Are any of you out there somewhat intimidated by dim sum? I have to admit that I’m not very adventurous when it comes to dim sum, since most of the time, I don’t really know what i’m eating. So I play it safe and usually get the siu mai (traditional pork dumplings) or the scallion pancakes, or basically things I can identify.

Well, a friend of mine in Singapore just introduced me to a dumpling I’d never had before called Xiao Long Bao.  They’re little steamed “soup” dumplings from Shanghai and they typically contain pork with steaming hot soup within the dumpling.

Last night we went to a restaurant called Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese chain with several locations in Asia, and a couple in the United States (Los Angeles and Seattle). They specialize in those soup dumplings, so while I was feeling somewhat adventurous, I thought I’d give it a try.  Wow! I was in for a surprise! What a burst of flavor in a tiny little bite.  Oh my goodness – they were SO good! And they were just so pretty – apparently this restaurant creates these dumplings with 18 folds, something that is hard to do.  And yes, I did try to count them, but alas, the folds were so tiny, it was hard work to verify.  I’m going to assume they didn’t try to cheat me out of my 18 folds!

I also discovered that there’s a special way of eating them too. This must be followed or else you may end up either scalding yourself or squirting the soup all over the place, neither of which is pleasant.

So, without breaking the delicate dumpling, you carefully lifted it off the bamboo steamer onto your spoon.  You then took a small bite off the top of the dumpling to release the steam from the soup.  I realized soon enough that this had to be done rather carefully, or else all that soup would just pour right out of the dumpling. Once the tops were bitten off, you’d slurp a bit of the soup, and then add some vinegar infused ginger strips onto or into the open dumpling.  Then in one bite, you popped the little dumpling into your mouth. What a great burst of flavor, all in a cute little steamed bundle. They’re just so addictive!

So fear no more! The next time I head to Chinatown in Manhattan, I think i’ll just safely order myself an entire cart of Xiao Long Bao, and look like a total professional eating it too! Ah, simply heaven.

Here are a few photos of our meal.  We did order a few other things in addition, and though we didn’t think it was a lot of food at the time, we could hardly walk out of the place. Though dim sum is all about variety, my vote going forth is for Xiao Long Bao.  There’s just something fun about slurping your dumpling! Do check out the Los Angeles and Seattle locations, if you’re lucky enough to be in that area.

Xiao Long Bao

ginger in vinegar condiment eaten with the Xiao Long Bao

shrimp and pork wonton noodle soup

garlicky seasonal leafy greens

hot and sour soup