Handmade vegetable dumplings

I am searching for good hand-made vegetable dumplings within Chicago, preferably boiled or steamed. A super-bonus if they are qi cai dumplings.

Any suggestions? Will also take recs for hand-kneaded vegetable buns.

Thanks!

I just had some last week at Amitibul on Milwaukee Ave (NW side). I thought that they were decent, the dough was good--I wish they had more filling though. I believe that they were steamed.

There are quite a few mom and pop places that offer hand-made dumplings. Qi Cai - if it's the same as what I am thinking - is a slightly menthol-tasting Chinese green. It's not available fresh here in U.S. but I have seen it in the frozen food sections of Chinese groceries. Gourmet Food in Chinatown offers quite a few selections of handmade dumplings - garlic chive, celery, etc - but I can't recall if qi cai is one of them. Some places offer these frozen to-go. Try these places:

Gourmet Food - 210 W. 23rd Street, Chicago, IL, 60616, 312.842.3366
Dim Sum House - 2610 S. Wentworth, Chicago, IL, 60616, 312.842.5400
Potsticker House - 3139 S. Halsted, Chicago, IL, 60608, 312.326.6898
Katy's Dumpling House - 665 N. Cass, Westmont, IL, 60559, 630.323.9393

I believe that Wei Chuan brand of dumplings also offers a qi cai dumpling. It's machine made but it would be the kind for which you're looking.

Peety, do you maybe mean jiu cai? I don't know of a vegetable in Chinese called qi cai. Jiu cai is Chinese chive. I suppose qi cai could mean seven vegetables, indicating an all-vegetable filling--is this it? Or maybe qing cai?

No, "jiu cai" is indeed Chinese garlic chives. "Qing cai" is a generic term for green vegetable and usually means a green bok choy (bai cai in Mandarin) which has a green stem versus "Bai Cai" which has a white stem.

I've never seen "qi cai" in its natural state so cannot say how it looks uncooked. However, it is green and leafy with a ever-so-slight menthol taste. I first had it in Shanghai and it was stir-fried with some firm tofu bits and introduced as kind of a pre-meal appetizer. It is favored by those from the Shanghai and Suzhou regions. I just found it listed as a "qi cai and tofu soup" item on a NY Shanghainese restaurant. I couldn't find an image or better description of it on the web.

I've found it one the menu once in a while in Chicago restaurants - not always in dumplings - but can't recall which ones exactly. Again, you can usually find it in the frozen section of a larger Chinese grocery store.

Yep qi cai is a vegetable often used in Shanghainese dumplings and buns.

Image here:
http://www.yeqiang.com/archives/2004_02_26_archive.html

I do not know if there's any English translation for this vegetable.

Funny I never thought of it as "menthol-tasting" - perhaps because I always eat it in dumplings and buns where that taste doesn't come out? Weichuan makes frozen buns which I used to buy, but I haven't found a store in Chicago that carries that product.

I have trouble finding good vegetable dumplings here in general, whether qi cai or others. I heard great reviews about Katy's but I don't see any veg. ones on the menu (I dont know if it's possible to call and order...?). I do see that Ed's potsticker place have veg. dumplings plus they have traditional breakfast, so I'll probably give that a try.

It's been a while, but the last time I had the chive dumplings at Thai Pastry on Broadway, they were quite good.