00:00Welcome to Chengdu.
00:07Here we are in the capital of Sichuan.
00:08We're in a little district, a little neighborhood called Niushikou that is known oddly for its
00:14hidden pockets of deliciousness.
00:15One of these places is called Auntie's Private Dumplings, and we're in the middle of a truly
00:20residential district.
00:21But you'll see right there, that's the clue we're looking for.
00:24It says mysterious unit.
00:27That's the clue.
00:29Ayi, ni hao, ye jie ni hao, zhao shang hao.
00:35Welcome to Auntie's Private Dumplings.
00:37This is Auntie's living room.
00:39If you come to the back, this is actually the fridge that she works out of, and the
00:43kitchen itself.
00:46A home kitchen.
00:47Two stoves, one wok, one for boiling noodles and dumplings.
00:51Those little bowls, so iconic.
00:53She has two staff, but most of the day-to-day is mom and dad, because they actually live
01:01here.
01:02That's their bathroom, and that's their bedroom.
01:06It almost feels a little bit intrusive that we're shooting here in somebody's home.
01:11After she left her dumpling job at a very, very prominent dumpling spot, she's thought
01:15to herself, why not just make dumplings at home and sell them to people?
01:18The pork here is lean pork with a little bit of iced water.
01:23One of the Sichuan techniques is to soak things like ginger inside of water, which helps get
01:28rid of a little bit of the gaminess of the pork itself.
01:30You can see how smooth that final filling is.
01:34You see that little bit of an opening?
01:37You learn how to make dumplings from anywhere else, and they'll say, you must keep all of
01:41the sides crimped.
01:42You must keep that whole thing intact.
01:44That's not the case here.
01:45The deliciousness of this dumpling is the interaction of the dumpling with the sauce,
01:49and you want that sauce to go inside of the dumpling.
01:52You want that sauce to soak inside of this relatively soft skin.
01:55It's almost less of a crimped dumpling and more of a cooked sandwich, maybe, something
02:00like this.
02:01These two aunties are making a huge amount of dumplings throughout the day.
02:05Auntie Ye, the owner of the shop, has been here for 21 years.
02:10Here comes the making of the filling.
02:11First step first, smash the ginger with the side of the cleaver to get that flavor out.
02:18But that's the ginger that's going to get rid of the gaminess inside of that pork.
02:21She's rubbing salt directly into the ginger so that the salt draws out that ginger juice,
02:26draws out that moisture.
02:28That's the juice that's going to lend moisture to the pork.
02:30The lean pork goes into the bowl.
02:33The combination of cuts in between the loin and the shoulder.
02:38A generous amount of table salt into the pork.
02:41The key to the deliciousness of the filling here is the manipulation of texture.
02:45She's really squeezing that pork.
02:47As she's agitating this pork, the meat will slowly, slowly get tackier.
02:51It will get, in some ways, a little bit rubbery, but it will become the clean, porky glue that
02:58is needed for that filling to keep the wrapper together.
03:01With hand as filter, the ginger water goes in.
03:05That pork, like a sponge, is going to soak up that ginger water.
03:08As she's moving, you can see those protein strands extending.
03:11You can see little spiky strands coming apart.
03:14Auntie says the filling must be mixed in one direction.
03:18And this is actually a little bit of intergenerational knowledge that is shared in many, many different
03:23parts of China.
03:24The idea here, obviously, is that she wants to extend those protein strands as long as
03:28possible.
03:29If you're mixing in two directions, you end up risking breaking those strands of protein.
03:34Something that's smooth might not be so appealing in many other contexts, but in the dumpling
03:38context, where it's sandwiched between dough, it makes all the sense in the world.
03:44There's no sesame oil.
03:45There's no garlic.
03:46There's no cabbage.
03:47It is just an expression of pork in its flavor and its texture.
03:51Auntie's making me my bowl of dumplings.
03:53Ten of them go into the pot.
03:54It's at a rolling boil.
03:56She's agitating it, constantly keeping it moving for the first couple of seconds to
04:01make sure that it doesn't stick to the bottom.
04:04When the starch granules begin to absorb that water, you have to make sure that it's moving
04:08at a rolling boil so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.
04:11Because they're cooking in the same pot of water and the dumpling is not totally filled,
04:16some of that pork liquid that leaches out is going to flavor the water.
