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A dumpling delivery service started by two Southern California restaurant owners to raise money for furloughed employees during the pandemic is expanding to the Peninsula this week.
Starting this Thursday, Cali Dumpling will deliver its handmade, flash-frozen dumplings to cities throughout Santa Clara County, including Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. (View the list of cities here.)
Cali Dumpling makes 12 varieties of frozen dumplings, including the above xiao long bao, available with a pork or chicken filling. Photo courtesy Cali Dumpling.
Candace and Allan Tea, who own several Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles and Orange counties, launched Cali Dumpling “overnight to help those in the hospitality industry get back on their feet,” the Cali Dumpling website reads. For the first few months, they donated all profits to their furloughed employees and others in the hospitality industry, totaling more than $20,000.
“I grew up eating dumplings as an after-school snack and remember how comforting it was. I always wanted to start a dumpling delivery business and with the pandemic putting all of our other projects on hold, we finally had the time to devote to getting this off the ground,” Allan Tea said.
(They also started the delivery company shortly after getting married since their honeymoon was also put on hold.)
Cali Dumpling is now a for-profit business that’s “slowly but surely expanding throughout California,” Tea said. He said they “couldn’t ignore Santa Clara County’s predominant(ly) Asian population” as an expansion area.
Cali Dumpling is expanding its frozen delivery service to the Bay Area. Photo courtesy Cali Dumpling.
The dumplings are made at a production facility in Southern California. Bay Area orders will be transported via shipping pallets in a freezer truck to a local delivery team.
Cali Dumpling makes 12 dumpling varieties, from pork and chive dumplings to xiao long bao and pork-shrimp wontons, all handmade from Tang’s family recipes, which according to the Los Angeles Times she keeps safe in a binder in a locked room. Each comes in a pack of 30 with instructions on how to boil, steam or pan-fry them. The website also includes recipes for dipping sauces.
Cali Dumpling charges a $10 flat delivery fee, which goes directly to the drivers. Customers must place orders by 8 p.m. the night before their desired delivery date. For more information, go to calidumplingnorcal.com.