Shanghai-style soup dumplings — thin-skinned steamed parcels of pork and gelled broth that liquefies on contact with steam, served in stacked bamboo baskets.
Soup inside a dumpling
The trick is the broth. Pork-skin stock is reduced until rich, chilled until it sets into a firm aspic, then diced and combined with the meat filling. When the dumplings steam, the aspic melts back into liquid trapped inside the wrapper. Bite carelessly and the broth burns the mouth or escapes onto the plate.
The proper technique: lift the dumpling by its top knot, place it on a soup spoon, nip a small hole in the side, sip the broth, then eat the rest with a dab of black vinegar and ginger. Each dumpling is ideally 18 pleats at the top — a marker of skilled wrapping in Shanghai dumpling houses.
Beyond Shanghai
Din Tai Fung, the Taiwanese chain that perfected industrial precision in xiaolongbao production, weighs each wrapper to within 0.2 g and counts pleats. The dumpling has now become global, but Shanghai’s small pre-dawn shops still set the standard for delicate skin, hot broth, and proper proportion.
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Xiaolongbao starts with X and ends with O. Browse other foods along the same letter.
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