How to eat xiaolongbao?

如何吃小籠包?

If you ever find yourself in a fine Chinese styled restaurant in Taiwan (or likewise China), you might want to try some steamed dumplings or steamed baozi, that are prepared in bamboo baskets named long 籠 (小籠 means small basket). One of the most famous dishes prepared this way are xiaolongbao 小籠包, very delicious steamed buns (Chinese baozi 包子) with a unique twirl on top and a very delicate (almost translucent) skin, of which the latter is also typical for Chinese dumplings (or jiaozi 餃子). Because of that similarity xiaolongbao are commonly mistaken for dumplings in the English speaking world. See a steamed dumpling for your reference and notice the typical "half moon" shape they have. But that's not the only thing that makes them distinct, the ingredients are different as well.

There are of course more types of xiaolongbao, but one of the most popular variants is filled with pork and gelatine, which then in the process of steaming turns into a soup. Because a lot of foreigners don't know how to eat that kind of steamed buns, I decided to write a little tutorial, so that you won't find yourself in a tricky situation among your Taiwanese or Chinese friends and eat them the wrong way.

The typical traditional Chinese xiaolong or little basket, made of bamboo.

Steamed xiaolongbao. Do you know, why there are 8 in a basket?

Notice the twirled tops, so typical for this sort of steamed buns.

A very delicious xiaolongbao, prepared in the Golden Chicken Garden in Taipei.

How to eat xiaolongbao?

There are several ways to eat them. I will describe and recommend to you the most common and convenient way, the one that my wife prefers. Please follow these steps and refer to the photos for a better understanding:

1 Hold chopsticks in your right hand and a spoon in your left.
2 Take the bun out of the bamboo basket and dip it in a soy sauce with ginger.
3 Put the bun on the spoon and bring it together with the chopsticks close to your mouth.
4 Bite a small hole in the bun's edge and place it back in the middle of the spoon.
5 While the soup flows out on the spoon, lift up the bun with the chopsticks.
6 Wait few seconds for the soup to cool off and then drink it.
7 After that you can dip the bun in the sauce again, if you like, it's optional.
8 Eat the xiaolongbao in one or two bites and enjoy the delicious flavor.

The most important steps for your convenience.

A common faux-pas can be a too hasty bite and the hot soup will either burn your mouth or even worse surprise you and drip out on your or your friend's clothes. Not sure, how likely that is to happen, but it's not impossible. Just keep in mind that the soup inside the xiaolongbao is hot and needs to be released and cooled off, before it can be drunken. Don't just put the whole bun in your mouth.

With all this said, I think the best way to eat xiaolongbao is to observe your Taiwanese or Chinese friends and copy them or ask them to help you. I'm sure they will be very happy to assist you.

Other variants of eating xiaolongbao are:

1 Put the bun in a soup and eat it like a soup dumpling. Some shops prefer this way.
2 Poke a small hole in the bun's bottom with chopsticks to extract the soup, skill is needed.
3 Some shops offer straws to drink the soup inside. You don't believe it? Look here!

The meat inside a xiaolongbao can vary, but the most popular is pork.

I hope this will help those who go to China or Taiwan for the first time. If you have any questions or additional tips, please submit them in the comments below.

[My TAIPEI FOOD page][My TAIWAN FOOD page][All photos by MKL, 2011]

Yanping North Road Night Market, Taipei

A traditional night market in the old Taipei

Yanping North Road Night Market (延三夜市 a.k.a. Yansan Night Market), officially Yanping North Road Section 3 Tourist Night Market, is a traditional night market in Taipei, located in the Datong district, one of the oldest parts of the city. This is one of the least known tourist night markets in Taipei and features some unique traditional Taiwanese dishes. It's truly worth a visit, especially if you live here. If you're just on a short trip in the city, skip this one and visit the famous ones first.

MY IMPRESSION OF THE YANPING ROAD NIGHT MARKET: This is a night market located on the sidewalks of a busy road. The main part is reserved for cars and scooters, who whiz by in huge numbers, which kinda affects the whole atmosphere of the night market: It just doesn't feel you're at a real one, it feels more like a sidewalk with stalls (and that's what it actually is). However, it has a lot of history and many traditional food places and stalls, which kinda makes it interesting in its own way.