04:20So they're making a very gentle pork broth, almost, in which they're going to cook the
04:24subsequent dumplings.
04:25I know we're just talking about boiling dumplings here, but there is a little bit of technique
04:29and there is attention to detail to what she's doing right now.
04:32To keep the timing of the cooking of the dumplings correct, she adds a little bit of
04:36water at a time.
04:38My grandma taught me how to make dumplings in the exact same way.
04:41After you add the dumplings, water comes to a boil, add a little bit of cold water, and
04:45that brings the temperature down again.
04:47And theoretically, you're supposed to do this three times in order to get the dumplings
04:50to fully cook.
04:51Of course, now having been a chef for a little while, the cooking time of that dumpling is
04:56totally dependent on how much hot water there actually is, how much cold water there actually
05:00is.
05:01And the fact of the matter is that this is a reliable, folk way of keeping time of cooking
05:06dumplings.
05:07She's looking for the skin to be shiny, and she wants the edges of that skin to be a little
05:11bit translucent.
05:12That is the sign of starch fully gelatinizing.
05:16She's getting rid of the water, draining it really well, back and forth, and here comes
05:20the seasoning.
05:21First, the thickened sweetened soy sauce, second, the minced garlic, third, chili crisp.
05:28Chili oil.
05:42Okay, here's the thing with zhong shui jiao.
05:44At the minimum, three layers of flavor in terms of the sauce.
05:47Number one is the chili oil.
05:50This chili crisp, she says it's cooked at about 300 degrees.
05:53There is, at the minimum, chili flakes, sesame seeds.
05:57Really important to not forget where zhong shui jiao is actually the garlic and the minced
06:01raw garlic.
06:02Some places like to have minced garlic with a little bit of grapeseed oil.
06:06Here it's water.
06:07On the bottom is the fu zhi jiang you, the modified soy sauce.
06:10Everyone that makes this dumpling has their own secret recipe, but usually it's something
06:14to the effect of slab sugar, brown sugar, the soy sauce, usually some sort of red soy sauce
06:21or slightly sweetened soy sauce, darker in color, and then it's fortified with a huge
06:26amount of warming Sichuan spices, Sichuan peppercorn, cardamom, long pepper, fennel,
06:33so on and so forth.
06:34It really depends on the store, but this is one of the things that she really insisted
06:39we don't get the recipe or we don't film.
06:42I am a huge fan of this interactive element of bringing the flavors all together.
06:53Stupid delicious.
07:04So good.
07:05Filling is just like a meatball.
07:07It holds the whole thing together.
07:09A little bit of gentle sweetness.
07:11That chili, it's spicy, but it's not deadening.
07:15It's not scorching.
07:16It's a small pop of brightness.
07:22Oil on the outside of the skin makes the whole dumpling so slippery.
07:26It goes down so easy.
07:27You see, the skin is still a little bit open after it boils, and so that sauce goes inside
07:32of the dumpling.
07:34It's infectious.
07:35This thing is really just, just so good.
07:42And again, just like everything else in Chengdu snack culture, small bowl, you can pop these
07:49all day long.
07:50She opens in the morning.
07:51Some people come for breakfast, but she's open all day.
07:54So people come for lunch.
07:55People come for the snack in the afternoon.
07:56The smoothness of the dumpling skin is mimicked by the smoothness of the meat in the middle
08:01itself.
08:02Pop this in.
08:03It's just one slippery bite.
08:08Just one cohesive pop of spice, sweet, savory, salty.
08:15This might be one of the first times we've shot and I've finished the entire portion
08:21of something the first time it hits the table.
08:27It also is like eating at your auntie's house, watch a little bit of television, talk a little
08:33smack.
08:34Bueno.
08:35That lingering sweetness, that lingering garlic, lingering spice.
08:43Everything that we ate stays with you till the end.
08:46Good stuff.
08:48That was delicious hongyou sui jiao, also called zhong sui jiao.
08:51This dish was invented maybe 150 years ago by a guy by the last name of Zhong.
08:56And chef here is the legacy.
08:58She came from that restaurant, that's where she trained, and now she's really made it
09:02her own by bringing this delicious dish into her own home.
09:05I'm just going to say bye to chef real quick.
09:07We're leaving now.
09:09No need to thank me.
09:10Come at any time.
09:11If you like hongyou, spicy, sour, spicy, you can come.
09:13No need to thank me.
09:14On to the next.
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