Review: Dynasty Gyoza/Potsticker Wrapers
If you read my recent review of Nasoya won ton wraps you would know that I was satisfied with them, but I wasn’t gushing with praise either. They get the job done and make a good dumpling but there was definite room for improvement. I used to think that such an improvement could be found with Azumaya brand, which I have been using for year. Oddly enough, I found an even better product.
While scouring my area for Azumaya wraps, as I wanted to make dumplings for dinner, I was about to give up. I couldn’t find them anywhere. I had all but given up hope when I came across a brand I had never tried before in the frozen section of my local market: Dynasty. A JFC brand (who you might recognize from our Panko Breadcrumb Review), I had seen the name on store shelves before but had never seen the wraps or tried any product by the name. Since I could find nothing else and had already tried Nasoya, I decided to give them a shot. It turned out to be one of the best culinary decisions I have ever made.
Everything about these wraps set of alarms on my culinary radar. They were frozen. They were packed in a similar fashion to the ones I had tried and had a very difficult time separating form one another. Even the package colors were displeasing. However, I gave them a shot because of all these problems. I wanted to dislike them. I defrosted them in a bowl of warm water and peeled the first wrap off the top. All my feelings of distaste and hoping they would fail disappeared. Not only did I perfectly separate every single wrap from the package without tearing a single one, everything about them fulfilled the wants I expressed about Nasoya brand.
Both sides of the wrappers are well coated in corn starch, which means that no matter what I put in these wraps, they will stick and stay closed. Awesome. They are microscopically thin. They are about half the thickness of the Nasoya brand wraps. They have a stretchy, chewy, yet not doughy texture. When cooked, they wrinkle perfectly. I have only seen the perfection of a steamed dumpling in a James Beard Award winning restaurant in San Francisco. Oh, and they are about a dollar cheaper than Nasoya brand.
I am still in shock that it has taken me this long to discover Dynasty brand wrappers. My hat goes off to you JFC, for you have made a perfect product. If you want to make excellent dumplings, you won’t find a better wrap short of making them yourself. And honestly, these are a whole lot better than any I could make. Picking these wrappers out of the frozen section was one of the best choices I have ever made. To think I almost passed them up. What a tragedy that would have been!
