How To Eat Xiao Long Bao or Shanghai Dumplings
November 27, 2007 by foodieguide
This is a section from my very long post on How to Eat Chinese Food - Etiquette + Practical Tips on World Foodie Guide. I’ve broken the dining tips up into more manageable and practical sections.
Xiao Long Bao or Shanghai Dumplings are delicate little steamed dumplings with not only a lovely filling inside (meat, seafood or vegetables) but also a light soup. It’s therefore really important not to pierce or tear the skin of the dumpling with your chopsticks when transferring it from the bamboo steamer to your bowl. The base of the dumpling might also stick to the steamer when you try to lift it up. This will result in the skin tearing and the soup pouring out, making a mess in the steamer.
So use your Chinese spoon along with the chopsticks. The spoon provides crucial support at all times. Lift the dumpling up carefully around the top part or the ‘neck’ with chopsticks, and place into the spoon held in your other hand. Dip it into the shared dish of vinegar and ginger dipping sauce. To make the most of the sauce, if there isn’t already a small hole at the top of the dumpling, I use one of my chopsticks to make one, then using a teaspoon, spoon a little sauce onto the dumpling which is still sitting in my spoon. Sometimes I bite the top off too.
What I want to avoid is leaving a mess in the shared dipping sauce. Then I can eat the dumpling safely sitting in the spoon, while using my chopsticks to lift it to my mouth. This is much easier than holding the dumpling (it’s quite weighty and the skin tears so easily) with chopsticks and dipping it into the sauce, then transferring it into my mouth. Anything could happen during this process!
The filling and soupy sauce are both very hot, so be very careful when you take your first bite. You could eat the whole dumpling in one mouthful, in the sense that it’s small enough, but you could well burn yourself. Poking a small hole near the top helps cool the dumpling down a bit. The last time I ate xiao long bao, they had a small hole at the top, which helped. I’m sure there are plenty of different ways to eat xiao long bao, but this is my tried and tested way. With a bit of practice, you’ll look like an expert!
Let me know if you have other tips or suggestions! I’d love to hear them.
OH, you are bringing back fond memories of Taiwan!! I love those. We called them bao tsu. My wife taught me how to make them. But I can’t find the flower mix to make them anymore.
And you can’t find these in restaurants in my area, only fried dumplings. I would love to find some place that I could buy these frozen and steam at home.
Hi Jerame
I’ve found a recipe to make them, although I never dreamed I would want to try something quite as complicated. I’ll post on this in the near future. I’m sure my husband will work out the correct flour mix to use!
Have you seen my other post on What are Xiao Long Bao or Shanghai Dumplings?
Thanks for visiting!
Helen Yuet Ling