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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Use the spoon Luke. Put the dumpling in your spoon, like putting a baby in the cradle, and POKE IT!
4. Poke to let the soup flow in the spoon, gently blow it with your mouth, like comforting a child, and then EAT IT!
5. Yes, that’s it. Don’t burn yourself.
6. And don’t take me seriously.

The End

Now here comes a completely unrelated song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEmJ-VWPDM4