The best way to eat matzo ball soup? Turn it into Korean mandu

L.A. is a wonderland of dumplings. So many, in fact, that I filmed an entire video series devoted to the city’s many styles and the stories behind the people who make them. It’s the food I gravitate toward when my heart is heavy or when I’m celebrating. There’s a dumpling for every occasion. And depending on who you ask, anything can be a dumpling. Yes, even an Uncrustables.

Wrapped, folded, fried, boiled or steamed, just about every culture has one.

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Matzoh ball mandu from Yangban

Katianna and John Hong wanted to create a dumpling that represented the interconnection of their collective Jewish and Korean cultures. After a recent remodel and a new menu launch at their Arts District restaurant, the two introduced a matzoh ball mandu.

Having been a fan of the mandu from Myung In, Katianna says she was hesitant to attempt one herself. The Koreatown restaurant is known for making king mandu as big as softballs, plump with pork and various vegetables and glass noodles.

“I don’t think I would do it better,� she said. “But whenever we develop and ideate, sometimes it’s based on a childhood memory or work experience. There are a few times when everything comes together and just makes sense. It was the matzoh ball mandu.�

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Katianna uses her grandmother Sindy’s matzoh ball recipe for the filling, letting the combination of matzoh meal, egg and rendered chicken fat firm up overnight. She places a hefty dollop in the middle of a thin noodle wrapper, then folds the dumpling in half before bringing together the two edges to form what looks like a nurse’s cap.

The wrapper clings to the bulging lump of filling in the middle. Your teeth sink into one texture, then to the next. Chewy, then soft. It was the antithesis of a stodgy matzo ball, registering more as a luxurious chicken meatball. This was unlike any matzo ball I’d ever encountered at my family Passover seder.

The dumplings are served as three large mandu, but Katianna is looking to go even bigger while she continues to tweak the dish. “In an ideal world, it would just be one, like those one big king mandu,� she said.

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Instead of steering the dumplings in one direction or another with a dipping sauce or various other condiments, the mandu are left to bob in a clear broth.

“It’s an ode to my grandmother,� Katianna said. “Her soup was very simple so we left this one pretty pure.�

It’s a broth made from simmering whole organic chickens. No vegetables, just a touch of schmaltz to finish. What’s left in the bowl when you fish out your dumplings is the broth I imagine when someone says matzo ball soup is medicine for the soul. It’s the kind of stuff that can recalibrate your world to something more manageable. Everyone should order a bowl.

Farmers cheese gnocchi from Rustic Canyon

Farmers cheese gnocchi from Rustic Canyon.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

Dinner at Rustic Canyon, Jeremy Fox’s Santa Monica restaurant, always feels like visiting an old friend. It’s the type of place I inadvertently take for granted. I know it’s good and I just expect it to always be there. But then I have a meal after months of being away and I’m reminded of all the reasons I loved it in the first place.

This is even truer now that Fox is back in the kitchen. The chef, who also runs Birdie G’s in Santa Monica, took over the menu about two months ago. And the dish he knew he wanted to bring back was the gnocchi.

“We’ve probably done countless versions over the years,� he said. “It’s been with oxtail and strawberry, a cacio e pepe preparation. Sometimes with mushrooms and butter. Tomatoes and basil.�

The current iteration may be the most decadent of them all. The dumplings come buried under a white cheese sauce and a flutter of chives. You dig your spoon into the bowl and dig for the dumplings like treasure.

The pale tiles of gnocchi look and taste like plush pillows that melt in your mouth. They’re made primarily of ricotta cheese prepared at the restaurant, along with a small amount of double-zero flour, nutmeg, black pepper, Parmesan and egg to hold their shape.

I’d eat a bowl of the cheese pillows on their own, but Fox said he wanted to go “over the top� with the sauce. Most of the richness comes from Boschetto al Tartufo, a mild cheese studded with black truffles. Fox combines the cheese with milk in a whipped cream siphon to give it a fluffy, cloud-like texture.

Lima beans (recently replaced by cranberry beans) offer a muted crunch and some freshness, while wilted sorrel leaves come through with a jolt of citrus.

The dish is finished with plenty of black pepper and grated cured egg yolk. Each spoonful is more surprising and sybaritic than the last. I drank the sauce after the dumplings were finished.

“I wanted the menu to be very craveable,� Fox said. “Right now it’s all about the things I want to eat. Sometimes you want to be subtle. Right now I wanted to hammer people over the head with good stuff.�

Hammer away!