From Scratch to New Beginnings
— Cuiming Pang& the Kinabolle team
When I started Kinabolle in 2017, I didn’t know what it would become.
I had just left academia and opened a small food stall at Vippa — with no experience in food or business.
On my first day, I used a brand-new steamer without testing it. The dumplings collapsed. I closed that day without selling a single one. Lesson learned.
While waiting for a dumpling machine that could make 6,000 dumplings per hour, I chose to make them by hand with a few student employees. That short testing period changed everything.
Handmade dumplings have something machines can’t replicate — warmth.
Not just heat, but care you can taste.
Working side by side with students reminded me of my own early days in Norway — uncertain, searching for stability. Helping them feel safe and grounded made me happy.
When I saw them folding dumplings, laughing, and talking, I remembered home: my father chopping the filling, my sisters and I wrapping, my mother boiling. We were together in the kitchen.
That’s what dumplings are really about — not just food, but belonging. That’s the tradition we serve at Kinabolle.
Kinabolle is more than a kitchen.
It’s a platform for new beginnings — a place for newcomers to find belonging in Norway.
Over the years, we’ve welcomed more than 80 students, immigrants, and people in transition. Many leave stronger and more confident, going on to become teachers, scientists, or consultants. We’re proud to be part of their story.
Behind every kitchen door is an individual — not just “staff.” Some love music, others drawing. Some have children, some don’t. Some go out after work, others go home to rest. Each has their own rhythm, their own story.
Kinabolle has grown through ups and downs, but one value remains: equality.
It’s why we opened small neighborhood restaurants.
It’s why we offer handmade food at fair prices.
It’s why our kitchen is open, and why we laugh as we work.
Twenty years ago, I ate dinner every night at a small restaurant in eastern China. It was simple, comforting — my kitchen. I never imagined building something like that in Norway.
But here we are.
Kinabolle is part of our journey.
We hope it becomes part of yours — a place to share and remember.
