Ah, the soup dumpling (Xiao Long Bao). What's better than an uber-delicate little sack of dough filled with local pork and the most savory broth you've ever tasted.
I traveled to China over the summer with family, and my sisters couldn't wait to check out the World Expo in Shanghai. I had other plans. We were, after all, in the soup dumpling capital of the world. I talked to a few locals and did some online research, setting out to try the very best soup dumplings the city had to offer. While I found fabulous Xiao Long Bao at unassuming strip malls and in the corners of little grocery marts, I constantly found myself leaving the meal baffled: How the heck do they get that delicious broth inside the flimsy dumpling?
Now this is where you're a little bit glad you discovered how these dumplings are made after you got home. Most varieties are created by wrapping solid meat gelatin inside the skin alongside the meat filling. When the Xiao Long Bao are steamed, the layer of gelatin melts into a savory soup. As I mentioned, soup dumplings are traditionally filled with pork, but other variations include crab and vegetarian fillings (we found mixed mushroom to be quite common and delicious). Now we're curious: Is there a good spot to get Xiao Long Bao in your city? Have you tried any interesting flavor combinations? We'd love to hear about it!
Related: Oranges and Dumplings: 10 Recipes for a Chinese New Year
Photo Credit: Megan Gordon
How to Make Easy 3-Ingredient Energy Bars at Home
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Floral Drink Dispen...
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Beatriz's Fun & Functional Workspace
In New York, Joe's Shangai (in Chinatown, midtown and I believe there's one in Queens). There was a place in Rego Park Queens that first introduced these to NYC -- not sure if it's there anymore, Goody's I think --it was excellent. Any fellow NYers know? Also a restaurant called Evergreen -- decent, but no rave.
there are some great places to get these in flushing, and a few in chinatown in manhattan. i also know of one place in philly, although i didn't think they were that good.
I had these once at Fang in SF - but I think I burned the roof off my mouth! Apparently you need to wait for them to cool down - who knew? ;) I definitely have not mastered the art of eating these yet!
But meat gelatin? Hmm... I think I might have to go with veggie if I try these again!
I like Gourmet Dumpling House in Boston's Chinatown! This has been the first and only place I have had these dumplings, but they're wonderful!
Sadly in Chicago there's no place to get good Xiao Long Bao
The best i've had were in Taiwan.
Joe's Shanghai in NYC.
So dedicated to the soup dumpling they have instructional 'How To Eat A Soup Dumpling' posters on their front window.
My favorite place is Ding Tai Fung in Taiwan.
I've made some before using leftover pork and cabbage dumpling filling and leftover beer duck braising liquid as the aspic. Sooooo good!
http://the-cooking-of-joy.blogspot.com/2009/01/xiao-long-bao-steamed-soup-dumplings.html
ohemgee. love soup dumplings. joe's shanghai is my fav in nyc, but for anyone in philly, you MUST (immediately, if possible) go to dim sum garden for soup dumplings. it's basically a hole in the wall by the chinatown bus depot under the convention center, but simply amazing, and uber cheap!
Dean Sin World in Monterey Park, CA is AMAZING. Personally, Ding Tai Fung's got nothin' on it. It's cheaper and better quality, since it doesn't carry the hype of DTF (:
Definitely try it out!! It's a tiny little hole in the wall run by ladies who you can watch making all the XLB and other yummy dumplings while you eat. Be ready to point, unless you speak Mandarin, because their English is very limited. It's totally worth it!
For anyone in the Twin Cities, Tea House in Saint Paul (way out almost in Woodbury) has lovely soup dumplings.
I totally agree with tiffax! Dean Sin World (a.k.a Tastio) is the favorite with my family and friends. The broth and meatball inside are the most flavorful we've had. Their potstickers are outstanding also. The only downside is that the place is tiny.
Din Tai Fung is consistantly pretty good, but not worth the hype. It's the best option if you have a large party of people though.
Good lord I love soup dumplings! Dallas has a fantastic place that makes them and I can drive there but couldn't tell you the name- everyone here knows it. So good. They have great food too but we wouldn't know it going in there ordering as many orders of dumplings as we do!
Ha and to clarify the "solid meat gelatin", as this grossed my husband out to no end after I explained it, they boil up everything they got left over of the pig til it extracts the gelatin and flavors. So if you're at all queasy about stuff like that and eating odd pig part juices, it tastes great, but it's not Knox gelatin or something similar!
SF doesn't have a lot of Shanghai spots, but Shanghai Dumpling king in outer Richmond, 34th and Balboa. Silicon Valley has more of these places.
Dim Sum Garden in Philadelphia (59 N 11th) has great soup dumplings. The place is under an overpass near the bus station, and it looks like a cheap diner from the outside. I walked by it for years, never even considering going in until I read a review in the Philly Inquirer. Now I go out of my way to get there. Recommended.
I have to echo the recommendations for Dim Sum Garden in Philadelphia. Great soup dumplings there.
Sakura on 10th and Race also has soup dumplings but I don't find them to be as tasty as Dim Sum Garden's.
I live in Shanghai, the home of the xiaolongbao, and end up eating these at least once a week. When visiting the States, I've always had trouble finding a satisfying version. Usually, the skins are too thick or the soup isn't right.
