How to eat xiaolongbao?

如何吃小籠包?

If you ever find yourself in a fine Chinese styled restaurant in Taiwan (or likewise China), you might want to try some steamed dumplings or steamed baozi, that are prepared in bamboo baskets named long 籠 (小籠 means small basket). One of the most famous dishes prepared this way are xiaolongbao 小籠包, very delicious steamed buns (Chinese baozi 包子) with a unique twirl on top and a very delicate (almost translucent) skin, of which the latter is also typical for Chinese dumplings (or jiaozi 餃子). Because of that similarity xiaolongbao are commonly mistaken for dumplings in the English speaking world. See a steamed dumpling for your reference and notice the typical "half moon" shape they have. But that's not the only thing that makes them distinct, the ingredients are different as well.

There are of course more types of xiaolongbao, but one of the most popular variants is filled with pork and gelatine, which then in the process of steaming turns into a soup. Because a lot of foreigners don't know how to eat that kind of steamed buns, I decided to write a little tutorial, so that you won't find yourself in a tricky situation among your Taiwanese or Chinese friends and eat them the wrong way.

The typical traditional Chinese xiaolong or little basket, made of bamboo.

Steamed xiaolongbao. Do you know, why there are 8 in a basket?

Notice the twirled tops, so typical for this sort of steamed buns.

A very delicious xiaolongbao, prepared in the Golden Chicken Garden in Taipei.

How to eat xiaolongbao?

There are several ways to eat them. I will describe and recommend to you the most common and convenient way, the one that my wife prefers. Please follow these steps and refer to the photos for a better understanding:

1 Hold chopsticks in your right hand and a spoon in your left.
2 Take the bun out of the bamboo basket and dip it in a soy sauce with ginger.
3 Put the bun on the spoon and bring it together with the chopsticks close to your mouth.
4 Bite a small hole in the bun's edge and place it back in the middle of the spoon.
5 While the soup flows out on the spoon, lift up the bun with the chopsticks.
6 Wait few seconds for the soup to cool off and then drink it.
7 After that you can dip the bun in the sauce again, if you like, it's optional.
8 Eat the xiaolongbao in one or two bites and enjoy the delicious flavor.

The most important steps for your convenience.

A common faux-pas can be a too hasty bite and the hot soup will either burn your mouth or even worse surprise you and drip out on your or your friend's clothes. Not sure, how likely that is to happen, but it's not impossible. Just keep in mind that the soup inside the xiaolongbao is hot and needs to be released and cooled off, before it can be drunken. Don't just put the whole bun in your mouth.

With all this said, I think the best way to eat xiaolongbao is to observe your Taiwanese or Chinese friends and copy them or ask them to help you. I'm sure they will be very happy to assist you.

Other variants of eating xiaolongbao are:

1 Put the bun in a soup and eat it like a soup dumpling. Some shops prefer this way.
2 Poke a small hole in the bun's bottom with chopsticks to extract the soup, skill is needed.
3 Some shops offer straws to drink the soup inside. You don't believe it? Look here!

The meat inside a xiaolongbao can vary, but the most popular is pork.

I hope this will help those who go to China or Taiwan for the first time. If you have any questions or additional tips, please submit them in the comments below.

[My TAIPEI FOOD page][My TAIWAN FOOD page][All photos by MKL, 2011]

Yanping North Road Night Market, Taipei

A traditional night market in the old Taipei

Yanping North Road Night Market (延三夜市 a.k.a. Yansan Night Market), officially Yanping North Road Section 3 Tourist Night Market, is a traditional night market in Taipei, located in the Datong district, one of the oldest parts of the city. This is one of the least known tourist night markets in Taipei and features some unique traditional Taiwanese dishes. It's truly worth a visit, especially if you live here. If you're just on a short trip in the city, skip this one and visit the famous ones first.