WHAT KIND OF FOOD IS COMMON: The food is like from another century or at least from decades long ago. Maybe the 1950s? 1960s? No idea, but it tastes pretty good. It might not be the best night market food I've ever tried, but it's definitely interesting and worth to try. You may not see the usual traditional Taiwanese food such as oyster omelettes, but at least you'll have something different, something unique. This night market is great for those who are tired of the usual food and the atmosphere and want something else.

MUST-TRY FOOD AT THE YANPING NIGHT MARKET: I would recommend you to try the muachi 麻糬 and the meat dumplings 湯圓, those were my favorite snacks here. Another must try would be the popular "chicken roll" 雞捲 and the cut tomatoes 蕃茄切盤. More about them below.

Let me show you some of my photos of Yanping Road Night Market (Apr 2011):

Scooters rushing by on a busy Yanping North Road.

The housing here is of very low standard.

Stalls on the other side.

POPULAR STALL: SHI FAMILY FRESH MEAT DUMPLINGS 施家鮮肉湯圓

This shop is very famous here, so we decided to visit it.

The interior design is a mix of several decades, but mostly the 1970s.

The menu and the prices look appealing to a price conscious Taipeier like me.

One of popular and standard Taiwanese starters: Cooked yam leaves. Yummy.

Boiled squid, which was previously dried. Quite yummy as well.

On the photo you can find the famous meat dumplings or 湯圓 (tang yüen), literally "soup circles". The special thing about this dumpling is the dough, which is made from glutinous rice. It's very delicate and special in taste, definitely the must try dish, if you come to this night market. The price was 45 NTD.

And then we went out on the street again and tried...

POPULAR STALL: CUT TOMATOES 蕃茄切盤

This traditional stall was also very popular.

I was so amazed, when I saw this dish, called 蕃茄切盤 (lit. "tomatoes cut") in Chinese. I was like: "They sell cut tomatoes and sell them as a dish? Wow..." It was interesting for me, because cut tomatoes are a very basic and cheap food in Slovenia, which people eat at home like a snack. We would never eat this outside, but for Taiwan this is normal. After all, eating out daily here is as normal as not eating out very often in Slovenia. The best thing about these cut tomatoes was the sauce, so I definitely recommend to try this dish. The price was 50 NTD (1.2 Eur), a little hight, if you ask me. It's two cut tomatoes after all.

This is the sidewalk at the night market.

POPULAR STALL: YE FAMILY 5 SPICED CHICKEN ROLL 葉家五香雞捲

This dish is famous for this area, popular with people, who like traditional food.

In fact, the stall had a huge line and they really work hard to fry as many rolls as possible, because this is the only dish they sell. The name 五香雞捲 "five spice chicken roll" is deceiving, my girlfriend said inside is no chicken, but pork. The name 雞捲 comes from Taiwanese "gê gèn" which means "extra roll", actually meaning "extra dish from left-over food". And because "gê" sounds very similar to the word for "chicken" in Taiwanese, the Chinese character for chicken was chosen to name this dish. The outer part of the roll is made of tofu skin, the inside is filled with onions and pork, but can be also with other kinds of meat. We paid 45 NTD (1 Eur). The taste is ok, maybe not my favorite food, but definitely interesting enough to recommend it to you.

POPULAR STALL: MUACHI 麻糬

This is a famous muachi stall, which we had to visit.

Muachi is a Taiwanese word for 餅 mochi, the traditional Japanese snack, eaten a lot during the lunar new year. Muachi is very popular in the southern Chinese kitchen, I've tried it in Malaysia and Singapore as well (see a photo here). But this one here (on photo above) was the best I've ever tried. If you're here, please try this muachi, it's so soft, warm and delicious. Maybe I'm biased, because I love muachi (and peanuts) in general, but the quality is really good. And the stall is very popular.