As for the gelatin, many of the local friends I've asked were surprised. When cooking these dumplings at home, they just add frozen soup.
In NYC, my favorite soup dumplings come from Grand Sichuan on 24th Street and 9th Avenue. That is, if you can get in. There's always a LONG line to get it. Soooo deeelish!
We're going to Shanghai in a few weeks and would be grateful for good dumpling addresses there!
@AustrianinParis The most famous one is Nan Xiang xiao long in downtown Shanghai (at Cheng Huang Miao, next to Yu Garden). But definitely the best ones I've had were in small restaurants in small neighborhoods.
And as for the soup, basically you could just cook a big stock with pork bones and any meat with skin on. It's the skin that contains a lot of collagen. So when the soup is concentrated enough, it will be gelatin-like in fridge. ( I dont think we really add gelatin)
Would love a recipe to make these at home. My chicken stock always ends up pretty gelatinous, so maybe I could use that.
Swoon... one of my favourite foods EVER...
Ding Tai Fung in Toronto is pretty amazing!
Jo Jo TaiPei in Allston, MA (neighborhood within Boston) :)
Asian supermarkets sell frozen soup dumplings.
I love these! Called Shanghai dumplings at Yank Sing in SF.
In Chicago, Tao Ran Ju in the Chinatown Square Mall has soup dumplings. Only place I've been to that serves them and they are awesome!
Since it's meat gelatin, even the vegetable ones aren't vegetarian. Just sayin'.
Piccola: A frozen cube of veggie broth can be used too in lieu of gelled meat base broth.
Jmorri26: I'm in Dallas and haven't heard of this place, but I want to try it now! Can you divulge at least the intersection and maybe then I can figure out the name?
@Mid-C Frank: Yes, it was Goody's!! My family used to go there once every few months just for the soup dumplings. I didn't realize at the time that they were common in parts of China - I thought that Goody's had invented them and you couldn't find them anywhere else, only because I had never seen them anywhere else. The restaurant has been closed for a long time now, maybe 10 years, and when it first shut down I thought I'd never find soup dumplings ever again. I was so happy to be proven wrong!
If you're in Chinatown (NYC) skip Joe's Shanghai - the lines are always out the door. Instead, go down the street to Joe's Ginger, which is a smaller restaurant with the same owners and the same soup dumplings. You can enjoy your meal in peace and quiet and laugh at all the people waiting down the street. ;)
For everyone grossed out by the idea of "meat gelatin," have you ever made stock with bones? If you put homemade stock in the fridge, it becomes gelatinous. I think the inside of the dumplings just takes this to the extreme.
London seriously lacks decent Chinese food. This means I have to scour the internet for recipes and learn how to cook for myself. Anybody have a recipe for Xiao Long Bao? I miss it so much...Sob.
oh! nevermind, I saw somebody already posted a link. So exciting!! Thanks Joyocity, and I agree- Ding Tai Feng is so good.
Dim Sum Garden in Philadelphia has amazing soup dumplings. Definitely pretty sketchy looking from the outside, and I wouldn't want to spend too much time examining the contents of their refrigerator, but the soup dumplings definitely the best I have ever had.
I hope our Chowhounders don't gang up on me but in Montreal the buns at Qing Hua Dumpling are city-wide famous and that is all they serve in every combination possible. Plus its Mom and Pop.
mmmmmeat gelatin. It's also the secret to a really great pot sticker.
I second and third the recommendation for dumplings at Yank Sing in San Francisco. The Shanghai Dumplings and the snow Pea Shoot Dumplings are so good I want to cry. Absolutely delish.
@sillybee Thanks for the tip! Guess I know what my next project is...
I never thought I'd find good soup dumplings in Milwaukee, but Jing's in the third ward (207 E Buffalo St) has some pretty amazing soup dumplings. I believe they're no longer on the menu, but you can still request them.
I loved this article, since these are one of my favorite foods in the entire world. The best xiao long baos I have had were found in Richmond, B.C., Canada. They totally beat the soup dumplings found here in SF. Though Kingdom of Dumpling on Taraval does a pretty good version though.
Joe's Shanghai is NOTHING, compared to the a little place in Flushing. It's on Prince Street, and it's called Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao (the awning only has it in Chinese). The place is unmistakably the BEST xiao long bao I had aside from the places in Shanghai. If you don't know which restaurant it is on Prince Street, you can't mistake the long line of people from all walks of life waiting to get a table during the lunch/dinner hours. Check it out.
i second babyseed, Richmond (suburb city just outside of Vancouver, Canada) is the ultimate mecca of all Chinese food. I've had Joe's Shanghai and places in Toronto and SF but they do not compare. (Although I am very interested in see how Flushings restaurants are but I haven't even gotten around to leaving Manhattan at all in all the many times I've been to NYC)
In Denver, Lao Wang Noodle House in Denver is the place to go.
The Xiao Long Bao is their signature dish, and they are fantastic.
Also, try the pot stickers.
For the Dallas area- Yao Fuzi - has soup dumplings and they are an amazing comfort food- Our waiter carefully schooled us on how to eat them - they had an interesting ginger vinegar sauce with the dumpling.