Dumpling Galaxy is the masterpiece of Helen You. Her first Flushing restaurant was Tian Jin Dumpling House, which is a tiny underground dumpling stall. When she first opened Tian Jin, they sold three basic, traditional types of dumplings: pork with chive, pork with cabbage, and pork with celery. Over time, she added more varieties at the request of customers. If someone requested beef dumplings, they would be on the menu the next day and she always took feedback/advice from customer about the taste, shape, wrappers and then applied them to improve her products. Clearly, Helen cares about much more than just a profit; she wants to make the highest quality dumplings and take care of her customers. We had the chance to meet Helen and she is genuinely one of the friendliest people we have met.
When Tian Jin Dumpling House could no longer handle all of the customer’s demands, Helen founded a decent sized sit down restaurant and called it Dumpling Galaxy because she decided to put 100 different types of dumplings on the menu. If you can conjure up a dumpling combination in your head, it is probably on the Dumpling Galaxy menu and if it isn’t, they can probably make it for you (as long as they have the ingredients). Pro tip: be sure to check out the screens above the booths because they feature unique off-menu dumplings that you can order. Dumpling Galaxy is much more expensive than Tian Jin, so there is a much larger non-Asian customer base (because Asians are much better at being economical). This customer population allows Helen to follow through with the creative dumplings she comes up with because they are more adventurous and are willing to try new combinations; the stranger it is the more interested they are. Anyone up for pork and pumpkin dumplings, lamb and pickled vegetable dumplings or octopus and chive dumplings?
Back on the topic of doing everything she can for her customers, she provides gluten free wrappers for people with allergies and whole wheat or cornmeal wrappers for people who prefer those over traditional wrappers. Popular dumpling destinations such as Jing Fong and Golden Unicorn only provide one to two types of vegetarian dumplings. Because Helen personally prefers to eat more veggies and so do a lot of customers (not to mention that vegetables are healthy and good for the environment), she prioritizes making a wide variety of vegetable dumplings. You can find traditional and creative meatless dumplings ranging from tomato and egg to mushroom and cabbage to egg and green squash. Once again, be sure to ask about the many off-menu veggie dumplings!
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