This is the end of the Yanping Nort Road. It was dark, when we left.

Finding the market is very easy. Take the Red Line train to Minquan West Road MRT station and then transfer to the Orange line in direction to Luzhou and exit at Daqiaotou MRT Station (1 station away). Exit at Exit 1 and wak straight for 1 minute, then turn right and you're there. (Map by Google, click on it for a Google Map).

YANPING NORTH ROAD NIGHT MARKET IN CONCLUSION: This is one of Taipei's most unique night markets. I think most foreign visitors might find it boring, but those of us, who live here, might find it quite interesting. In the end it's up to you and your personal preference. But the muachi is very good and can be the only reason to visit this night market.

[FOOD in TAIWAN][My TAIWAN page][My TAIPEI page][All photos by MKL, 2011]

[My TAIWAN NIGHT MARKETS list][My MAP of Night Markets in Taipei]

Yellow beavers, foreign goons

Below are excerpts from a diary of a ______ in Taiwan (in italic text). I found it on the street while walking around Taichung, picked it up and decided to publish some parts for you. However I had to censor some things, because that's how we do it in Taiwan, we avoid communicating directly. And I'm sure you can fill in the blanks with many different words.

~The Doctrine~

"I'm not here to bash ______ and say that I despise them. I love their way of life and their culture, but that still doesn't mean that I won't trash them in every post I write or ridicule them for everything they do, because I know much better what is right and what is wrong. After all, I come from the pinnacle of civilization. I'm tired of hearing people say "That's the way they are". I believe that as ______ we need to change the culture everywhere we go, we are the foamed milk on top of the global cappuccino, we know better how other cultures need to behave in order to make them better, in the rare case almost as good as us. If you disagree with what I said, no problem, feel free to challenge me, but I will delete you for trolling."

~The Confession~

It's not easy to be a ______ in Taiwan. It feels like being here on a mission 24/7, I feel like a cultural James Bond, not an escapee, what most people mistakingly think of me (go figure!). Of course I also behave like one, when I walk around here. I really enjoy to play this new role, because back home I am nobody. But not only that, I am so dedicated to be the new ambassador of culture, that's why I chose to be an educator here, so that on the one hand I can start to change the local culture from the bottom up (excluding aboriginal people, of course!) and on another hand, I have short working hours, which gives me plenty of time to observe all the things Taiwanese do wrong (excluding aboriginal people, of course!) and then write about it on my blog (where other like-minded people usually applaud me). It's a pity that the community is so small and insignificant in Taiwan. One could say that I am actually wasting time and energy for something that doesn't serve any purpose and doesn't have any effect on anything. I am just somebody among nobodies, but that's ok, it still makes me feel great and superior.

~The Questions~

I really don't want to be mean to my brethren from ______, who decide to settle in Taiwan, but they are just not trying hard enough to help us ______. They are wholly integrated, usually accept the Taiwanese way of life with all its contradictions, try hard to blend in and they mostly don't work as educators. That's a problem. How can they accept things the way they are here? I don't get it. How can you go to Asia and not try to do anything possible to change the local culture, traditions and way of life? How can you not feel the urge to impose your superior views on them? No idea. In my country ______ we believe in going beyond the determinations and limitations of culture (of course not when it comes to our own), that's why we know exactly what's best for everyone.

Common belief: Taiwanese always need others to tell them what to do.

~The Answers~

I know that there is a big demand for people like me here and less so for people from ______. But can you really blame us for wanting to be here? Taiwan makes it very easy for us. We get paid better, we get treated better and we have enough time and opportunities to date the local population as much as we can, so why wouldn't we come? However I realized that there is obviously a huge misunderstanding between what we think we are doing here and what Taiwanese think we should be doing here.

While Taiwanese just need babysitters for their kids, because they work so much, a certain kind of us here (including me) see ourselves as cultural crusaders, who will educate and build up a new better generation of Taiwanese, that will have a global identity ("God forbid they would think they're Chinese!"). Some of them believe that it is better to pinyinize Taiwan as the first step ("Traditional characters are so troublesome!"), abolish Mandarin and all other dialects soon after that and make Taiwanese speak a global language only ("It's so convenient!"). It works in Singapore very well and everybody knows what a fine city Singapore is. This is how Taiwanese would look like after the cultural revolution of the current foreign missionaries:

Why can't Taiwan be like Singapore? Please, can somebody shrink this huge island!

