible eating dumplings and really knowing how good they can be.”