Meet the Sleekly Branded Duo Behind This Recurring Dumpling Pop-Up

On Sept. 1, a dumpling pop-up is coming to Four Corners Brewing Company. Hosted by cooking duo Hao & Dixya, this event will feature dumplings from various regions.

Hao & Dixya is a partnership between Hao Tran and Dixya Bhattarai. Frustrated with the lack of dumpling places in Fort Worth, Tran and Bhattarai started doing pop-ups around Fort Worth. Now, in addition to pop-ups, they offer cooking classes and catering.

Tran grew up in the Vietnamese community in South Arlington. A teacher by profession, she was raised in the kitchen and learned to cook from her parents, who are Vietnamese immigrants.

Bhattarai, a registered dietitian who works full time at a hospital, is from Nepal and moved to the United States 10 years ago for college. She started the blog Food, Pleasure and Health when doing her dietetic internship to document what she learned, as well as share recipes.

“I’m from Nepal, so a lot of my cooking is influenced by what I grew up with, so I naturally gravitate to those ingredients and cooking techniques, but I live in the United States, so I try to find a balance. However, I still add Nepali flair to whatever I cook or share.”

For the pop-up at Four Corners this Saturday, Hao & Dixya are serving three types of dumplings (four for $6). They will offer shrimp shumai, traditional Chinese dumplings and vegetable gyoza, a Japanese dumpling. There will also be chicken momo, Nepalese steamed dumplings. In Nepal, momo are traditionally filled with water buffalo, but Hao & Dixya will be using chicken and serving them with tomato achar, which is similar to chutney.

They will also serve duck-fried rice (with the option to add egg) and pulled pork and roasted hatch chili bao, with the pulled pork cooked in Notorious O.A.T., Four Corners’ oatmeal stout.

At the moment, Hao & Dixya don't intend to open a brick and mortar restaurant.

“I enjoy the flexibility of pop-ups … we have freedom and no responsibilities," Bhattarai says. "I see these pop-ups happen more often."

Their Four Corners dumpling pop-up is noon-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1. Their next pop-up after that is Sept. 8 at Great Harvest Bread in Fort Worth. In addition to these pop-ups, Hao & Dixya teach classes twice a month at Fort Worth commercial kitchen incubator Locavore. On Sept. 5, they're teaching a sushi hand-rolling class.