Soup Dumplings
Soup Dumplings. Not Dumpling Soup. Soup Dumplings. The soup is actually inside the dumpling. Little crimped packages of hot Asian pork and shrimp soup delicacy The biology of the dumpling is a thicker wrapper than a wonton rolled into a circle with a meat mixture (or veggie) ball in the middle surrounded by soup and cinched up. The result being a dumpling that you (with much bravery) bite the to off of and get a mini spa treatment of steam to your face. Blow and allow to cool and then stuff the entire dumpling in your mouth. Upon biting down you will instantly enter a mode of confusion. How can this be? Soup exploding out like that gum with the liquid in it. Hot and delicious and gingery and meaty and salty all in one bite? Then a slow understanding and acceptance of the soup dumpling begins and you try to figure out why you didn’t order more…because 8 is not nearly enough.
My sister Meg introduced me to these on one of our traditional trips to China Town. We first went to Joe’s Ginger and of course, after having these orgasmic tumors of meat and soup, we needed to do it again. Joe's was a small, dimly lit, cozy and very delightful place. Service was great and food was better. Next trip was to the electrically designed Shanghai Café. This place was unforgettable not only for the amazing food, but also that it looked like a restaurant trying to be from the future but it hired a designer that thought robotic 80’s were coming back in the future. Fluorescent lights rimmed the molding and the entire restaurant was basically silver. Both places roll out double bamboo steamers filled with 8 soup dumplings steamed to perfection. At 6 bucks a pop you can imagine a whole meal of these would be sufficient.
There had to be a way to replicate this. Aha! Of course Epicurious had a recipe for shanghai soup dumplings. With a Chinese grocer nearby I bought a bamboo steamer and got down to work. Originally I used dumpling wrappers pre-made, left out the shrimp (when I was still in a fishobic state of being) and bought chicken broth instead of starting my own base with chicken parts. This is a quicker way to do dumplings and mine came out quite tasty.
