If you don’t live in Shanghai the chances are you haven’t heard of The Shanghai Soup Dumpling Index.
Yes, such a thing exists and I challenge all xiaolongbao fans out there to create one for your city too – all you need are a set of digital scales, a pair of calipers and maybe a cholesterol check after completing your research.
The author of the Shanghai index Christopher St Cavish, has devised a formula based on weight of dumpling, weight of soup, weight of filling and thickness of skin and assigned an overall score to xiaolongbao from 52 ‘restaurants’ around town.
Who knows what on earth possessed him to do such a thing – but he survived to tell the story and hopefully has had that cholesterol test.
Zun Ke Lai came out on top so naturally when my neighbour Scott & I were discussing which 5 star establishment we should grace with our presence, I suggested it should be the ‘best’ xiaolongbao place in town.
Either they were expecting us and changed the name of the joint in our honour OR we were directed to the wrong place.
Let’s assume the former shall we?
In any case we took the poster outside of the dumpling with translucent skin to be a sign of good times ahead and entered, not really knowing what to expect.
As usual it’s a little bit daunting walking into a place having no idea what the feck is going on. All attempts to say ‘xiaolongbao’ in every single tonal variation you can dream up is met with a shouty person behind the counter who is genuinely trying to help but who is shouting progressively louder the more blankly you stare back at them.
I leave Scott practising his Mandarin and point my phone at the menu to translate the first three items.
Bingo! Crab & pork xiaolongbao are apparently the signature dish at Zun Ke Lai. The next item on the menu was pork, followed by shrimp so we order one of each and sit down with our yellow number and hope for the best.
The restaurant is reasonably clean and soon fills up with the lunch time crowds. I think the menu is mainly made up of noodles so there is plenty of slurping going on – and thank fully on this occasion no burping.
Obviously the shrimp dumplings weren’t xiaolongbao and we soon worked out which were the crab and pork soup dumplings.
With only six per basket, it is the smallest portion of xiaolongbao I’ve come across in Shanghai and although it’s quite nice not to fall into a dumpling coma after lunch, it would be nice to have eight in the basket to share between us.
As for the xiaolongbao – the skin is the thinnest I’ve come across. Thinner even than Din Tai Fung. The filling is smaller than Lin Long Fang and we agree the stock is sweeter and lighter too. They are certainly very, very good dumplings and if I was in the area I’d definitely go back.
Lin Long Fang still has my vote though – the atmosphere, the jostling and the walk around the block and down the laneways afterwards is a true taste of Shanghai.
In the washup:
Better than average xiaolongbao – worth popping in if you’re in the area but maybe not worth a pilgrimage. From the French Concession it would be a 20RMB or less cab ride.
Cost: 16RMB for a basket of six pork & crab roe, 10RMB for a a basket of pork xlb.
Address:
666 Tianyaoqiao Lu, Shanghai Indoor Stadium
The Stadium is the one where the half & full marathon finishes. The restaurant is actually on the outside of the stadium around gate 15 I think – it’s next door to a Tibetan fronted restaurant and across from Gll’s dumplings.
No English menu. No spoken English. There were no-smoking signs up and remarkably no one was smoking on our visit. I can’t guarantee this is the case all the time though.
As usual, this meal was independently paid for.
Still hungry for more xiaolongbao? Try these options:
Fuxing Lu market
Jia Jia Tang Bao
Lin Long Fang
Are you a fan of xiaolongbao? Where’s your favourite in your town?