You didn’t think we’d go to Shanghai and skip out on xiao long bao, did you? Well, we didn’t. In fact, we went to two restaurants for the sole purpose of trying out their soup dumplings. I remember a while back, a debate came up about who had the best soup dumplings: Joe’s Shanghai, a NYC Chinatown favorite of our’s that originated in Flushing, or Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese restaurant that specializes in soup dumplings. At the time, we said unequivocally that Joe’s Shanghai must have the best simply by virtue that we couldn’t imagine a better tasting soup dumpling. We were wrong. Oh so very wrong.
Din Tai Fung
Din Tai Fung is actually a restaurant chain and has a lot of locations all throughout Shanghai. I’m actually a little embarrassed to say that I can’t quite remember which one we went to, but I’m pretty sure it was the Xintiandi location. The menu was chock full of amazing looking food but we had just come from another meal and sadly could only try their xiao long bao. I’ve noticed that restaurants in China will charge you per person for tea, and Din Tai Fung was no exception to that. But at 8RMB a person (or a little over $1), I didn’t really mind.
Amanda and I ordered a tray of their crab meat xiao long bao and a cold beef dish just because we felt bad about not getting anything else. We had tried our hand at making this beef dish in an earlier recipe but it was quite humbling to see just how much better the real deal is. The flavor on the beef was very subtle and the texture was melt-in-your-mouth soft. It was served in incredibly thin slice and with a vinegar based sauce. The next thing we had was the xiao long bao and man, was it good. First thing we noted was that the skin was incredibly thin and soft. Fairly delicate, but won’t break on you if you’re careful picking them up 
The meat filling seemed to be almost entirely crab meat, which gave an intense seafood flavor. The soup inside the dumpling also had great flavor yet wasn’t as greasy or heavy as the soup dumplings that we get from Joe’s Shanghai.
Crystal Jade
Another restaurant chain noted for their soup dumplings is Crystal Jade. Amanda and I stopped by for dinner and this time, we were able to sample a little more of their menu. We started with dan dan mian which is a pulled noodle dish. It was a nice dish but nothing particularly memorable, we had ordered it in place of rice because we wanted to try something new. The next thing we had was Crystal Jade’s pork xiao long bao. I don’t know if it’s just my preference for pork based xiao long bao but I liked the xiao long bao from Crystal Jade over the ones from Din Tai Fung. Aside from the flavor, the soup dumplings were almost identical in terms of the texture of the dumpling skin and lightness of the soup.
We also ordered a pan fried eel dish with peppers because of our fondness for eel sushi. Unfortunately, the texture of the eel was really rubbery and chewy in texture so we weren’t too happy with the dish. Thankfully we ended on a very high note by ordering the deep fried turnip pastry. The pastry dough on the outside was super flaky and the turnip filling was piping hot, another one of those dishes you should be careful with when biting into. If you ever find yourself at Crystal Jade, this dish is an absolute must.
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