The assignment was simple, and mouth-watering: Check out some good spots to enjoy dumplings in Howard County.

As Howard County’s Asian American Pacific Islander population has grown over the last decade, so have the number of places serving this classic dish and others.

According to a 2020 county report, the largest segments of Howard County’s Asian population identify as Indian, Chinese and Korean, with Filipino, Vietnamese and Japanese people, as well as other ethnic groups, also represented.

Thousands of people turned out for an Asian food festival at the Howard County Fairgrounds in the summer of 2022, but that event unfortunately is better remembered for the traffic and parking woes that accompanied it.

That wouldn’t be a problem for Jess and me as we set out on a quest for dumplings one Tuesday morning.

We are surely only scratching the surface, but here are three spots worth checking out.

Pepper House

We came extra prepared to the first stop — Pepper House in Ellicott City — with empty stomachs. We pulled into an unassuming parking lot, but of course only after we took a wrong turn into the lot before where a Sonic Drive-In sat.

Pepper House is located in an older office building that houses an orthodontist’s office, a pet grooming store, a tailor shop and other storefronts.

Jess and I, along with our colleague Clara Longo de Freitas, a breaking news reporter, and photographer Eric Thompson, walked into Pepper House not expecting to have just found our newest obsession — and we really mean obsession.

Tucked into a parking lot off Baltimore National Pike, Pepper House is one of many Asian restaurants across Howard County, specifically in Ellicott City. The Sichuan restaurant sits next to a local bureau of The Korea Times.

Because the Korean population is flourishing in Ellicott City, then-Gov. Larry Hogan officially designated a five-mile section of Route 40 as “Koreatown” in 2021. The stretch of road has dozens of Korean businesses and is marked with two Korean palace-style signs.

Pepper House is a small restaurant, fixed with two communal tables and a window bench. The restaurant, owned by husband and wife Frank Liang and Yuan Shen, opened a few years ago. Primarily a carryout eatery, the communal tables welcome regular diners and newcomers like us.

The couple focuses on authenticity. Everything is homemade, including the eatery’s delicious chili sauce that has several spice levels. You can purchase a jar to enjoy at home.

Liang made the tables, and the couple’s daughter painted a mural. There’s also an upright digital piano where, after closing, Liang sees piano students.

We ordered chengdu dumplings in chili oil sauce, chengdu wontons in spicy and numbing sauce and chengdu wontons in chicken broth. We enjoyed all of them, even Clara who doesn’t normally enjoy spicy food.

We quickly dove into the trio of dumplings and wontons. We all agreed that the chengdu wontons in chicken broth tasted like chicken noodle soup. Jess’ favorite ones were the chengdu wontons in spicy and numbing sauce.

We spoke with Shen during the entire visit, which added to the experience. It felt like we were sitting around her kitchen table as she walked through the opening of Pepper House and the differences between dumplings and wontons. We left with full bellies and a greater knowledge of this popular street food.

Asian Court

Next, we made our way to Asian Court, just a six-minute drive west on Route 40.

We walked into Asian Court and were blown away by how bustling it was at close to 2 p.m. on a Tuesday. Booths lined the windows, with a row of more down the middle of the restaurant. Large circular tables meant for dim sum stood in a line straight from the front door to the other side of the room, with a group of six women occupying one.

We were greeted instantly and asked if we wanted the dim sum menu. We said “no” without thinking — a mistake. Dim sum of course is a traditional Chinese meal consisting of small dishes, such as dumplings. The restaurant employee kindly let us move to one of the large dim sum tables, where another server brought out a cart of small dishes.

Admittedly, we were still pretty stuffed from Pepper House, so we ordered just a few plates: taro dumplings with meat, crescent dumplings with meat, dumplings with meat and chives, and the server gave us a free dish of egg custard tarts. Personally, I’m not a fan of egg custard, but Jess, Clara and Eric gave them five stars.

Eric snapped some great photos of the food, as well as of us grabbing the dumplings with chopsticks. This was our moment to test out hand modeling — we learned we won’t be pursuing that.

As we ate, we marveled at the colorful Chinese lanterns and waterfall beads hanging from the ceiling. We spent our time at Asian Court — a restaurant with Cantonese food and Hong Kong-style dim sum — having fun spinning the lazy Susan in the middle of the table and talking about silly childhood memories, like Clara getting injured in weird ways as a child.

Our favorite dish was the warm crescent dumplings. It was sweet and savory and felt like comfort food. Asian Court felt like a place to be to connect with friends over shared dishes.

Tea Horse Sichuan Bistro

Tucked away in the Normandy Shopping Center is Tea Horse Sichuan Bistro, our third and final stop of the day for dumplings. The restaurant is unassuming from the outside, but as we walked on, we stepped into a swanky dining room. There was a large bar and a white baby grand piano, and one of the walls tells the story of Tea Horse Road.

The famed Tea Horse Road is an essential part of the history of Sichuan, a southwestern Chinese province, the wall reads. Merchants navigated the road to trade food, tea and silk in exchange for the “legendary warhorses of Tibet.”

When we sat down, we were taken away by the menu. It looked like an expensive coffee table book. We pored over the glossy pages before remembering we were only there for dumplings.

We ordered soup dumplings, Szechuan spicy dumplings and fried pork dumplings. While we enjoyed the dough of the fried dumplings — they were more sticky than fried — our favorites were the spicy ones.

Eric tried to make us hand models again at Tea Horse — we are definitely sticking to writing.

We only had time for three restaurants this time on this day trip, but look forward to checking out more of what Ellicott City and Howard County have to offer. We will be back out again soon.