How to (or not to) eat the 'xiao long bao'

Xiaolong-what? If you haven’t heard of the xiao long bao or don’t know what it is, then you must crawl out from under the rock you’ve been hiding in these past few days—or years. The xiao long bao has come to Manila in a big way. Just follow the smell of good food or any member of the Chinese community in the Greenhills area and you can bet your sweet buns you’ll be drifting towards the direction of a dining destination that will open your senses to the wonders of this bite-sized culinary treasure. Manila has recently welcomed the newly-opened Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao, a popular Asian chain of restaurants known for its special hand-pulled noodles (la mian) and the soupy pork dumplings called xiao long bao. If you ever find yourself in one of the long queues for a table at this place (which may run up to an hour or two of waiting), you might as well be schooled in the proper way of indulging in their specialty. You must act as though you’ve done this before and know exactly what to do to avoid the risk of embarrassment or a burnt tongue. As you ease along the line to a table, it would be wise to remember that eating xiao long bao takes practice and a bit of restraint.

It was on a chilly afternoon in Shanghai in 2007 when I met my first batch of xiao long bao or steamed soup dumplings as they are popularly known. Tired and hungry after an hour of settling in our hotel along Nanjing road, my family and I were in desperate need of something warm to eat. A crowd of locals huddled in front of a typical version of a noisy greasy chopstick at the corner where fried dumplings and street food were being sold near the doorway. Although the place was full, the floor was sticky, and the servers barked rudely at customers, we dared to step inside in avid anticipation of our first meal in Shanghai. My husband said we should try the xiao long bao and the business of ordering it was taken care of by pointing at the food served to the couple at the next table. Xiao long bao it was and after watching the couple take in the steaming hot dumplings with so much ardor, we were hankering for those jiggling, soup-filled dumplings to soothe our rumbling stomachs. The dumplings were placed on our table without any fanfare, six tiny pillow-like mounds of pork dumplings lain unadorned on a steamer basket. It was set down quickly by a Chinese amah after yelling a few unintelligible sounds at us which we took as “Pay at the counter after you eat!" in Mandarin. My son, perhaps the hungriest in our family of four, gulped the dumplings as you would your regular siomai from a Chinese takeout stall. At that instant, he let out a yelp so loud that seemed to rumble across the room. The xiao long bao seared his mouth as he bit into the dumpling and let out the steaming hot soup inside, spilling within the walls of his wide orifice. That was our sad first encounter with this much-heralded hallmark of modern Shanghainese cuisine in this city which, up until then, we only knew was where the Pinoy lumpia borrowed its name. This initial traumatic brush with the xiao long bao, however, did not keep us from enjoying these delightful dumplings later on in our trips to Hongkong and Singapore where restaurants actually had instructionals on how to eat the precious xiao long bao without causing untoward danger to or embarrassment on the part of the hungry, if uneducated, diner. Although of Shanghai origins, the xiao long bao was made world famous by such restaurants as Din Tai Fung and Crystal Jade. The wait for a table in Din Tai Fung and Crystal Jade outlets all over these places can go up to 30 minutes on a busy lunch or dinner time that is why we make it a point to go as soon as they open. The Miele Guide which lists the best restaurants in Asia has heaped praises on these restaurants serving the xiao long bao, one of the most brilliant showcases of China’s modern culinary artistry. Making a single dumpling is no mean feat. You don’t just go into the kitchen and jump into the making of these babies. The Miele Guide says making the xiao long bao has taken the form of an exact science whereby it takes three months to master how to roll the perfect pillowy dough and another three months to expertly create the 18 folds on each dough needed to wrap the pork filling. As for the filling, recipes point out ingredients no different from what we put in our regular pancit molo namely, ground pork and minced shrimp, some finely chopped green onions, seasoned with salt, white pepper, sugar, rice wine and a bit of sesame oil. Same goes for the flavorful soup, it’s regular chicken broth from chicken bones infused with some pork fat, and boiled with some sliced ginger, green onions, garlic and a bit of dry sherry or rice wine. While it seemed at first that the pliable dough must have been created from a secret recipe, it appears that there is no big mystery behind it. The dough is basically all-purpose flour and water although Din Tai Fung supposedly uses flour flown in all the way from Taiwan to its branches in Singapore and Hong Kong. It must really be some kind of high-grade flour to be able to hold the soup within the dumplings without breaking or spilling. Because of its uniquely ingenious concept of holding soup and meat in one tiny dumpling, I consider the xiao long bao a work of culinary wonder, of unbounded imagination and creativity. I simply do believe that in either a flash of inspiration or by divine intervention, a highly-trained chef must have been so bored out of his wits that he decided to stretch his culinary muscles beyond the routine of folding meat within a plain round piece of dough. And after months of struggling with the creation of a perfect dumpling and undaunted by thousands upon thousands of failed imperfect specimens, lo and behold, the mighty xiao long bao, as we know it, was born. So how does one eat a xiao long bao when presented with the opportunity to sample them? At Din Tai Fung, the menu comes with the instructions on the proper way to savor each piece. The first and most important thing to remember is not to grab at those babies and plop them in your mouth. Let the xiao long bao rest for a few minutes on the steamer basket. Order an appetizer, if you will. Just don’t make the mistake of “digging in" the moment the basket of dumplings is lain on your table. A couple of minutes after your order has been served, grab a piece of xiao long bao with your chopsticks on your right hand and slowly and gently set it on the Chinese soup spoon on your left hand. Then you can slightly poke the dumpling to let the steam of the soup out, ensuring you of a scald-free and enjoyable experience. You must try not to have all the soup spill out of the dumpling. It takes a while to master doing this and before you wipe out the entire basket, you would have perfected the art of eating the xiao long bao down pat. To add flavor, get a teaspoonful of the sauce made of black vinegar with thin slivers of ginger, and get some of it on the dumpling. Now, throw all caution to the wind. Direct the spoon towards your mouth and try to sip as much of the soup while taking a bite of the dumpling. All at once, you’ll be enveloped in its warmth and comfort and in one remarkable zen-like moment of enlightenment, this delectably clever combination of soup and dumpling in a single bite sends you to a good place where everything in this world is whole and right again. During a recent visit to Shanghai, my husband found the rather dingy little restaurant where we first had a taste of these gems. Much to his surprise, the restaurant had a facelift and looked a lot more decent than when my son had his perilous brush with the dish. The xiao long bao has remained to be the star of the restaurant, with tourists and locals ordering baskets and baskets of the beloved dumplings. Still, there’s more xiao long bao to be had in this cosmopolitan city in China. The xiao long bao – crazy populace have since gone for bigger dumplings. No longer the size of a regular Chinese soup spoon, you can now sip the soup out of the huge xiao long baos through straws. And you can have these on-the-go in the streets of Shanghai right where the xiao long bao was conceived. For most of us who cannot dash off to Shanghai at this very minute to fall under the spell of this wonder dish, there’s the promise of authentic xiao long bao to be experienced amidst the din of the tiangges in Greenhills. Simply turn up your noses and follow the smell of good food. - GMANews.TV