MY IMPRESSION OF THE YANPING ROAD NIGHT MARKET: This is a night market located on the sidewalks of a busy road. The main part is reserved for cars and scooters, who whiz by in huge numbers, which kinda affects the whole atmosphere of the night market: It just doesn't feel you're at a real one, it feels more like a sidewalk with stalls (and that's what it actually is). However, it has a lot of history and many traditional food places and stalls, which kinda makes it interesting in its own way.

WHAT KIND OF FOOD IS COMMON: The food is like from another century or at least from decades long ago. Maybe the 1950s? 1960s? No idea, but it tastes pretty good. It might not be the best night market food I've ever tried, but it's definitely interesting and worth to try. You may not see the usual traditional Taiwanese food such as oyster omelettes, but at least you'll have something different, something unique. This night market is great for those who are tired of the usual food and the atmosphere and want something else.

MUST-TRY FOOD AT THE YANPING NIGHT MARKET: I would recommend you to try the muachi 麻糬 and the meat dumplings 湯圓, those were my favorite snacks here. Another must try would be the popular "chicken roll" 雞捲 and the cut tomatoes 蕃茄切盤. More about them below.

Let me show you some of my photos of Yanping Road Night Market (Apr 2011):

Scooters rushing by on a busy Yanping North Road.

The housing here is of very low standard.

Stalls on the other side.

POPULAR STALL: SHI FAMILY FRESH MEAT DUMPLINGS 施家鮮肉湯圓

This shop is very famous here, so we decided to visit it.

The interior design is a mix of several decades, but mostly the 1970s.

The menu and the prices look appealing to a price conscious Taipeier like me.

One of popular and standard Taiwanese starters: Cooked yam leaves. Yummy.

Boiled squid, which was previously dried. Quite yummy as well.

On the photo you can find the famous meat dumplings or 湯圓 (tang yüen), literally "soup circles". The special thing about this dumpling is the dough, which is made from glutinous rice. It's very delicate and special in taste, definitely the must try dish, if you come to this night market. The price was 45 NTD.

And then we went out on the street again and tried...

POPULAR STALL: CUT TOMATOES 蕃茄切盤

This traditional stall was also very popular.

I was so amazed, when I saw this dish, called 蕃茄切盤 (lit. "tomatoes cut") in Chinese. I was like: "They sell cut tomatoes and sell them as a dish? Wow..." It was interesting for me, because cut tomatoes are a very basic and cheap food in Slovenia, which people eat at home like a snack. We would never eat this outside, but for Taiwan this is normal. After all, eating out daily here is as normal as not eating out very often in Slovenia. The best thing about these cut tomatoes was the sauce, so I definitely recommend to try this dish. The price was 50 NTD (1.2 Eur), a little hight, if you ask me. It's two cut tomatoes after all.

This is the sidewalk at the night market.

POPULAR STALL: YE FAMILY 5 SPICED CHICKEN ROLL 葉家五香雞捲

This dish is famous for this area, popular with people, who like traditional food.

In fact, the stall had a huge line and they really work hard to fry as many rolls as possible, because this is the only dish they sell. The name 五香雞捲 "five spice chicken roll" is deceiving, my girlfriend said inside is no chicken, but pork. The name 雞捲 comes from Taiwanese "gê gèn" which means "extra roll", actually meaning "extra dish from left-over food". And because "gê" sounds very similar to the word for "chicken" in Taiwanese, the Chinese character for chicken was chosen to name this dish. The outer part of the roll is made of tofu skin, the inside is filled with onions and pork, but can be also with other kinds of meat. We paid 45 NTD (1 Eur). The taste is ok, maybe not my favorite food, but definitely interesting enough to recommend it to you.

POPULAR STALL: MUACHI 麻糬

This is a famous muachi stall, which we had to visit.

Muachi is a Taiwanese word for 餅 mochi, the traditional Japanese snack, eaten a lot during the lunar new year. Muachi is very popular in the southern Chinese kitchen, I've tried it in Malaysia and Singapore as well (see a photo here). But this one here (on photo above) was the best I've ever tried. If you're here, please try this muachi, it's so soft, warm and delicious. Maybe I'm biased, because I love muachi (and peanuts) in general, but the quality is really good. And the stall is very popular.

