Xiao Long Bao are a dream come true….Chinese comfort food at its best. I have been looking forward to trying these for months! These Shanghai style steamed dumplings are infamous, they have food tours dedicated just to these tender pleated dough purses with porky filling, and rich, ginger-laced broth. There are other fillings too like pork and crab together, crab alone and others but these are the most popular.
So how do you eat it? You must know how or you will burn your mouth with the hot broth inside. Pick up the dumpling with chopsticks and place it on a tiny dumpling sized bowl or soup spoon. Poke a small hole at the top with a chopstick. Carefully slurp out the hot soup or pour it into the bowl and sip it from there. Finish off the dumpling by eating it straight or first dunking it in the dipping sauce. The taste is incredible! We started with 3 orders of 12 dumplings, one pork, one crab and the other a combo. Ice cold beer was the perfect pairing and the willingness to make a mess!
Pork
Dumpling bowl
Pork and Crab
Crab
Those went pretty quick so we ordered two more sets and they were gone just as quick. With the chilly, misty day we had, it was perfect!