Ina Garten’s brownie pudding (adapted)

A little random fact about me is that I took 2 years of intensive Mandarin in college. Like 20+ hours per week of Mandarin education. It wasn’t my major; I just really wanted to learn Mandarin. I had class every day and sometimes even twice or three times a day. And it was all just to satisfy a curriculum requirement LOL. I was probably devoting more time to learning Chinese than the amount of time I was spending on any other class (including inorganic chemistry, biology, computer science, and political science [I was pre-med at the time, then I switched to Political Science. Don’t ask]).

What did I get out of those semesters of Mandarin reflecting back 7 years later? Almost nothing. (Mandarin fades super quickly when you don’t use it.) I did receive a Chinese version of my American name: He Wei Ran. My Chinese friends have confirmed that my Chinese name is completely meaningless, alas. Besides my name, I can read a good amount of a Chinese restaurant’s menu. I can also play Mahjong without needing to refer to a tile guide. But most importantly, I learned a lot about Chinese culture. Enough to recognize that dumpling making is the most social, luck-filled, rewarding activity you can ever do with friends and loved ones.

So if you’re ever curious about making dumplings but are intimidated by the amount of work it takes to form all of them, make it a group activity. After all, that’s how you’re supposed to make dumplings. I don’t think anyone would ever suggest you make any number of dumplings solo.

A couple years back I somehow got invited to a dumpling party on the Upper East Side. I think there were 12 of us there, and we all had to get involved in making dumplings. We didn’t have any counter space, so we all crowded around this very tiny coffee table in a shoebox of a living room and formed as many cabbage and shrimp dumplings as we could. I don’t think I knew more than 4 people there, but that made it all the more fun. You can really get to know someone making dumplings with them for an hour or so, stacking sheet tray upon sheet tray of dumplings on every work surface you can find.

These shrimp & chive dumplings are my favorite to make. The filling comes together in seconds, they are less stress-inducing than chicken (too much salmonella to think about with all those hands), and are so delicious with a simple dipping sauce. The rest of the menu was inspired by Din Tai Fung. Their addicting cucumber tower for like what $15 but you only get like 1 Persian cucumber’s worth of cucumber…right. Anyway, this cucumber salad is a lot more economical and tastes the same. I pile mine with a lot of fried garlic, similar to Thai fried whole fish, but that step is optional.

Din Tai Fung is also known for their steamed chocolate dumplings. I couldn’t bring myself to steam anything, so I thought Ina Garten’s brownie pudding could fill in. I made a couple of changes: swapping white sugar for dark brown, adding espresso powder, and using a correct amount of salt. As a brownie hater, did this convince me of anything? No. Was it objectively crowd-pleasing? 100%. All my friends devoured it.

And the crab fried rice in my video is a version of the crab fried rice in Wishbone Kitchen’s cookbook. I think I added onion, snow peas, MSG, and dark soy sauce. But it’s pretty similar.

Do I feel like this dumpling party started my 2026 off right? Absolutely. I was drained from holiday season and now feel ready to take on the year. You just need some lucky dumplings to get you there.

Xin Nian Kuai Le,

Ryan