This is the end of the Yanping Nort Road. It was dark, when we left.

Finding the market is very easy. Take the Red Line train to Minquan West Road MRT station and then transfer to the Orange line in direction to Luzhou and exit at Daqiaotou MRT Station (1 station away). Exit at Exit 1 and wak straight for 1 minute, then turn right and you're there. (Map by Google, click on it for a Google Map).

YANPING NORTH ROAD NIGHT MARKET IN CONCLUSION: This is one of Taipei's most unique night markets. I think most foreign visitors might find it boring, but those of us, who live here, might find it quite interesting. In the end it's up to you and your personal preference. But the muachi is very good and can be the only reason to visit this night market.

[FOOD in TAIWAN][My TAIWAN page][My TAIPEI page][All photos by MKL, 2011]

[My TAIWAN NIGHT MARKETS list][My MAP of Night Markets in Taipei]

Tai'an, Taiwan's tofu village

A small aboriginal village in Miaoli County

Tai'an 泰安 is so far the smallest village I have ever seen in Taiwan. It's located in Miaoli County 苗栗縣, about 30min away from Miaoli City by car, in a small and long valley, an area known for being the home of Taiwan's Atayal people. My wife and I together with her family went on a short trip to this beautiful region. We decided to visit this tiny village, famous for hot springs and tofu, out of curiosity. I had not heard of Tai'an before, but now it's definitely a place I will remember. Why is that so, read further below.

Show bigger map

Tai'an is truly a tiny village, a micro village. There are three small lanes, few tofu shops and that's it! If you ever decide to go here and wonder, why you came all the way from the civilization to this small village at the end of the world, don't say I haven't warned ya! I think the best reason to visit Tai'an is to go to one of their famous hot spring hotels, but more about that later. If you just come, because you've read about a famous "Tofu Old Street", you made a big mistake. I think on the way to the onsen, you can make a short stopover and try the tofu, if you must. But if you don't, you won't miss a lot...

Let me show you some photos of Tai'an from May, 2011:

This is where we parked the car, in front of the township office.

The nature is beautiful here and probably the no 1 reason to visit.

The village is squeezed between a hill and a river. Cute.

This is the biggest junction in the area. One part goes deeper into central Taiwan, another one goes up to the famous hot spring hotels.

After crossing a small pedestrian (?) bridge, you are in central Tai'an.

The central part with tofu shops and a police station (they must be busy!).

This is truly a sleepy village.

Stinky tofu is sold everywhere here.

The "famous" Old Street.

Something about this photo makes me melancholic... It's like it's stuck in some old times.

We decided to try the tofu at the most popular shop: Qingan Tofu Shop.

The funny thing was, when we arrived here and all tables were occupied and people were munching the tofu, many of them turned to us (and me), while trying to chew the hot tofu. Their mouths were half open and I thought the image was very comical. Of course 15 min later I was like them, haha.

This is what we ordered:

Black tofu (80NTD), not bad.

Black tofu from close, full of pepper.

Bamboo soup (50NTD) and tofu in salad (60NTD).

Fried tofu balls (80NTD), my favorite.

Sautéed tofu (60NTD), not bad.

We paid 380 all together (we ordered 2 soups), we were 5 people. We got full, but most of us felt the food is too expensive and just very average. Everybody liked the fried tofu balls the most. If you must try the tofu here, don't expect too much.

As soon as we finished the meal, we decided to go back.

This is the way to some famous hot springs in the area. I wanna visit next time.

This is Onsen Papawaqa, one of the most famous (and expensive) hot spring resorts in Taiwan. I heard that staying overnight costs over 5000 NTD (120 Eur). Click on pic for more (courtesy of the resort).

The Houlong River (lit. Dragon Back River) passes by and continues to Miaoli City.

Aboriginal art (?)...

