Shanghainese soup dumplings (xiao long bao) - any fans?

[edkwon]

Been into these chinese soup dumplings (also featured on Tony Bourdain's ep when he was in Mainland China) since first eating them at a local american restaurant called Din Tai Fung (also found in Tokyo and Taipei, Taiwan.

There's another popular joint in NYC for east coast ppl called Joe's Shanghai, highly recommended since I've been there too

 

[Labcoatguy]

Being from Shanghai, I love them. There's a place in Philly that does them very well, but I haven't found good ones in Boston quite yet.

 

[Zuhaib]

I am sorry, I dont see any dumplings in your first pics.. At lest the kind you can eat

 

[Koenig]

http://pic.armedcats.net/k/ko/koenig/2009/09/08/ChinaTrip_521.jpg
http://pic.armedcats.net/k/ko/koenig/2009/09/08/ChinaTrip_522.jpg
http://pic.armedcats.net/k/ko/koenig/2009/09/08/ChinaTrip_523.jpg

These are the ones I had at Nan Xiang when I was in Shanghai a few months ago.

 

[Koenig]

Wow...double post ftl.

 

[edkwon]

^^^ Nice photos, SLR I assume?

 

[Koenig]

^^^ Nice photos, SLR I assume?

Yup. D60, although I'm still a huge SLR n00b, and am only probably using 10% of the capabilities of the camera.

 

[Kiki]

*thuds* Love the xiao long bao (especially at Din Tai Fung... I lived in Arcadia back in LA so yeahhhh...)! I've been only making the regular bao lately, but damn, gotta get that recipe one of these days!

 

[BlaRo]

*thuds* Love the xiao long bao (especially at Din Tai Fung... I lived in Arcadia back in LA so yeahhhh...)! I've been only making the regular bao lately, but damn, gotta get that recipe one of these days!

Oh God, Shanghai xiao long bao are God's gift to mankind. The shops in Chenghuang Miao are where my family and I go every time we're in the city, and that's where it's at. Hell, yes.

 

[CrzRsn]

Those look like a fancy version of one of my favorites. Russian pelmeni.

 

[Kiki]

Oh God, Shanghai xiao long bao are God's gift to mankind. The shops in Chenghuang Miao are where my family and I go every time we're in the city, and that's where it's at. Hell, yes.

Oooh, thanks for that - definitely must go there next time we're in Shanghai! Last time, one of our family friends took us to a small shop somewhere in the city for tang bao, and oooh, yumm! I had to make sure to get every last bit of the soup in the spoon.

I love Shanghainese cuisine. Not to de-thread, but one of other favorites is: stuffed lotus roots

http://pic.armedcats.net/k/ki/kiki/2009/12/03/z_d-lotus-root.jpg

 

[JohnnyRacer]

I'm sorry, I was looking at the girl more than the food. I'm sure the food is delicious.

just like the girl

 

[ninjacoco]

Those dumplings look amazing!

 

[Karoug]

Those dumplings look amazing!

What she said!!

 

[p0w3r]

I grew up with my dad owning multiple Chinese restaurants...with his last one being a Shanghainese restaurant. My favorite is the ones with crab meat:

 

[Interrobang]

Hmmmm .... juicy Buns.

Have had quite some dim sum lunches with chinese dumblings in the last year wich I liked a lot ... but I can?t really imagine them filled with soup and how that is better than (for example) a dumpling filled with tasty meat and/or vegetable-filling? Is it just the sensation of biting into it and having soup inside or what is so special about it? When I think about it, I think I would rather have just soup in a bowl and some meat-dumplings on the side ...

 

[Shawn]

^ Well, I think mostly they have meat and soup inside. It's not just a sack of soup, though from what I understood of the No Reservations episode there's also a special kind which is just filled with soup. But usually they have soup and the meats that you speak of.

I'd be curious to try these, and I'm sure I can find them over here without too much trouble but I'd like to try the best, not some random knockoff from some generic restaurant that's actually run by Vietnamese.

 

[edkwon]

^^^ What Shawn said, they are regular dumplings filled with meat/crab/seafood stuffing but the filling it mixed with frozen gelatinzed soup broth that is solid when the filling is made but when the dumplings are steamed the broth melts leading to the soup mysteriously making its way in the cooked dumpling. The filling part floats in the soup

 

[Interrobang]

I get what they are ... what I don?t get is why someone would have them over "normal" dumblings and normal soup. :?

 

[Shawn]

I guess they're more juicy? On No Reservations Tony was having a bit of a hard time eating them it seemed, with most of the soup just ending up in his bowl... maybe that's how you eat them.

And by the way, they're dumplings.