I think these are some really good prospects for Taiwan in the future. Aren't you excited? Keep in mind that in this very moment someone stepped out of the plane at the Taoyuan International Airport and smelled the fresh breeze of Taoyuan County for the first time. He will take a bus to Taip... Taichung in a day, begin to educate your kids in a week and start to write a blog in a month. And then he will tell you everything that he thinks is wrong with Taiwan without even trying to understand the reality around him. Why is Taiwanese media not picking up on this? Why is the government not reacting? These bloggers should appear on national TV at the prime time and tell the Taiwanese directly how they should improve (don't worry, there will be subtitles in Chinese!). Their wisdom is probably the biggest resource Taiwan currently has and in case a political party is looking for campaigners and future ministers, I can submit a list of these bloggers, who would be perfect for the job. And they are usually very free, they can start working immediately. Well, keep in mind, that they want higher pay and shorter working hours, because they are... special. I am special, too, because my mother used to tell me that. How about yours?

MDGB's translation -

請不要太嚴肅去看待這篇文章，它是在諷刺。如果英文讀者因此而誤會我，我也沒關係，但我要確定的是，台灣的朋友們不會誤會我的意思。我只是想開個小玩笑，但我的點在於，我實在看不慣有些英文部落客不斷地在他們部落格上批評許多台灣人的行為，而且還認為他們比較聰明，可以做的更好。到底他們為什麼覺得自己有資格這麼想？如果事情只是用不同的方式展現，那並不表示那就是不好的。如果有些傳統對你來說很怪異，那並不表示它們真的很奇怪，除非你認為地球完全是繞著你轉的。我尊敬也喜歡那些在部落格上提出建設性意見的外國部落客，他們意見很值得被閱讀。但我真的很不能忍受那些從不試著從他們狹小心胸中站出來看看的外國部落客。因為他們其中的一個人覺得我什麼都不懂，搞不清楚台灣的狀況，所以我決定寫這篇文章。

我知道台灣有許多可以改善的，很多事情並不是那麼好。但有哪個國家是真正完美的？且誰喜歡看到外國人老是指著自己不斷地批評？我也承認我自己的國家並不完美，但我也不想在外國部落格上不停地讀到它有多不完美。有些人的批評缺乏建設性，或許他們只是想寫些很極端的東西以爭取注意，但這些注意就像曇花一現，一下子就沒了。我的方式不一樣，我不想要變成知名的台灣部落客，我只是想要分享在這裡的生活而已。從現在開始，我會分享一些不好的經驗，但我會試著去找到一個比較好的平衡以反應實際情形。台灣真的對我很好，台灣人對我很友善，這讓我很高興能住在這裡。

但是有些外國人非常討厭這裡，然而沒有人強迫他們留著。或許在他們心裡面，他們也不覺得台灣真有這麼糟，他們只是對自己的現況不滿意而已，於是他們把這些不滿意給轉移到別人身上。我不曉得是不是這樣，但我真不喜歡因為如此的原因而產生這些毫無建設性的批評。我也不喜歡有些人，老覺得自己比別人優秀，在這裡把自己當明星一樣。在台灣並沒有有名的外國部落客，甚至人次流量在平均值以下的年輕台灣美妝或者時尚部落客，他們的讀者都比任何一個在台灣的外國部落客還要多。但這些外國人可以每天都寫一篇評論台灣政治或者社會的文章，老是不停著寫著台灣跟中國的狀況，或者不斷張貼錯誤的英文拼字或者拼音問題，或是揶揄台灣男朋友對待女朋友的方式：這些都不會改變他們在這裡默默無聞的事實。

