I have recently discovered Xiao long bao (小籠包), my new favorite Chinese Dish (from Shanghai ). It is the Soup Dumpling.  Beware when trying these delicious morsels, they are quite dangerous. These dumplings are thin skinned and filled with either meat or vegetables and yummy, yummy soup. 

Not realizing what these were the first time I ordered them, I picked one up and greedily stuffed it in my mouth. My eyes teared as I burned my entire mouth– it was painful. I had not seen the instructions plainly and obviously written on the table on the proper way to eat these. Here is the proper procedure so I can spare you a burnt tongue:  

1.      Pick up Soup Dumpling

2.      Put Soup Dumpling on Chinese Soup Spoon

3.      Take incredibly small bite from dumpling

4.      Allow soup to fill spoon and cool off

5.      Drink soup

6.      Enjoy Dumpling

7.      Go back to restaurant and order more

I started wondering about the mystery of Xiao Long Bao. How does the soup get inside? Turns out the filling (be it pork or crab or vegetable) is mixed with aspic, a jelly made with pork stock and gelatin. The mixture is then put into the very thin flour wrapper and steamed. As the steam heats up the aspic melts filling the dumpling with soup. Pretty cool stuff.

I hear that NYC Xiao Long Bao is disappointing. Most of the people who have traveled to   Shanghai say that the NYC wrapper is not delicate enough. The consensus is that if you can’t see the soup through the wrapper; then you aren’t eating a true Soup Dumpling.  Hmmmm, I guess if I could have seen through the wrapper, maybe I would not have burned my mouth… This just gives me an excuse to keep searching for the perfect Xiao Long Bao.

Can you tell me who makes the best Soup Dumpling?

For Foodies, by Foodies