NEW HAVEN — Hu Ping-Dolph and her husband, Jonathan Dolph, want you to know how Chinese people really eat.They also thoroughly enjoy introducing people to new experiences — and they love owning and running restaurants in New Haven.
How else could you explain the fact that they now own three totally different regional Chinese restaurants in New Haven? The couple have Taste of China at 954 Chapel St., Steamed at 77 Whitney Ave. and now the latest creation, Jin Fu Hot Pot at 68 Whitney Ave.
They also have owned the original, Sichuan-style Taste of China in Clinton since 2000 and have additional Steamed locations in Madison and Middletown, offering northern China-style dumpling.”I do really authentic Chinese food,” Ping-Dolph, who grew up in Nanjing, China, said Thursday, sitting at a table amid the rich, wood-paneled interior of her new restaurant. “I want to show what we eat in China.”
Jin Fu Hot Pot, which is in the midst of a soft opening after opening its doors on Feb. 29, offers a traditional, yet modern take on a warming and healthy Chinese dish, hot pot — in this case with individual hot pots with warming elements built into the tables.
According to Ping-Dolph — who met her American-born husband in Singapore when she was a student and he was an English teacher — they saw a totally empty space on Whitney Avenue and decided to follow their dreams to make something happen there.
“We made a wonderful restaurant,” Ping-Dolph said. “We made a wonderful space here.”
Jin Fu Hot Pot is next door to Katalina’s Bakery.
Ping-Dolph spoke on a day when officials from Yale University Properties and the City of New Haven — plus some close friends — joined her and her husband for some spicy Cheng Du dumplings, sparkling wine and other treats to celebrate Jin Fu Hot Pot’s opening.
Part of Ping-Dolph’s goal over the years — opening Taste of China in New Haven in 2012 and Steamed in 2016 — has been to show people a different, more authentic kind of Chinese food in a different kind of restaurant with perhaps a little more style than some others, she said.
Jin Fu Hot Pot is not the first hot pot restaurant in New Haven. The Great Wall, which used to be across the street where Chef Ziang is now, had them, as did the short-lived Chuan Du Hot Pot on Temple Street.
With the individual hot pot elements built into the tables at Jin Fu Hot Pot, Ping-Dolph said it’s easy to tailor a meal to one’s own personal tastes. Customers build off of one of four soup bases: a chicken-based fish maw broth, a chicken-based pork tripe broth, a vegan matsutake mushroom broth and their Jin Fu Special MaLa brothe, which is chicken-based and spicy, using Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers.
Separate plates of meat or vegetables are then ordered to add.
“We teach people how to eat and how to make the sauces,” she said.
While eating hot pot may be a somewhat new experience for many customers, “all Asian people know hot pot,” Ping-Dolph said, adding it’s great when the weather is cold.
Jin Fu Hot Pot currently is using a special soft opening menu and will shift to a more extensive menu once the place gets better established, Ping-Dolph said.
At a brief outdoor ceremony to celebrate the opening, Alexandra Daum, the former state commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, who now is Yale’s associate vice president for New Haven Affairs and University Properties, welcomed the latest addition to what’s becoming a hotspot for Asian restaurants along Whitney near Audubon Street.
Others nearby include Tiger Daddy, K-food, Chef Jiang, Steamed, The Whale Tea, and around the corner on Audubon Street, the Hawaiian-Japanese accented Pokemoto.
Daum said the restaurant business is hard but Ping-Dolph “has made it work six times.”
“It is clear how excited people are for the opening of your third restaurant in New Haven,” Mayor Justin Elicker told the couple.
Several of Ping-Dolph’s Chinese-born friends were looking forward to stopping by.
“It’s beautiful,” said Tony Zhou, a commodities trader who was born in Hunan Province and now lives in Woodbridge.
“Hot pot is one of the favorites of the Chinese people,” Zhou said, calling it “healthy, less oily” and good for a party or a group of friends.
Charles Lu, of Madison, another friend who was born in China and has lived in the United States for 38 years, said it’s a step up from the low-cost, inexpensively-decorated, Americanized Chinese restaurants that once dotted the landscape.
“She has such a nice sense of decoration, high standards,” Lu said, adding Ping-Dolph’s restaurants are “culturally very rich.”
By Mark Zaretsky, Staff Writer, March 8, 2024
Read the original article, here.
