Puncture BEFORE taking a bite!
Place the 汤包 on a Chinese soup spoon, puncture, wait to cool, enjoy! The first time I bit into a 汤包 "tangbao", like thousands before me, I scalded my lips and the inside of my mouth. Back up. I had heard that you haven't eaten in Shanghai until you try 汤包. My first mistake was not asking what tangbao was. The first character 汤 "tang" means "soup" and 包 "bao" means "package". I thought I would be getting a bowl of 汤 with some little 包 in it. When the little buns arrived in a steamer, I was confused, but figured I ordered the wrong thing. Anyone who speaks Chinese as a second language knows that ordering the wrong thing is more common than one might think. Many words sound similar. At any rate, the contents of the steamer looked delicious so I grabbed my chopsticks and dug right in.
What I did not know is that the 汤 is inside the 包. To eat the 汤包, one must place the little dumpling on a soup spoon and puncture it with the chopstick. The steam seeps out of the hole, as does some of the soup, onto the spoon. Blow on it and take a bite; drink the half teaspoon of soup. In my excitement and hunger, I just bit into it. The steam burned my lips as it escaped from the 包. Rookie mistake, but hardly uncommon. It didn't matter that I my lips were sizzling, I was hooked.
I now know the secret to the 汤包. For a long time, I was puzzled. How did they get the soup into the dumpling? Apparently, the meat and/or vegetable filling is mixed with a gelatinous broth that melts inside the dumpling when steamed. Brilliant. Decadent. Addictive.
Join me in Shanghai for a Chow Fun tour and try truly authentic 汤包. I promise to remind you to puncture the dumplings first.
What I did not know is that the 汤 is inside the 包. To eat the 汤包, one must place the little dumpling on a soup spoon and puncture it with the chopstick. The steam seeps out of the hole, as does some of the soup, onto the spoon. Blow on it and take a bite; drink the half teaspoon of soup. In my excitement and hunger, I just bit into it. The steam burned my lips as it escaped from the 包. Rookie mistake, but hardly uncommon. It didn't matter that I my lips were sizzling, I was hooked.
I now know the secret to the 汤包. For a long time, I was puzzled. How did they get the soup into the dumpling? Apparently, the meat and/or vegetable filling is mixed with a gelatinous broth that melts inside the dumpling when steamed. Brilliant. Decadent. Addictive.
Join me in Shanghai for a Chow Fun tour and try truly authentic 汤包. I promise to remind you to puncture the dumplings first.
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