The Four Ingredients
1. Soy sauce — the salt and umami base. Use a good quality light soy sauce (not dark soy, which is too thick and sweet). Chinese or Taiwanese brands like Pearl River Bridge or Kimlan work well. Japanese soy sauce (shoyu) is a reasonable substitute but slightly sweeter.
2. Black vinegar (Chinkiang vinegar) — the acid. This is non-negotiable for an authentic dumpling sauce. Chinkiang vinegar from Zhenjiang has a deep, slightly smoky, malty flavor that regular rice vinegar or Western vinegars cannot replicate. Find it at any Asian grocery store.
3. Chili oil — the heat. Lao Gan Ma crispy chili oil is the most widely available and most used. A spoonful of the chili crisp (with the solids) is better than just the oil.
4. Fresh garlic — the punch. One clove, finely minced or grated. Raw garlic has a sharpness that cooked garlic doesn't. This is what makes a house-made sauce different from a bottled one.
The Ratio
2 tablespoons soy sauce + 1 tablespoon black vinegar + 1 teaspoon chili oil + 1 small garlic clove (minced). Mix. Taste. Adjust. If it's too salty, add more vinegar. If it's too acidic, add a pinch of sugar. If you want more heat, add more chili oil. That's the whole recipe.
Some people add a few drops of sesame oil. This is optional but good. Others add a thin slice of fresh ginger alongside the garlic. Also good.
How to Use It
For XLB (soup dumplings): use sparingly. The dumpling already contains complex broth inside — heavy dipping overwhelms it. A brief, light dip after drinking the broth is ideal.
For pan-fried dumplings (potstickers): these have a more robust flavor and crispy texture, so a more generous dip works well.
For boiled dumplings: go full dip. Boiled dumplings have a simpler, cleaner flavor that welcomes the sauce as the primary flavor element.
The Sauce at Ugly Dumpling
At Ugly Dumpling, we serve ginger-black vinegar sauce alongside our XLB — fresh ginger cut into thin strips, submerged in Chinkiang vinegar. This is the traditional XLB accompaniment and a deliberately restrained choice. It lets the dumpling speak for itself.
For our pan-fried dumplings and potstickers, we serve a house chili-garlic sauce that uses fermented black bean paste as a base. It's made fresh daily.