Street Food Profiles: Hong's Chinese Dumplings in Burlington, Vermont
Note: It's time for another edition of Street Food Profiles. This week we scoot to Burlington, Vermont, where one woman has been selling dumplings for ten years.
[Photographs: Hong's Chinese Dumplings]
Name: Hong's Chinese Dumplings
Vendor: Hong Yu
Location and hours? Church Street in front of the Borders bookstore in Burlington, Vermont. Hours depend on the sunshine.
What do you sell? Chicken and pork dumplings, veggie dumplings in pot sticker style, crab ragoons, shrimp egg rolls, veggie egg rolls, chicken cheese egg rolls, sesame cold noodles, and veggie fried rice along with homemade ginger garlic soy sauce, hot chili oil, and sweet cranberry sauce.
How long have you been street-fooding? 10 years.
A typical line for Hong's dumplings on a sunny day.
You on Twitter? If so, how has it affected business? Yes (@hongsdumplings). Since our operating hours are so weather-dependent, Twitter has allowed us to update our status on a daily basis and let our usual customers know before they make the trip downtown for dumplings.
Why a mobile business over brick-and-mortar? Flexibility of my own schedule
Who are your typical customers? Dumpling lovers and weekend tourists.
Describe a typical day from start to finish.
- 5:30 to 9:30 a.m. Make dough for dumplings, cook the veggie fried rice, make dumpling fillings, and other food preparation.
- 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Load food cart on trailer, drive to Church Street, and unload.
- 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Non-stop cooking!
- 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Drive home, unload cart, clean up and more prepping for the next day.
What makes your food so special? Hong rolls out each dumpling in her cart before your eyes. This is as fresh as dumplings get.
How would you define "street food"? It can be eaten while walking.
The best street food city and why. Beijing, China. Both the variety and prices are unbeatable.
Your comfort food after a long day? Delivery pizza. After a long day of cooking, the last thing on your mind is making dinner.
Advice for an aspiring vendor? Make one thing really really delicious. Be known for that one specialty and make sure no one else has it.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
13 Comments:
Oh, I am so hungry for dumplings now. We have a noodle place that does great noodles, but the dumplings are sublime. It's always a coin-toss whether to have a bowl of noodles and dumplings, or just two orders of dumplings.
NotAmerican at 1:43PM on 09/21/09
Amazing , hard-working lady
mandarin at 2:28PM on 09/21/09
What a cute little town and what a delicious looking plate of dumplings! Yum!
bkbella at 2:30PM on 09/21/09
Her commitment to the perfect dumpling is truly admirable. :)
hungrychristel at 2:33PM on 09/21/09
I wonder if she could set a restaurant.
Blue387 at 2:56PM on 09/21/09
Must be good to still be doing it after 10 years, congrats!
redfish at 3:14PM on 09/21/09
Looks delish! Want to try these so bad!
jlewfoodie at 5:00PM on 09/21/09
I'd forgotten about that place. I spent a summer in Montpelier and used to drive up to Burlington on the weekends. Excellent dumplings.
Ozymandiasxp at 5:30PM on 09/21/09
Oh do I miss living in Vermont and working on Church Street. Great city Burlington!
Vermont at 6:41PM on 09/21/09
woo! something that's not over a two hour drive from me!
eeels at 8:38PM on 09/21/09
spread the dumpling love! yes!
looloopoopie at 1:25AM on 09/22/09
I wish I didn't live halfway across the country! The food sounds amazing.
IndyGal at 9:39AM on 09/22/09
My sister and I just enjoyed these in August. They were delicious and she was the sweetest, loveliest vendor. There are so many options on that Burlington strip, but save room for the dumplings!
Jilly at 11:55AM on 09/22/09