Mandoo Bar

Whether called manti, ravioli, pierogi, or kreplach, every culture has a dumpling. In Korea, it's mandu --- or mandoo, as at Mandoo Bar, a small, bright space nestled amongst a host of other Korean restaurants on 32nd Street. While they have a few standards like rice and noodles on the menu, the focus here, as the name and the ladies relentlessly folding them in the window indicate, is dumplings, dumplings, and more dumplings.

So we went for three kinds, each providing two bites' worth of warm, satisfying yumminess: vegetable goon mandoo, lightly fried to give a satisfying crunch and stuffed with carrots and cabbage; seafood mandoo, overflowing with soft crab and tender shrimp; and kimchee mandoo, combining pork, tofu, and slivered vegetables with the pickly tang of fermented cabbage.