說起來我也是個什麼都不是的傢伙，但我很高興我有個可愛的老婆，一份不錯的工作還有很多朋友。我不需要去批評我所看到在我身邊不好的每件事情，我也沒時間去搞這些，而且台灣人也沒時間去管這些。我們同樣要工作、要吃飯，要搭捷運上下班，我跟台灣人幾乎沒有兩樣。那就是為什麼我看不到這些抱持負面想法的人所看到的地方。他們雖然住在台灣，但他們沒有真的過著台灣人的生活，只是在一旁冷眼瞧著台灣人，當他們的旁觀者而已。通常我不會在意這些人，但是因為他們批評我的新家台灣，所以我不能沉默。

Related: My life in Taiwan>>

Tai'an, Taiwan's tofu village

A small aboriginal village in Miaoli County

Tai'an 泰安 is so far the smallest village I have ever seen in Taiwan. It's located in Miaoli County 苗栗縣, about 30min away from Miaoli City by car, in a small and long valley, an area known for being the home of Taiwan's Atayal people. My wife and I together with her family went on a short trip to this beautiful region. We decided to visit this tiny village, famous for hot springs and tofu, out of curiosity. I had not heard of Tai'an before, but now it's definitely a place I will remember. Why is that so, read further below.

Show bigger map

Tai'an is truly a tiny village, a micro village. There are three small lanes, few tofu shops and that's it! If you ever decide to go here and wonder, why you came all the way from the civilization to this small village at the end of the world, don't say I haven't warned ya! I think the best reason to visit Tai'an is to go to one of their famous hot spring hotels, but more about that later. If you just come, because you've read about a famous "Tofu Old Street", you made a big mistake. I think on the way to the onsen, you can make a short stopover and try the tofu, if you must. But if you don't, you won't miss a lot...

Let me show you some photos of Tai'an from May, 2011:

This is where we parked the car, in front of the township office.

The nature is beautiful here and probably the no 1 reason to visit.

The village is squeezed between a hill and a river. Cute.

This is the biggest junction in the area. One part goes deeper into central Taiwan, another one goes up to the famous hot spring hotels.

After crossing a small pedestrian (?) bridge, you are in central Tai'an.

The central part with tofu shops and a police station (they must be busy!).

This is truly a sleepy village.

Stinky tofu is sold everywhere here.

The "famous" Old Street.

Something about this photo makes me melancholic... It's like it's stuck in some old times.

We decided to try the tofu at the most popular shop: Qingan Tofu Shop.

The funny thing was, when we arrived here and all tables were occupied and people were munching the tofu, many of them turned to us (and me), while trying to chew the hot tofu. Their mouths were half open and I thought the image was very comical. Of course 15 min later I was like them, haha.

This is what we ordered:

Black tofu (80NTD), not bad.

Black tofu from close, full of pepper.

Bamboo soup (50NTD) and tofu in salad (60NTD).

Fried tofu balls (80NTD), my favorite.

Sautéed tofu (60NTD), not bad.

We paid 380 all together (we ordered 2 soups), we were 5 people. We got full, but most of us felt the food is too expensive and just very average. Everybody liked the fried tofu balls the most. If you must try the tofu here, don't expect too much.

As soon as we finished the meal, we decided to go back.

This is the way to some famous hot springs in the area. I wanna visit next time.

This is Onsen Papawaqa, one of the most famous (and expensive) hot spring resorts in Taiwan. I heard that staying overnight costs over 5000 NTD (120 Eur). Click on pic for more (courtesy of the resort).

The Houlong River (lit. Dragon Back River) passes by and continues to Miaoli City.

Aboriginal art (?)...

If you come Taipei to Tai'an, you will feel like you came to another country. The time stands still here, nothing is going on in this village. All you'll see is tourists trying to eat the hot tofu and chewing it with open mouths. I think it's definitely one of the highlights here. For more action it's better to visit one of the hot springs, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I will return to this area, I really love the nature. If you work 12h a day in Taipei, Tai'an feels like heaven (with a smell of tofu, though...). Read about the same trip in Chinese>>

[My TAIWAN TRAVEL page][TAIWAN][All photos by MKL, 2011]