That’s a wrap Home-based venture gives savoury stuffed Asian dumplings their due as the main attraction — not just as an appetizer By: David Sanderson Posted: 6:00 AM CDT Friday, Aug. 1, 2025

Forks up if you remember the cheeky advertising campaign that was hatched a few years ago by the Egg Farmers of Canada, the one that carried the slogan “Eggs Anytime: It’s Not Weird,” and encouraged people to enjoy eggs for lunch or supper instead of just first thing in the morning.

In that same vein, Aaron Li, owner of Super Flying Dumpling, a home-based venture that turns out four varieties of hand-formed Chinese dumplings, posted a message on Instagram asking his followers “What’s for dinner?” together with a snapshot of one of his crescent-shaped treats.

“If you go to restaurants in Canada, you only see dumplings listed on the appetizer side of the menu and because of that, people here have this preconceived notion that they aren’t a main dish,” Li says, seated in a Pembina Highway coffee shop, not far from where he lives with his wife Ruby and their two young children, Jasper and Oscar.

“In China, however, it’s a very common food. If you get married, you eat dumplings. If you go to a funeral, you eat dumplings. My goal is to change people’s way of thinking, and get them to consider having dumplings as an entrée, maybe together with some soup or noodles.”

Li, 37, was born in Baotou, the second-most populous city in Inner Mongolia, China. Following their marriage, he and Ruby lived in Jonesboro, Ark., for six years, where he took a video-production course at Arkansas State University.

Upon their return to China, Ruby made the decision to continue studying abroad. She did her homework and settled on Winnipeg as their next stop, owing to its affordability and the province’s welcoming immigration policy.

Li laughs, saying Super Flying Dumpling probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day if he hadn’t been as ravenous as he was when he arrived in the city in January 2022 to join his wife, who preceded him here by several months.

Ruby had a late class the night he arrived at their Linden Woods apartment. After unpacking his belongings, he rifled through the fridge, searching for something to satisfy his hunger.

Hidden in the back of the freezer was a box of what he took to be dumplings, from the photo on the no-name packaging. He proceeded to boil the lot in water, adding a splash of vinegar and drops of sesame oil, the way he’d been taught by his mother and grandmother when he was growing up in Baotou.

Although the outer crust turned out thicker than he was accustomed to, he bit into the first specimen, expecting to be greeted with a burst of flavour.

“To my surprise, there wasn’t any… nothing,” he says.

A second bite confirmed the filling to be “mashed something-or-other.”

“I’m normally open to trying new things — I never say something tastes bad, instead I say it’s not for me — but as I kept eating I couldn’t figure out what was good about this.”

He turned to Google only to discover these weren’t Chinese dumplings at all. Rather, they were potato-filled perogies, a foodstuff he wasn’t previously familiar with.

The next morning, he asked Ruby why she’d bought such an unappetizing product. She didn’t have a clue what he was referring to. After giving the matter some thought, she concluded the box must have been left behind by the previous tenant.

That got Li thinking. If Winnipeggers were willing to spend their hard-earned money on an item that, in his opinion, lacked any flavour whatsoever, perhaps they’d be open to purchasing superior tasting Chinese dumplings, ones he would conjure up using his family’s time-tested recipes.

That spring and summer Li, who had some restaurant experience from his time in the U.S., attended farmers’ markets throughout the city, to see if any vendors were peddling something similar.

Satisfied nobody was, he began spending his spare time preparing dumplings for Ruby and the kids, to solicit their opinion on what flavours worked best. By March 2024, he had settled on three combinations: pork-and-cabbage, zucchini-shrimp-and-egg and tofu-and-kimchi.

Next, he secured space in a registered commercial kitchen, then hit the pavement to gauge interest in his offerings.

Super Flying Dumpling made its official debut in May 2024 at the South Osborne Farmers’ Market, at 725 Kylemore Ave. (Li intended to dub his biz Flying Dumpling, but ended up adding “Super” to his moniker after realizing a local restaurant chain goes by the name Flying Pizza.)

Despite being on maternity leave when Li’s application was accepted, Cortney Ramsay, South Osborne’s market co-ordinator since 2021, remembers being overjoyed when she learned of his impending presence there.

“I love dim sum, my standards for it are very high, so of course I was excited to find out we were going to have somebody selling a super-unique product like dumplings,” Ramsay says, seated at the market’s information booth on a recent Wednesday afternoon.

“I tried them the first week he was here, and oh my gosh, they were so good, the pork ones especially. Plus, he was only charging $5 for six dumplings so I was like, how can you go wrong?”

Ramsay says it didn’t take long for Li’s dumplings to become a crowd favourite. In fact, after he was relocated earlier this year from a space reserved for food trucks — Li readies his dumplings on-site, using a pair of portable induction cooktops — to a main area inside an outdoor hockey rink, the information booth was immediately peppered with questions along the lines of “Hey, where did the dumpling guy go?”

Li, who recently added beef-onion-and-carrot dumplings to his arsenal, has also become a familiar face at the Wolseley Farmers’ Market on Tuesdays and at the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market on Saturdays. His long-term goal is to expand his menu to include other Chinese-style foodstuffs.

“I tried them the first week he was here, and oh my gosh, they were so good, the pork ones especially. Plus, he was only charging $5 for six dumplings so I was like, how can you go wrong?”–Cortney Ramsay

“Dumplings are just the first step,” he says, mentioning he’s kept so busy between Super Flying Dumpling and his video-production work that he hasn’t had time to set up a website for online ordering, another objective.

“My thought is if people continue to like my dumplings, then I might add things like soups and noodles, maybe even my own drinks. Ultimately, I’d like to get into retail, but that’s still a ways away.”

In the meantime, Li hasn’t been shy about sharing secrets when customers pepper him with how-to questions.

“I know it sounds like it’d be bad for business, but if people ask, I’m happy to tell them how to make their own dumplings at home,” he says.

“Some come back later and tell me they tried, but that it was too hard, and they’re happy to leave it up to me.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca

 

Off to a frying start

Besides serving up hot Chinese dumplings at local farmers’ markets, Aaron Li also sells frozen dumplings. Here are his directions for sizzling them up at home.

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

Add 75 ml (5 tbsp) of cooking oil to a non-stick frying pan.

Place 12 dumplings in a single layer and fry at medium-high heat until the bottoms turn golden.

Add enough water to cover 1/3 of the dumplings, then cover immediately.

Steam until the water evaporates, approximately 8 minutes.

Enjoy the perfect balance of crispy bottoms and tender tops.

Dipping Sauce:

Combine soy sauce, black vinegar, a drizzle of sesame oil and chili crisp for a flavourful dip.