- Oh, Amanda. Oh, Amanda. You're gonna love this.

(Upbeat groove)

- I'm Jasmine, and today we're swapping dumplings.

I'm half Taiwanese, half Korean,

so I have had a lot of different dumplings.

So, I've had gyoza, soup dumplings, potstickers,

kimchi dumplings - just a whole variety of dumplings.

My favorite are soup dumplings. They are to die for.

I like to make soup dumplings with my family.

I throw dumpling parties.

Just a lot of dumplings in my life.

So you can pre-make them, throw them in the freezer,

on a rainy day, you have nothing to eat,

you just boil some, fry them, do whatever you want.

They're delicious in every form.

You can make them into a soup. It's great.

I've never had perogies. But Amanda looks so nice,

and so do the perogies, so I'm excited to try them.

Do I think it'll beat the xiao long baos?

I don't think so.

(Amanda laughs)

No offense! (laughs)

- My name is Amanda. These are perogies,

but we're having a dumpling competition,

and everyone has their own version of dumplings,

so this is my country's. My family is from Poland.

My mom and dad, brother, and everyone migrated here.

So I've always had perogies.

They're like our big popular thing to have on Christmas.

You could also have lots of different versions of perogies,

but they're the same simple setup,

but it's mostly the filling that changes.

So you can have my favorite, which is

potato and cheese, or there's meat ones,

there's ones with sauerkraut,

you can have fruit-flavored or fruit-filled ones,

and you can do the same thing as the dumplings.

You can put them in the freezer when you're ready,

pop them out, boil them, or fry them up,

and have them on a rainy day or a warm day, and just enjoy.

Put any topping you want on it, salt, or cream, or whatever.

I've never had soup dumplings. I've never-

I think the closest thing I ever had are, like, potstickers,

but I won't tell you, they're probably at some chain,

and probably not good enough, so I'm excited to try them.

- Traditionally, you can dip these in black vinegar

and eat it with ginger. A lot of people like to also add

soy sauce and chili oil.

It's really all up to your own flavor palate,

which makes this really great.

To eat it, I like to take a bite of the dumpling,

drink the soup, dip it into the sauce, then eat it.

You can also take a bite, pour the soup out into your spoon,

drink it, dip it, then eat the rest.

Or, actually one thing I really like to do is when it's

scalding hot, I like to put the whole thing in my mouth.

People do not recommend that, but I just think it's so good,

and just, like, melts into your mouth.

Oh, it just like- it just melts into your tongue,

and like, oh. It's, oh. So good.

- So are these still soup dumplings, since we have no soup?

- Oh, Amanda. Oh, Amanda. You're gonna love this.

The soup is IN these!

- Ahh!

- Yeah! It's so good.

- I'm scared of, like, the side,

like little sauces and stuff.

- I'll guide you.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- The Polish culture is not, like,

well-known for all our spices,

so like, I feel like I would probably love,

like a simple, plain soup dumpling.

- That's what's so great about these.

You don't need the dipping sauce for this to still taste,

like, amazing.

- I'm excited.

- It's very good.

- Oh, I have to give you, like, everything. Okay.

- I know. That's why I was wondering.

I was like, should we just swap chairs?

- Do you like soy sauce?

- [Amanda] I like soy sauce

- Okay, do you like... do you like spice?

- [Amanda] No.

- Okay. Do you like vinegar?

- No.

- Okay. Ginger?

- No.

- Oh, cool.

- The internet's probably so mad at me right now.

Like, "try it!"

- I can make you, like, my perfect sauce, too.

If you wanna try it.

- Okay, yeah. Let's do that, too.

- Okay, I like to go heavy with the vinegar,

so I'm just gonna, like, let you try this.

Okay, what about me? What do I need to know?

- [Amanda] Just plop it in your mouth.

- Okay.

- I think we have two different flavors there.

We have potato and cheese, which is my favorite,

and then we have mushroom and sauerkraut?

I'm, like, not a good Polish person, I guess,

cause I don't like sauerkraut, and so many people do,

so if you like sauerkraut, you'll probably like it.

My best friend loves it.

When I go home, I always go to this Polish deli,

and I buy, like, twelve dozen perogies

around Christmas time.

I'm like the perogi, like Christmas fairy.

Everyone's house that I go to, I drop off perogies,

and we, like, make them throughout the day.

You're supposed to just put them on the pan

and fry them up with a little butter and onions.

If you don't like onions, you don't have to.

But yeah! They're really yummy.

