Soup Dumplings

On Sunday Jared and Kate and I caught the aftermath of Chinese New Year in Chinatown.

We were on the search for the famous "Soup Dumplings". We found these beauties at Joe's Ginger Restaurant though they are usually served at any Chinatown restaurant.

Here's the deal with soup dumplings. The eating method is very tricky. The wrapper is delicate and pliable and when you puncture it hot delicious soup seeps out. You have to hold a big spoon underneath to catch the inevitable stream of liquid that falls from the dumpling. Slurp it up! Or if your boca is big enough you can encase the whole dumpling in your mouth and chomp it like a savory Gusher.

But how do they get soup into a dumpling?! The secret is, they make a incredibly rich broth with lots of pork bits and bones and simmer it for hours. The broth is super concentrated and calcified (from the bones) If you've ever had really great soup Ramen, the same kind of broth is used. When this mixture cools it actually congeals into a jelly mass because it has so much collagen in it, like a meat Jello. This is called aspic. The aspic can then be cut into little cubes and wrapped into a dumpling. When the dumpling is steamed, the aspic melts and turns back into tasty broth. So sneaky and amazing! The kind of soup dumplings we had were crab dumplings in a pork broth. Fucking incredible--the marriage of pork and crab never tasted so delicious. The crab meat had a slight oceany flavor tied up in the sweetness and depth of great pork broth. Mmmmmmm. Stop! I'll just have the veggie dumplings, says Jared.

These veggie dumpling had no soup involved but lots of leafy greens, vermicelli noodles, soybeans, and mushrooms. They were very good.

I already want to go again.