Creating the perfect soup dumpling involves a confluence of ingredients and precise technique. The walls should be thin and delicate yet sturdy enough to hold the filling. It should be chewy but never tough. There should be enough soup to warrant the name, and a certain degree of dexterity involved in the pleating to ensure the skins don’t break.
And there’s a right way to eat them too, depending on who you ask.
Is a calzone a dumpling? What about an empanada? We asked the Dumpling Mafia for Season 2 of “The Bucket List,” which explores dumplings from all over the world right here in Los Angeles.
On our first episode of “The Bucket List: Dumplings,” we visit three restaurants that excel at different styles of xiao long bao — soup dumplings. First, we sample sweet xiao long bao and giant crab and pork dumplings at Long Xing Ji Juicy Dumpling #1 (formerly Wang Xing Ji) in San Gabriel. Next, we’re off to the Collage Culinary Experience food hall at South Coast Plaza for a selection of flavored soup dumplings from Paradise Dynasty. And we finish our soup dumpling adventure with a visit to the Hui Tou Xiang kitchen in San Gabriel and the restaurant’s new location in Hollywood to learn about a xiao long bao secret ingredient.
New episodes of “The Bucket List: Dumplings” will drop every Sunday on YouTube. Make sure to subscribe to our channel and never miss a video.
Places featured in this episode
Long Xing Ji Juicy Dumpling #1, 140 W. Valley Blvd., Ste 211, San Gabriel, (626) 307-1188, longxingji.com Paradise Dynasty, 3333 Bristol St., BLM, 1 Bloomingdale’s, Costa Mesa, (714) 617-4630, paradisegp.com/USA Hui Tou Xiang, San Gabriel and Hollywood locations at huitouxiang.com
The correct way to eat a soup dumpling (according to columnist Jenn Harris). Is she wrong?
Eat your way across L.A.
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Jenn Harris is a columnist for the Food section and host of “The Bucket List” fried chicken show. She has a BA in literary journalism from UC Irvine and an MA in journalism from USC. Follow her @Jenn_Harris_.