Xiaolongbao crawling

*originally posted 22 October 2007

Shanghai. Since we started planning this lil’ shindig of a trip, that’s really only meant one thing to us: xialongbao.

Xiaolongbao. Gorgeous, white puffs of dumplings filled with delicious morsels of pork, veggies, shrimp, crab, and then for the piece de resistance: soup. Soup! Inside the dumpling. So that when you bite into it you a) start inhaling gulps of air because the scrumptious soupiness is burning the inside of your poor little mouth and b) drops of soup (& pork bits, probably) fall onto your plate in a very ungraceful fashion. But no matter. You still get the essence of what is xiaolongbao, a Shanghaiinese specialty.

We first got the taste of all that is xiaolongbao goodness in NYC’s Chinatown, at a fantastic restaurant called Joe’s Shanghai. If you’re anywhere near that place, run, don’t walk to it. And don’t tell us you went there ’cause we’ll be super jealous. Lamb, I think you were with us when we first discovered Joe’s — although you probably didn’t realize how transcendental it was for us at the time. Also at Joe’s, another must to try — the Shanghai fried noodles. Oh baby!

But fast-forward to this wonderful day, having just come off the Beijing-Shanghai sleeper train all disheveled and nasty (well what do you expect after wearing the same clothes two days in a row? After all, we weren’t in a private sleeper car. Our bunkmates were the lovely Mr. Wong and Mrs. Yu–no, seriously, they introduced themselves that way!). We dropped off our backpacks (just a bit heavier than when we arrived in Beijing since we’re now the proud owners of not one, but three kites! but that’s another story), grabbed a taxi–the metro here sucks arse–got dropped off, got lost (now this is sounding like us!), and finally ended up at our eating destination, Din Tai Fung. Their specialty: xiaolongbao.

I have to say the cheesy line again but it’s so true– oh baby! After eating one 10-piece tray of pork xiaolongbao and another 5-piece tray of crab & pork xiaolongbao, then noodles for Steve (he was hoping for the rope-y, fried goodness of Joe Shanghai’s NYC noodles, but alas, no. still good though). Oh, and black sesame balls for me–sounds incredibly disgusting but is actually my new favorite dessert! Anyhoo, after inducing ourselves into Din Tai Fung’s food coma–whaddaya think we did? Paid our bill, marched out of the restaurant and marched into another one literally three freaking doors down.

Yeah, we’re sickies. Here we feasted on one plate of fried xiaolongbao (oh my Lord, xiaolongbao that’s fried? sure we’re not dreaming?), one plate of 'standard' ones, noodles for Steve (jackpot this time!), and buckets of chrysanthemum tea. Total cost? $13.

So…to recap– all the glorious things Shanghai has to offer such as the Bund (the waterfront here), $5 massages and beautiful parks for oodles of people-watching hasn’t been experienced by us. Yet. But we’ve had xiaolongbao! All is well with the world.