At then end of June, I read about a Jiaozi shop opening in of all places Point Loma? Soon, my good friend Candice sent me a text telling me the place was legit and worth a visit. So, I packed up the Missus, who is even tougher to please with regards to Jiaozi, having been raised on the stuff. We got to the strip mall on the corner of Shelter Island Drive and Scott Street and even found parking in the cramped lot. But sadly, the little four table shop was packed with folks waiting outside for takeout. So, we ended up going to Supannee for a nice meal.
A couple of days later I received an email from "FOY" ChrisR, who sang praises about the shop. I'm assuming he liked the filling because he called the place "Meat Dumpling"!
Anyway, the following week I was heading over to TunaVille (post upcoming) to visit the one and only Tommy Gomes and then headed on over to Meet Dumpling. I got there right before opening.
And was the first customer in the tiny shop.
The gentleman working was very nice and friendly, super easy going. I believe his mom was working the kitchen because I could here him addressing her as "Ma".
I placed my order and just relaxed. The shop soon filled up and several takeout orders were placed.
I had ordered some Jiaozi and a couple of liang cai (cold dishes).
First up, a favorite of mine, Bean Curd Skin ($7.99).
This was really bland, typical grocery store bean curd skin strips, as you can tell, not enough chili oil/sauce/garlic. I ended up pouring black vinegar on this for more flavor.
The best item of the day was the Pig Ear ($8.99).
Nice and crunchy, the sauce had a good amount of garlic and salty-sour tones and was quite refreshing.
Because this was my first visit; I went ahead and ordered the Napa Cabbage and Pork Jiaozi ($11.99).
This was not bad, the dumplings were on the smaller side, but it came with 14 in my order. The skins were a bit on the more chewy-doughy side, decent. The filling was pretty finely minced, light and tender, very moist, though the flavor was quite mild. The black vinegar came in handy in upping the flavor.
Don't get me wrong, these were good jiaozi by San Diego standards, but like I always say, "I'm not happy to just have something available."
A couple of weeks later, I was headed to TunaVille again, and decided to drop by an get the dumplings the folks that emailed said were the best. Again I got there right at opening. This time a very kind woman was working. I placed my order and we had a nice chat. The owners are from Shenyang. She cracked up when I asked her why there wasn't any "Yang Rou" (lamb) jiaozi on the menu. This time I got me order to go. I also ordered the Cucumber and Wood Ear Salad ($7.99).
The cucumbers were very fresh, crisp and crunchy, though there wasn't much wood ear in the dish. Like the bean curd strips, this fell a bit short in overall savory-pungent-sour-spicy flavor for me. I actually added Sichuan Chili Oil to it.
Folks who contacted me about Meet Dumpling recommended the Chive, Shrimp, and Pork Jiaozi ($12.99).
So, how did the dumplings handle the drive back home? Well, even though the wrappers looked a bit "stiff", these were more tender then those on my previous visit. A good amount of chives provided an almost garlicky "zip" to the dumplings. Even though I really couldn't make out shrimp in the finely chopped filling, I could taste them. Again, the fillings were fairly light, and this went rather well with the 6 year aged Zhenjiang Black Vinegar we keep at home.
Overall, I find things decently priced for San Diego and in my opinion better than anything you'll get in the Kearny Mesa area. Really nice folks running the place. Not sure if it's worth going out of the way for, but heck if you're in the area…..and I'm trying to make TunaVille a regular stop, it might be worth your time. You can go and "meet" some dumplings.
And so you might be asking, how does this compare to Ju Feng Yuan….well that one is coming up soon.
Meet Dumpling
2907 Shelter Island Dr.
San Diego, CA 92106
Current Hours:
Tues – Sun 11am – 230pm, 430pm – 8pm
Closed on Mondays
Nijiya Japanese Market is a favorite stop because of the organic Produce section as well as the prepared foods area. I wrote about some 'grab and go' meals in 
There is a two sided refrigerated area near where you stand in line for the cash registers. One section has various sandwich choices.
