June 19, 2008
Soup Dumplings!
XLB, yo!
Yesterday I spent the day in Boston with Cousin Bob. We were lucky enough to meet with Bull for lunch at the Warren Tavern at which the food was quite good, but the highlight was the good company.
For the non-lunch portion of the day, Bob and I wandered around the streets of Boston on foot, eating a bit here and a bit there in as many places we could carry ourselves to.
I wanted to highlight one of my favorite taste sensations of the day: Xiaolongbao, aka. Soup Dumplings, aka. "Delicious." We had them at the New Shanghai Restaurant (warning: link has music) in Chinatown. There are a number of places that serve these delicious morsels, and I wish I had time to try them all, but we only had time for the one stop because we had to get back to the North End for pastry.
These dumplings are made within a dumpling wrapper and contain a ball of meat and congealed soup stock. When they are steamed, the stock turns into a delicious soup. They are eaten piping hot; you scoop them onto a ceramic spoon, hold them steady with chopsticks, bite into them and drink the soup before eating the whole thing.
They are served with a ginger/vinegar/soy sauce which gives you some control over the flavor. The meat filling was tender and juicy. Like a little gingery Chinese meatball. I highly recommend the experience.
I hear there's a place in Providence that serves these, and I'm anxious to try them. I'm really craving them today, and I don't get into Boston to eat that often. If you know of a place that serves good soup dumplings in RI or SE Mass, let me know!
The word of the day is definitely Xiaolongbao.
(A few pictures from our day can be seen here in a Flickr set devoted to the Boston trip)
Posted by James at June 19, 2008 2:06 PMYou bastards...we're going there next time!
Great seeing you, buddy.
Posted by: Bull at June 19, 2008 4:25 PMYou'd better believe we're going there next time. It would not take much arm-twisting to get Bob to agree to a food tour of Chinatown. I think Maggie would enjoy it, too. It's been a long time since I've had dim sum in Boston.
And Bob says the place next door to New Shanghai has a great Lion's Head meatball...
I've heard from many people that China Pearl (Chinatown, obviously) is the place for dim sum.
I don't eat dim sum anymore myself as you can never get a straight answer on whether what they've rolled up to you contains pork.
I just looked at Chowhound and there are many votes for one of my favorite restaurants in Chinatown--Chau Chow City. Didn't know they did dim sum.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/337952
I also saw in that Chowhound post that the Super 88 in Alston has dim sum. It's one of my dreams in life to go to Super 88 and just marvel at all they have to offer, including a ridiculously large selection of rices. In fact, James, I think we ought to plan a field trip--I think you'd like Super 88, too.
Posted by: Patti M. at June 19, 2008 6:55 PMThat's funny, Patti - Cousin Bob keeps telling me we have to make a field trip there.
Maybe we'll make it a really big trip!
