China Palace (Cape Cod, MA)

China Palace is an ill-let venue. It's a perfect place for post-beach meals during which your main objective is to hide from all UV rays and replenish your depleting MSG stores. Mostly always, I ignore the tea they leave boiling lava-hot on the table in search of an ice or luke-warm glass of water. This time -- influenced by my girlfriend and her must try everything attitude -- I went for the tea. Scolding, very. But refreshing, somehow.

We ordered the dumplings immediately, and they came swiftly following another round of tea. At first bite, I thought we were looking at four and a half stars. The outside was cooked to a delicious dark brown, the meat was warm and savory. But, upon further inspection it became clear that the dough to pork ratio was askew. The dough was too thick, creating an unequal distribution of flavors. That said, they were solid contenders. If you're ever in the area and hitting the beaches, follow them up with some tea and dumplings

3.5 out of 5 stars

Tyuck

Fu's (Sparta, NJ)

Fu's

With the holy grail of dumplings (Lucky House) gone from town, I finally gained the courage to start branching out to other Sparta Chinese restaurants. Before I wouldn't even have dared to step foot in the door at Fu's, it would be like sleeping with the enemy. If you have a solid 5 dumpling place right down the road, what would people think if they saw the definitive dumpling expert of Northern NJ walking into a different establishment, didn't even want to risk the controversy that would have caused. Like I said, Lucky House is no more, and so I must get over my mourning period, and move on.

I went into Fu's hesitant, my first Sparta dumpling after Lucky House, but I know i had to its what Lucky House would want. Find a new dumpling and go on living my life.

Fu's trumped expectations, a very solid dumpling. If it weren't for my preconceived notion of being a rival, they might have received a higher score. Dough, good, filling, good, sauce, good, dumpling, good.

4 out of 5

Great dumpling, Fu's is now my go to dumpling restaurant, it pains me to even write those words but they make a mean dumpling.

Well done Fu's.

Eric