Mother's Dumplings - just like mommy's

I've recently just come back from a trip to Canada and whilst I was there ... I found an awesome hole-in-the-wall place in Toronto's Chinatown: Mother's Dumplings. I don't know where all the foodies in Canada go and didn't really know how to find out either. Anytime you searched anything in Google with any tag words similar to: food, Toronto, good, popular, local, etc. it always came up with some tourist crap. Therefore, our stomachs ended up fending for themselves... thankfully because we found Mother's Dumplings, hurrah!

This restaurant was a tiny and pretty much underground. I don't think most people would go there if they were tourists wandering around Chinatown. Most would probably go to some 24 hr Dim Sum place named Golden Dragon or Lotus Pearl... but let me tell you, the real treasure is at 79 Huron St. where you can find yourself some good homemade traditional Chinese cooking. It truly is hard to find dumplings in a restaurant that aren't previously frozen... so this is a winner.

Boiled pork and chive dumplings
Nice and juicy dumplings that were just the right size. The dough was perfectly cooked ... usually you can tell if it is undercooked because the dough will be chewy. It should pretty much just melt in your mouth and fall off of the meat when you bite into it... releasing the flavor and juice. Once dipped in some soy sauce or chinese vinegar mixed w/ sriracha, you're golden.

Green onion pancake

I have come across 2 different kinds of green onion pancake. One kind is really huge and flat and greasy w/more of an onion flavor. The other is thicker and cakey like this one with more of a doughy flavor rather than onion. I prefer this kind because its not as messy and it's easier to dip into other things (I like dipping mine into warm sweetened soy milk). Not my most favorite green onion pancake ever, but still very very good.

Steamed vegetarian dumplings: bok choy, mushroom, and tofu

These were my favorite dumplings that we ordered. I don't normally appreciate vegetarian dumplings because a lot of the time they use spinach and then it just tastes like a bunch of soggy spinach... but they used different ingredients in this variation and it had great texture and taste.

Definitely check this place out if you live in that area or find yourself visiting!

x,

Franny