Do you know Chinese Soup Dumpling “Xiaolongbao“? It’s also a famous dish in Dim Sum, we LOVE it. Taiwanese have a restaurant famous for their massive high-quality Xiaolongbao making army called Din Tai Fung, though we don’t have that here, still we’re no short of good Dim Sum.
Photo by Polar Bear / Dave Hodgkinson in Din Tai Fung Taipei branch
By the way, on choosing a good restaurant to eat, observe the behaviour of the staffs, the ruder the serving attitude, the better the food. Don’t ask me, I didn’t make the rules.
OK! So now let’s learn how to eat a dumpling!
First of all, it’s called SOUP dumpling for a reason, it’s filled with HOT delicious soup in its VERY THIN skin, so don’t poke it unless you want to waste a good dumpling and get burned, (Yes, food comes first.) therefore you DO NOT use fork.
Polar Bear getting arrested using a fork in a Chinese restaurant
Follow my lead:
- Get a good grip of your chopsticks. If you don’t know how, ask someone, any Asian will be glad to help you with a high interest because they think that is so cute.
- Take the dumpling up by it’s top, yes, the ugly wrinkling bit, where the skin is thicker. Be careful not to disturb the dumpling, it’s like a pregnant women you know.
- Use the spoon Luke. Put the dumpling in your spoon, like putting a baby in the cradle, and POKE IT!
- Poke to let the soup flow in the spoon, gently blow it with your mouth, like comforting a child, and then EAT IT!
- Yes, that’s it. Don’t burn yourself.
- And don’t take me seriously.
The End
Now here comes a completely unrelated song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEmJ-VWPDM4