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]

Best duck in Taipei: Dragon Restaurant 龍都酒樓

A culinary experience, that will make your taste buds explode

Dear readers, today I decided to give my girlfriend Lily another chance to be a guest blogger on my blog, because she's had an amazing dining experience in Taipei and the post she wrote was so good, I begged her to give me the honor to share her experience with you all. She celebrated her birthday and invited her friends to join her in what will later be one of their best dining experiences of the year. Let me allow Lily to introduce one of the finest Cantonese restaurants in Taipei. You can read same post in Chinese here>>

Every year on my birthday I pick a restaurant where my friends and I have dinner. This time I picked an old but famous Cantonese restaurant in Taipei named Dragon Restaurant (龍都酒樓), which has open since 1983. Their most famous dish is Cantonese roast duck, it is also the most expensive duck dish in Taipei city (one duck costs TWD 1,200), but people give it a lot of praise. If you want to eat their duck, you have to book it at least 2 days in advance and one desk can only book one duck.

I invited 12 of my friends. We were sitting at 2 tables, each with one whole duck. We also shared some dim sum together. The dinner starts, when the waiter brings the duck and asks, how we would like to have it cut.

The whole duck as it was served to us.

They have 2 ways to cut the duck, one way is meat with skin and the other way is meat without skin. Because the duck is so big, so we chose both. The waiter was so skilled, she cut the meat quickly and moved on to my friend's table. In few minutes, both ducks were cut in beautiful pieces and together with a steamed thin pancake (called 麵餅 in Chinese, literally meaning dough skin), the dinner was served.

The duck being cut into small pieces.

And this is how it looks like when they finish cutting.

The steamed dough, the cut duck and the sweet noodle sauce.

The carefully arranged vegetables.

Doesn't it look delicious?

You eat this duck by spreading the dough in your palm, you then add vegetables, the duck and the sauce on top, roll it up and eat. I have to say it's super delicious. All of us couldn't stop eating and complimenting the food, it was simply amazing!

Besides having the famous main dish, we also ordered some other Cantonese delicacies:

Cantonese fried rice: You must order this one, this is the yummiest fried rice I ever had.

Barbecued pork puffs. Yummy.

Fresh shrimp dumplings. They look perfect.

Fried radish patty, the patty was so soft, you must try it.

Steamed shaomai with crab yolk: the shrimps were so fresh!

Steamed beef ball: If you like eat beef, don't miss this one.

Steamed chicken feet with soy bean sauce: Good taste, if you dare to eat.

We also had steamed spareribs with soy bean sauce, fried spring rolls, and one cup of almond jelly. All of them were very yummy, I couldn't find anything to complain about. And we finished the main course with a soup that was made with the remaining duck bones and pickled cabbage. It was very tasty, too. We almost finished the whole bowl, even though we ate a lot already.

At the end my friend SunnyPie, who sells homemade cakes online, unwrapped the birthday cake I've previously chosen and my friends sang "Happy Birthday" to me. After that, I followed the custom of making three wishes and then I cut the cake for them. The cake had the French chestnut flavor tasted very good, SunnyPie really did a great job and so it's no wonder, that so many people buy her cakes.

The birthday cake.

It was a piece of cake to finish this.

I really had a great birthday, because not only did I receive my boyfriend's lovely gift, but also had a delightful birthday dinner and received tons of blessings on facebook, plurk and twitter. I think I was really so blessed that day. I hope I could share my luck to others and the readers who read this post.

If you want to visit the Dragon restaurant 龍都酒樓 in Taipei, follow the directions on this map (created with Google Maps). Go to Zgongshan MRT station and then go out at Exit 3. Walk around 10 min and then you should see this sign. Check also Google Maps for a detailed map. For all the dishes including the duck Lily's table paid 3235 NTD (which makes around 80 euros or 110 USD). 5 people shared the expense.

[My FOOD in TAIPEI page][All photos by LilyChen, 2010]
[My TAIPEI page][Check also Lily's English blog]