hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to the Bay Area restaurant scene with a shot at what I genuinely consider to be the most difficult thing that I have ever tried to cook, which is the Chinese xiao long bao, or soup dumpling, as they are often more colloquially known as. For those not familiar, a xiao long bao is an otherwise unassuming Chinese steamed dumpling with one unique feature, which is that it has a spoonful of soup broth folded into the dumpling. This is achieved with a cartilage heavy broth called aspic that solidifies into a gelatinous form when cooled down. The solid gelatinous broth is then folded into the filling, which then turns back into a liquid form once the dumpling is steamed, for the juiciest, most wonderful dumpling you will ever eat.

More specifically, I’ll be taking my best shot at what I personally would rate the best xiao long bao in the Bay Area, which is the one found at Ming’s Tasty here in Oakland, CA. Not only does their xiao long bao have a wonderful structural integrity that keeps it from exploding before you can get it on a spoon, but it also (seemingly impossibly) has a perfectly thin dough to it too, which prevents the xiao long bao from being TOO doughy as well. Hope you try it.

It will be out on Friday October 8, 2021, so bookmark the recipe here, and be sure to subscribe and hit the bell on YouTube to get notified when it’s out!

Woo Can Cook is a series where we reproduce fun foods and recipes from my childhood. Some of them are authentically Chinese and/or pan-Asian, but a lot of them are odd Americanized versions that I inherited from my parents and grandparents while growing up in the Bay Area/California.

We're live streaming every Tues/Thurs at 6:30PM PST, with new recipes out every Friday!