Dumplings may be nothing new for many restaurant customers, but soup dumplings add a fun twist on the typical dish. Called “xiao long bao” in Cantonese, the soup dumplings are typically filled with pork and gelatinous broth that liquefies when steamed.
According to Datassential, chefs across the culinary spectrum on riffing on soup dumplings with inventive fillings and other takes:
• Imperial La Mian in Chicago serves soup dumplings stuffed with fillings like Gruyère cheese, truffles and duck.
• Drunken Dumpling in New York City makes super-sized soup dumplings it calls “XL XLB” filled with crab, scallops, shrimp and pork. It creates extra buzz by only offering 25 of the jumbo dumplings each day.
• Dragon Beaux in San Francisco serves a “Five Guys” soup dumpling sampler with five different varieties, each with a different wrapper and filling combination, like spinach skin with a kale filling and turmeric skin with a crab roe filling.