If you come Taipei to Tai'an, you will feel like you came to another country. The time stands still here, nothing is going on in this village. All you'll see is tourists trying to eat the hot tofu and chewing it with open mouths. I think it's definitely one of the highlights here. For more action it's better to visit one of the hot springs, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I will return to this area, I really love the nature. If you work 12h a day in Taipei, Tai'an feels like heaven (with a smell of tofu, though...). Read about the same trip in Chinese>>

[My TAIWAN TRAVEL page][TAIWAN][All photos by MKL, 2011]

Taichung's Fengjia Night Market Madness!

How we nearly got killed! I'm not kidding!

I'm pretty experienced when it comes to night markets (or so I thought). Before I visited Fengjia Night Market 逢甲夜市 in Taichung, I've been to over 20 night markets, mostly in Northern Taiwan. When I saw the huge crowds in Luodong, Taiwan's most crowded night market in the north, I have never ever dreamed that there can be a night market as crowded as that one. But I was so wrong. The Fengjia Night Market in Taichung on the evening of April 3rd completely overwhelmed me. I have never seen so many people at one place in Taiwan and it was the first time I really feared for my life. I kid you not: I was scared! I will tell you why.

The Fengjia Night Market in Taichung is the biggest night market in Taiwan and after my own experience, I can completely sign that statement. I haven't seen any night market in Taiwan comparable in size and the number of people. It was like on a rock concert. It was surreal. Of course we made a big mistake by visiting the night market before the Tomb Sweeping Day, a national holiday. The roads in Taichung were completely clogged with cars, buses and scooters and I've never seen such a big traffic jam in my life.

We needed 1h and 30min from Taichung Station to Fengjia Night Market by bus. And we had to stand. The traffic was so slow, even the bus driver has never seen something like that and kept apologizing.

Once we reached the area, we were let out, the driver said we'll be faster by foot.

Once we reached the night market, the crowds were ridiculously huge.

This is the video I made while walking 2m per minute.

Once we were stuck inside, we hoped that later the crowds will be less. We were so wrong! We kept walking and walking and there were more and more people. At one point we were stuck and couldn't move into any direction.

This was the worst and the scariest part. I told my wife not to go in the center.

I pulled her on the side and we tried this popular snack, the only one we had chance to.

A banana dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with peanuts: Really delicious.

And then it got scary. We started to walk, but couldn't move, because near the stalls people were waiting for food, so we had to go in the central part. But once there, people pushed more and more and I got worried, especially for the wellbeing of my wife. At one point I was literally being squashed by many people at the same time and totally lost control of my body. I became worried for my wife, who was walking in front of me, I didn't want her to get hurt. If she fell down, she could've possibly been trampled to death. The situation reminded me of the stampede in Duisburg (Germany), where 19 people were trampled to death on a concert in 2010. So I tried to steer my wife to the right side, near the stalls and I think it was a good idea. We found small holes and made it to the part, that was less crowded.

I was so relieved, when I saw this area.

This experience shocked me. I couldn't enjoy the food and the atmosphere, I just wasted time and money and had great concern for my wife's life. This was probably the worse night market experience I had so far.

Nevertheless, I want to return here one day. I was advised to go during the week, where the crowds are less big. Fengjia Night Market has some of the best food in Taiwan, it's truly something I can't miss, if I want to call myself a serious "Night Market Blogger". It's just that I'm so busy lately, I have time to go so far out from Taipei. Those of you, who do have time, better don't go there on weekends and especially not before holidays. I'm not a big fan of Taichung. I like the good weather and friendly people, but that's about it. I have a good friend there and that's the only reason that makes me return to this city. The population density is so big, but there's no subway. It's really a disastrous situation. For a spoiled Taipeier like me, Taichung would be very inconvenient to live, even if I had a car.

[FOOD in TAIWAN][My TAIWAN page][My TAIPEI page][All photos by MKL, 2011]

[My TAIWAN NIGHT MARKETS list][My MAP of Night Markets in Taipei]