Finding good Chinese dumplings is not entirely an easy task here in Colombo but we feel we stumbled upon a gem last week when we tried out some delicious dumplings courtesy Che Che’s. These scrumptious dumplings are made by Elizabeth Kao better known as Lino and her husband aka her trusty assistant, Paul Blacker.
Elizabeth started making dumplings as a take away option from home in August last year, mainly because she could not find a good place to try out some. The current pick up point in Nawala is where you can get your hands on these homemade dumplings and they are really the best thing you can come across while the prices are also very reasonable.
Elizabeth explained to us that Che Che’s means older sister and felt the name would be appropriate for her humble home run business.
Taste and Value for money – 5.5 stars
The dumplings are made fresh and packed in foil boxes (as they have to be eaten steaming hot) and come with a variety of homemade sauces. We tried out a number of baozi (stuffed and steamed buns) and jiaozi (stuffed and boiled dumplings).
The meat options include chicken, beef and our personal favourite – pork and they also have a mushroom and vegetable filling. A small portion (five baozi and/or 10 jiaozi) is priced between Rs 400 – Rs 425 while a large portion (eight baozi and/or 15 jiaozi) is priced between Rs 500 – Rs 540 and both options can be pan fried in butter as well.
And now on to the good stuff out of which we just could not pick out what was best as they were all pretty tasty. I will start with their pan fried options for the day, which were the yummy Chicken Jiaozi served with their homemade chilli garlic sauce as well as the Spicy Beef Baozi which was also served with the same sauce while the Mushroom and Vegetable Jiaozi is usually served with the same sauce but I thought it went really well with their homemade cilantro sauce.
The steamed or boiled only options included the Beef Jiaozi which was so tasty with that amazing cilantro sauce. The same sauce also complimented the Pork Baozi perfectly and the star among these was the Spicy Sauce Pork Baozi which was stunning with their sweet chilli sauce.
The recipes Elizabeth uses are that of her grandmother’s be it for the dumplings or the sauces. Mind you, the cilantro sauce is a firm favourite among her family as well while the sweet chilli sauce is made by a relative of hers so these delectable flavours seem to certainly run in the family.
The buns and the dumplings were perfect in my books while the sauces just take these to another level of delicious.
Note : They only offer pick up at the moment. There are a variety of dumplings available daily but you need to give them two hours notice before collecting your order and for large orders 48-hour notice is required.
Address : 24/2, 6th Lane, Nawala
Tel : 0773508492
By Natasha Fernandopulle
Photographs by Kanishke Ganewatte
0 Comments
Bella Liyanage says:
Jan 25, 2016 at 12:00 amThough I am so so far away in Toronto, my mouth is watering while reading the review about the dumplings. Too bad though related we have no way of placing online orders!!!!!