Just slice them in half, or-

I don't- I think those are really big,

so that might be challenging to pop in your mouth.

Nope!

- Oh, sorry. Sorry! Aah!

- [Amanda] (laughs) You can do that.

- Smells good. Smells like potatoes.

- [Amanda] That's the move, I think.

- Mmmm!

- [Amanda] It's definitely like a comfort food.

You're not going to be eating that

if you wanna be really healthy.

It's potato, it's cheese.

You can also have sweet cheese ones, which are delicious.

Or like a more saltier type of cheese.

- This is interesting.

It's good. When you say comfort food,

that's not what comes to mind immediately.

- Yeah.

- I don't know, but this is also, like,

not that hot, right? But-

- Right. If you come over to my house,

I will make you some fresh off the pan.

And they're so yummy. You can put bacon-

little bacon bits on there, like a pancetta almost.

It's all about the elements.

- For this one, the potato and cheese,

I find it a little redundant,

because it feel like I'm almost just chewing into

cooked dough, into uncooked dough,

but I can try the mushroom one.

Smells really good.

- [Amanda] Better?

- I like this one a lot better.

- There are so many different flavors.

You go to any, like Polish deli, and the whole refrigerator

will be filled with different ones.

So it's really just whatever you like.

- I like it.

It's good, but I don't think it tops soup dumplings for me.

- How long does it take to make these?

- I mean, I would just, like,

plan on taking an hour to two hours of your...

day.

- Yeah, same. This will take hours, as well.

I'm gonna try one alone, first, with nothing else.

I am ill-prepared for, like, a soup to come out of this.

We'll try it.

Oh, it's so good.

- So good, right?

- Yeah. I don't need to add anything to this.

- I want you to try, like,

taking a little bite of the dough,

and then try to drink the soup,

and then dip it into the sauce, then eat it.

I'll guide you.

- Okay.

So, bite into it?

- A very small bite. Just the dough.

And then don't turn it down, 'cause the soup will fall out.

- No!

Okay.

- And now turn it so that you can drink the soup,

and now dip it into the sauce.

- This one?

- [Jasmine] Oh no, soup is falling out!

- Sorry!

- [Jasmine] Yeah. And then now eat it.

- It's still delicious. It's so yummy.

I don't think I need a lot of that sauce,

but I think it's so good.

- So good. And there's different kinds.

Just like perogies, you can put different fillings in there.

And you can make your own sauce.

- And this one's pork.

- This one is pork.

- [Amanda] What's your favorite filling?

- Pork.

- [Amanda] It's really good.

- Yes.

- I just really thought I would have a bowl of soup.

I had no idea.

- It usually comes in a little basket, too.

So it's like, steamed in a bamboo basket,

and then they uncap it at your table,

and the steam just marinates your face.

- Yeah, it's great for facials, I think.

Like if you really wanna get the toxins out, I imagine.

- And you smell real nice, like dinner.

You smell like a snack.

- That's what everyone wants.

(Jasmine laughs)

- The one thing you'll get ripped apart for

is biting it, dumping out the soup, like a (beep) monster,

and then eating.

- That's just wasted.

I'm gonna try it like this. I'm sure it's gonna be great.

I wish you had more perogies that you

could try different flavors, but.

Mm-hmm.

- [Jasmine] Still good?

- Mm-hmm.

Soy sauce is delicious. It doesn't need it.

- [Jasmine] It doesn't need it.

(upbeat jazz)

- I'm going to avoid the sauerkraut ones.

- Xiao long baos are soup dumplings.

It made its, like, global presence, and it was, like,

internationally made famous by Din Tai Fung,

which is based in Taiwan.

It's a restaurant chain. It's amazing. It's delicious.

You can watch them make the xiao long baos,

and I love it, and it has my heart.

Oh, also xiao long bao literally translates to

"little basket bun." Isn't that so cute?

- [Amanda] So cute!

- So cute.

- Look at this method. See?

I needed to see it first.

I'm like "which one's which?"

- [Jasmine] Maybe you can cut it in half.

- Yeah, I will.

(Knife scraping)

- Nope.

There we go. There's some potato and cheese.

They need to be hotter, which we've discussed.

You guys also got onions on these, and I hate onions.

No, but this is comfort food. This is home.

This is Poland. This is going home for Christmas.

- So today I got to try perogies, which were really good.

I feel like they were a little redundant with the

potato and cheese wrapped in dough,

but overall, the flavor was still very pleasant.

I fancied it.

But, I fancy soup dumplings more.

- Perogies are always home.