Think you know dumplings? Dumpling Daddies surprises with Malaysian flavours wrapped differently now serving at a pop-up near you

Dumpling Daddies, founded by Jonathan Ooi and Victor Yap, is a culinary venture that reimagines dumplings by deconstructing traditional elements and incorporating unique Malaysian flavors.

The concept was born from a shared dream in a Tokyo café and combines Ooi's creative expertise with Yap's extensive F&B experience.

Their debut, featuring inventive dishes like Ipoh Mali Chicken Gnocchi, was showcased at the "Campur-Campur" food party.

With plans for future collaborations and events, Dumpling Daddies aims to delight diners with innovative Asian-inspired cuisine while seeking to establish a permanent presence.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — Every culture (and perhaps nation) has its own dumplings, whether it’s Shanghai’s calling card of xiao long bao , tortellinis made by Italian nonnas, Japanese gyoza and the list goes on.

Each fold tells a story of flavour, tradition and love in every bite.

Dumpling Daddies by Jonathan Ooi and Victor Yap is what happens when you start with a familiar flavour, pull apart everything — the wrapper, filling and even accompaniments like sauce and pickles — then build it all back again to create a truly unique dumpling.

Their eye-catching Ipoh Mali Chicken Gnocchi is a prime example.

It features mini chickens shaped from chewy taro swimming in a delicious bowl of chicken stock laced with prawn oil, shredded chicken, and, of course, stubby crunchy bean sprouts.

Yes, the chicken dumplings take the place of noodles in this iconic dish paying homage to Ipoh’s kai si hor fun .

Everything with Malaysian flavours is fair game for the duo but they have one thing they hold sacred: it must be a proper meal, not gimmicky.

“Anything that can be wrapped — not necessarily with flour — it could be translucent or even a rice dumpling wrapped in a leaf, we just want it to be fun.”

The seed for Dumpling Daddies was planted in a Tokyo cafe one evening last year. Yap was on holiday there with friends and Ooi was at that time working in the mega city.

They coincidentally discovered a shared dream of opening a dumpling shop envisioned as a neighbourhood place people would keep returning to.

This dream took off when Ooi returned to Kuala Lumpur this year, as he is on a micro retirement from a two-decade-long career in beauty, luxury and creative brand development that started in Kuala Lumpur and expanded to Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Of the two, Yap, a trained civil and structural engineer, is the one with an extensive F&B background having co-founded the now-closed Tray Cafe, Fittie Sense, Peaches & Cream and apricot by Peaches and Cream.

Together they wanted to explore food through an Asian lens with Dumpling Daddies.

They are like two sides of a coin: Ooi’s creative mind comes out with the unique dumplings and the branding while Yap keeps him grounded with the techniques and real life F&B experience.

And in case you are wondering, neither are real-life daddies but they occupy an awkward age bracket: too young to be “uncles” and too old to be “bros”; hence, “daddies” was chosen.

“The interesting thing about it is when dad takes over a kitchen, it’s chaotic and experimental like a fun concept,” Ooi explained.

They debuted their dumplings at a collaborative food party themed “Campur-Campur” at Dou Dou Bake in Petaling Jaya in September.

It was a collaboration with two friends: Chef Piyanat “Gugs” Yowabut of Homm House No. 8 and Melanie Kang of Mel’s Memory Kitchen.

Gugs hosts his Thai supper club in PJ Section 17 while Kang does private lunches featuring Hakka and Peranakan dishes beloved by her own family.

The Malaysian-style pop-up puts the best offerings on a table, allowing diners to feast on all kinds of food from different cultures and flavours that celebrate our diversity.

As Dumpling Daddies worked on the dumplings, Gugs and Kang came up with platters of grilled meat, seafood and side dishes like Nyonya acar and Gai Yang skewers while Dou Dou Bake provided the desserts and drinks.

Diners sampled the Laksa Lemak Prawn Ravioli, which originally started as a Teochew fish skin dumpling but changed into a prawn jiaozi in ravioli form, sitting in a creamy laksa sauce with fresh herbs and relish

Sweet & Sticky Beef Epok-Epok took many trials to get the crispy pastry right, until it was strong enough to hold the sweet sticky Daging Masak Hitam Sarawak.

A permanent home for Dumpling Daddies is still in the works but in the meantime, the duo plans to cook and collaborate more with others to learn what diners want.

“Ultimately we want to have fun with it,” Yap said.

For those who missed out on the last party, an encore of “Campur-Campur” will take place from November 7 to 9, at In the Muments (IG: @inthemument ), an event space next to Air Day Coffee (IG: @airday_coffee ).

Tweaks have been made to the menu, following feedback and observations from the first “Campur-Campur”.

Their Edition 01 menu will be a six-course sharing experience featuring 11 dishes, with adjusted portions and a format allowing everyone to try the full menu.

