Xiaolongbao

When you're in Shanghai, you got to taste Xiaolongbao as this one of the best and most famous soup dumpling in town. The dumpling, cleverly hiding its soup within its delicately pinched wrapper, has reached cult-like fanaticism in this city.

Even though it burns the mouths and tongues of novice dumpling eaters, you just can't get enough of it. Bear in mind that you have to puncture the dumpling wrapper so you can let out the steam and then slurp the soup slowly before you shovel it to your mouth.

It is traditionally prepared in xiaolong, small bamboo steaming baskets, which give them their name. Steamed buns made with raised flour are seen throughout China and are what is usually referred to as baozi. Steamed xiaolongbao made with partially raised flour are more commonly seen in the south. This means that their skin is tender, smoother, and somewhat translucent, rather than being white and fluffy. As is traditional for buns of various sizes in the Jiangnan region, xiaolongbao are pinched at the top prior to steaming, so the skin has a circular cascade of ripples around the crown.

Xiaolongbao are traditionally filled with pork. One popular and common variant is pork with minced crab meat and roe. More modern innovations include other meats, seafood and vegetarian fillings, as well as other possibilities. The characteristic soup-filled kind are created by wrapping solid meat aspic inside the skin alongside the meat filling. Heat from steaming then melts the gelatin-gelled aspic into soup. In modern times, refrigeration has made the process of making xiaolongbao during hot weather easier, since making gelled aspic is much more difficult at room temperature.

In the Philippines, it is popularly called as "siopao."