Xiao Long Bao

I'm not sure exactly when Xiao Long Bao became A Big Thing. I vaguely remember having it for the first time in San Francisco when my parents drove us all down for a trip to Disneyland many years ago. When I first bit into one, the juices squirted down my chin and made a mess of my T-shirt. A right of passage.



Over the years, I have seen it on menus, ordered it once in a while, but I never thought much of it. The last couple of years, I started reading food blogs and forums. I was surprised to see that these soup dumplings have taken on a mythical status. XLB became a beast worthy of a hunt. To many, it was the sine qua non of a city's Chinese cuisine. Without good XLB in your city, some say, then the Chinese food there must not be worth eating. Hyperbole, of course.

In Vancouver, the Chinese food scene has been dominated for decades by Cantonese style food. Since the relatively recent opening up of China, we have seen a great influx of Chinese immigrants from different parts of of this huge country. Some of them - mainly Northern Chinese and Shanghainese - brought their dumpling and XLB making skills to our shores.

The some of the best XLB in town are served in little holes in the wall like Wang's at the Food Court in Burnaby's Crystal Mall. The bigger dim sum places also serve it, albeit at higher prices and often, at lower than exemplary quality.

Here's a video from a recent trip to Wang's: