Once upon a time, there was an IT specialist from Naples with a passion for music and dumplings. This is the story of Bop Dumpling, born from a man tired of being glued to a computer in an office. His choice and way of life are anarchic. He doesn’t like rules, doesn’t chase profit, nor fame or visibility. He set up a Chinese dumpling shop that looks like a room of a boy dreaming in the world of manga and loves chatting. It's clear that Luca Affatato's dumplings contain a visionary soul, well aware of culinary rules and techniques, with a very lively creativity. Each dumpling is meticulously crafted, the fillings are like music, a fusion of multiple cultures, accents, dialects, and when you take a bite, "Wow" is the first thing you think.
Bop Dumpling
As soon as it opens, around 7:30 pm, people flock to Bop's counter in the hilly Arenella neighbourhood to talk to Luca. Through taste and his free-thinking attitude, he attracts people like a magnet. The menu changes daily, rules just aren't his thing. It's announced via an Instagram story, though you'll find few posts. Practicality, humility, chef instincts that are partly innate, partly learned over time. Each dumpling, a spaceship of flavour, costs €1.80. The omakase experience is the right choice: 9 dumplings steamed for 9 minutes, €15. After passing through a blast chiller to meticulously maintain the cold chain, they are steamed to delicate perfection upon order. Antonio Di Stasio helps him, and once ready, each dumpling has its accompanying sauce, strictly conceived and prepared by Luca.
Dumplings filled with World Cuisines
Currently, you can find dumplings filled with smoked pork and Neapolitan papaccella ketchup; cod, lemon, and sriracha tahini (a mix of spicy Thai chili sauce and Mediterranean white sesame sauce); pork cheek with fermented daikon, seaweed emulsion, and horseradish; Neapolitan-style meat in broth (slow-cooked beef) with curly escarole coleslaw; five-spice pork with sweet and sour sauce; duck confit with shiitake mushrooms and oxidised mulberry gel; chicken with cashews and Thai satay sauce; yellow duck curry with sambal tartar sauce and crispy onion; spicy lamb with yogurt, herbs, flowers, and mint. It's a blast! Luca really knows what he's doing and doesn’t miss a beat. There's always a vegetarian option: dumpling with mozzarella and eggplant kimchi pesto; burrata, sun-dried tomatoes, marinated olives, and aioli; Japanese mushroom curry with black jap aioli; mushrooms and bamboo with black garlic toban djan sauce and habanero aioli.
Outside the small shop, customers savour the dumplings on wooden boards designed by Luca to be "docked" onto the iron posts along the sidewalk to prevent car access. A film could be made about Bop, and it would be beautiful.
Bop Dumpling - via Battistello Caracciolo, 47 - Napoli - instagram.com/bop_dumpling
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