“THIS IS THE DUMPLING FESTIVAL?!”

I was standing on the corner of Chrystie and E Houston, watching volunteers for the New York City Dumpling Festival pass out brochures attempting to get those passing by to join the already crowded plaza. Most of the time, they received a quick “no, thank you.” or a brief smile. But every once and a while, you would get someone who stop dead in their track, and you could see the smile bloom on their face: “a dumpling festival?!”

Returning for the fifth time in New York City, the Dumpling Festival is hosted by Chef One, a popular dumpling brand in partnership with the Food Bank for New York City. Chef One products have proudly been produced in Bushwick since 1999. Conveniently packaged, the product promises that “There’s a Chef in Everyone.” In line with that theme, the festival itself hosted a dumpling making class for the first time. But for those who are hopeless in the kitchen, like myself, there was still plenty of eating involved.

For the regular festival-goer, with the purchase of a $20 tasting card you can sample four of the five NYC-borough themed booths — surely enough, to fill you up. But if sampling is for wimps, and consuming to your heart’s content is more your thing, there’s an eating contest with a grand prize of $2,000. This year’s winner ate over 100 dumplings in two minutes!

The festival was such an overwhelming success, that the wait for each tasting booth often exceeded two hours long. Although there was a lot of (rather angry) chatter about Chinatown being mere blocks away — especially about an hour in when all of the lines got so long they seemed to merge with one another — we stayed. We stayed, because all of the proceeds went directly to the Food Bank For New York City, a hunger relief organization that serves all five borough of NYC. We stayed, because it’s a fricken festival. It’s not suppose to be quick. It’s suppose to be fun, delicious, and entertaining. So we battled the lines, and watched the lion dancing on stage, and cheered on the contest competitors. Oh, and of course, we ate, and ate, and ate.

Be sure to join us at the New York City Dumpling Festival next year, but in the mean time find out where to buy Chef One Dumplings to enjoy in the comfort of your own home here.