Reservations will go online at Air Day Coffee and Dumpling Daddies Instagram starting October 24 so secure your spot quickly. The first three-night party at Dou Dou was fully booked in 24 hours, so don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Instagram: @dumplingdaddies.co

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Dumpling Daddies 由 Jonathan Ooi 和 Victor Yap 创立，是一家重新构想饺子的烹饪企业，它通过解构传统元素并融入独特的马来西亚风味来诠释饺子。

这个概念源于东京一家咖啡馆里的一个共同梦想，它结合了大井的创意专长和叶的丰富餐饮经验。

他们的首秀以怡保马里鸡肉面疙瘩等创意菜肴为特色，在“Campur-Campur”美食派对上亮相。

Dumpling Daddies 计划未来开展合作并举办活动，旨在以创新的亚洲风味美食取悦食客，同时寻求建立一个永久的据点。

吉隆坡，10 月 21 日讯——每种文化（或许每个国家）都有自己的饺子，无论是上海的招牌小笼包、意大利奶奶制作的意大利饺子、日本的煎饺等等，不胜枚举。

每一道褶皱都讲述着一个关于味道、传统和爱的故事，每一口都饱含爱意。

Jonathan Ooi 和 Victor Yap 的《饺子爸爸》讲述的是这样一种故事：从一种熟悉的口味开始，将所有东西——饺子皮、馅料，甚至酱汁和泡菜等配菜——拆开，然后再将它们重新组合起来，创造出一种真正独特的饺子。

他们那道引人注目的怡保麻里鸡肉面疙瘩就是一个很好的例子。

它的特色在于用耐嚼的芋头做成的小鸡，浸泡在美味的鸡汤中，鸡汤里还加入了虾油、鸡丝，当然还有脆嫩的豆芽。

是的，这道标志性菜肴中用鸡肉饺子代替了面条，以此向怡保的鸡丝河粉致敬。

这对搭档对任何带有马来西亚风味的菜肴都来者不拒，但他们有一条原则是绝对不能妥协的：必须是正宗的饭菜，而不是噱头十足的噱头。

“任何可以包裹的东西——不一定非要用面粉——可以是半透明的，甚至是叶子包的米团子，我们只是想让它变得有趣。”

“饺子爸爸”的种子是在去年一个晚上东京的一家咖啡馆里种下的。当时，Yap和朋友们正在东京度假，而Ooi则在这座大都市工作。

他们偶然发现彼此都有着共同的梦想，那就是开一家饺子店，希望它能成为街坊邻里经常光顾的地方。

今年 Ooi 回到吉隆坡后，这个梦想开始萌芽。他从长达二十年的美容、奢侈品和创意品牌开发事业中暂时退休，他的事业始于吉隆坡，并扩展到新加坡、香港、上海和东京。

两人之中，受过专业训练的土木和结构工程师 Yap 在餐饮业拥有丰富的经验，他曾共同创立了现已关闭的 Tray Cafe、Fittie Sense、Peaches & Cream 和 apricot by Peaches and Cream。

他们希望通过“饺子爸爸”这个品牌，以亚洲视角探索美食。

他们就像一枚硬币的两面：Ooi 的创意头脑带来了独特的饺子和品牌，而 Yap 则用技术和真实的餐饮经验让他脚踏实地。

如果你好奇的话，他们俩都不是现实生活中的爸爸，但他们的年龄很尴尬：太年轻不能当“叔叔”，又太老不能当“兄弟”；因此，选择了“爸爸”这个词。

“有趣的是，当爸爸接管厨房时，厨房会变得混乱不堪，充满实验性，就像一个有趣的概念，”Ooi解释道。

9 月，他们在八打灵再也的豆豆烘焙店举办了一场以“Campur-Campur”为主题的合作美食派对，首次推出了他们的饺子。

这是与两位朋友合作完成的：Homm House No. 8 的主厨 Piyanat “Gugs” Yowabut 和 Mel's Memory Kitchen 的 Melanie Kang。

Gugs 在 PJ 第 17 区举办他的泰式晚餐俱乐部，而 Kang 则提供私人午餐，主打她家人喜爱的客家菜和娘惹菜。

这家马来西亚风格的快闪餐厅将最美味的菜肴摆上餐桌，让食客们可以尽情享用来自不同文化和口味的各种美食，以此来庆祝我们的多样性。

当饺子爸爸们忙着包饺子的时候，Gugs 和 Kang 端出了烤肉、海鲜和娘惹腌菜、鸡柳串等配菜，而豆豆烘焙则提供了甜​​点和饮料。

食客们品尝了叻沙椰浆虾饺，这道菜最初是潮州鱼皮饺子，后来改成了虾饺，浸在浓郁的叻沙酱汁中，配以新鲜香草和佐料。

甜辣牛肉 Epok-Epok 经过多次试验才做出酥脆的糕点，直到它足够坚固，能够包裹住甜辣的砂拉越黑牛肉。

“饺子爸爸”的永久店址仍在筹备中，但与此同时，这对搭档计划更多地与他人合作烹饪，以了解食客想要什么。

“归根结底，我们只是想从中获得乐趣，”叶说。

对于错过了上次派对的人来说，“Campur-Campur”将于 11 月 7 日至 9 日在 In the Muments（IG：@inthemument）再次举行，In the Muments 是 Air Day Coffee（IG：@airday_coffee）旁边的活动场地。

根据第一家“Campur-Campur”餐厅的反馈和意见，我们对菜单进行了调整。

他们的第一版菜单将提供六道菜的共享体验，包含 11 道菜，份量经过调整，形式可以让每个人都能品尝到完整的菜单。

从10月24日起，Air Day Coffee和Dumpling Daddies的Instagram账号将开放线上预订，请尽快抢占位置。Dou Dou举办的首场三晚派对在24小时内就被预订一空，所以我们可事先提醒过你了。

Instagram：@dumplingdaddies.co

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