This is a "Mix Sandwich" ($5.49) on white or wheat. Four different fillings- Tuna Salad, Egg Salad, Ham with butter and a Lettuce and Tomato with cheese and mayonnaise. Each piece of sandwich in this mix is 1/3 of a crustless bread sandwich made with three bread slices and two layers of filling. 
The "Fruits Sandwich" varies daily. This one had melon and pear and orange along with whipped cream in between slices of a quality white bread. 
Picked up some sushi while I was there and we had a nice meal.
There is a Chicken Cutlet sandwich ($5.99)-breaded deep fried chicken with a house made tonkatsu sauce (A Pork Cutlet sando is $6.99). On this day the Fruits Sandwich was simply strawberries with whipped cream. 
Placed between the three Chicken sando sections were three smaller lettuce/tomato/cucumber/mayonnaise sandwiches. A nice, balanced meal.
Marukai has two 'grab and go' island refrigerators as well as closed door freezers and a small hot deli counter. There is just so much inside this small yet packed market. 
The egg salad sando ($4.99) as well as the katsu pork sando ($4.99) are exceptionally good here. You can see I also purchased the potato salad and some katsu chicken (which is really tasty from here). {Yes, we use Christmas plates all year.}
Located between Marukai and Nijiya is 
The Mix Sandwich here ($7.99) consists of four sandwiches, each 1/3 of a whole sandwich. Egg Salad, Tuna Salad, Ham with lettuce and a Japanese Potato salad sando. Each sandwich is fresh and flavorful and fancy. Again, katsu chicken was purchased as a 'side'. 
First off, the grilled sourdough was fantastic, texturally and in taste. As for the mussels, well the shellfish was tender enough, but the "escabeche" was really weak. I'm used to a good acidic, flavorful escabeche, the addition of paprika for smokiness, more points for garlicky-oniony tones, all of which seemed to be missing here. To be honest, any number of tinned mussels from Tunaville (post upcoming) would be more enjoyable to us then this. But heck, that sourdough was good on its own. On a positive note, this brought back wonderful memories of our lunch 
Neat and clean interior seating. There is also outside seating and a small menu, which is nice. Many items can be ordered vegetarian. Our waiter said that most everything here is made from scratch.
We both wanted the cucumber salad ($6) on this rather warm day. It was *excellent*- cool, refreshing, with just enough salt and sesame oil to compliment the smashed cucumbers.
The Ma Po Tofu with pork and rice ($12.50) (you can also order vegetarian for $2 less) was a shareable portion. The sauce had the brightness of Sichuan peppercorns and the silky tofu was plentiful while the bits of pork complimented the flavors and added texture. A very balanced dish. 
Under "Signature" dishes on the menu were Chilli Wontons (12) ($10.50). We had to try these. Not much chili on top, but there is a great house made chili crisp on the table which enhanced the porky goodness of these large, two-bite wontons in a stretchy, thin wrap. The broth at the bottom of the bowl was wonderful with a rich porkiness and subtle chili heat.
And yes, it was quite full of Cha Lua, Thit Nguoi…… What I think banh mi purists' will appreciate, I'm looking at you "Billy" is that Phoung Nga still includes cucumbers in their banh mi, a rarity these days. The bread, as usual is a bit heavily baked (onsite), making it more hard and crusty than having a nice balance of light, crusty-flaky. But these days, this is almost a blessing, as much of what I've had is soft and doughy. There's a good amount of pickled veggies, the jalapenos were present, but not overly spicy on this visit. This was a nice lunch for me.
Man, this location of Boston Market had been here forever! I decided to walk on over to see what was up….hoping that perhaps an interesting eating establishment was coming to this location. I should have known better. It's a chain swap out. At least it's California Fish Grill which claims serve only "Responsibly Sourced Seafood". You can read about 
I ordered this at a heat level 4 (on the scale of 1-5) and it was adequately spicy. Though I'd return with friends a week later and we ordered heat level 5 and it wasn't as spicy as this. Of course you can instantly see this is missing the salted crab and the tomatoes are just wedges that haven't been poroperly "briused" in the "kruk". This was slightly funky, not a savory as we enjoy and the liquid was kind of watery.
