What it is
Tangbao (湯包, 'soup bun') is the family of steamed dumplings that carry broth inside along with the meat. The best known is xiaolongbao (小籠包), small, pleated and thin-skinned, also sold as 小籠湯包. Some Kaohsiung breakfast shops make a much larger, bun-like version with cabbage in the pork filling.
Where it came from
Soup-filled buns go back to Kaifeng, capital of the Northern Song dynasty (960 to 1127). The small xiaolongbao took shape in the Jiangnan region. Changzhou has a Qing-era version known for thin skin and plenty of soup, while Nanxiang, now part of Shanghai, gave its name to the style that spread furthest.
Taiwan's best-known dumpling house has roots in post-war Taipei's Shanghainese food trade. Yang Bing-yi (楊秉彝), who arrived from Shanxi in 1948, worked for a Shanghainese-owned oil dealer whose customers included Shanghai restaurants, and opened his own oil shop, Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐), in 1958. As oil sales fell, he put three tables in half the shop in 1972 and served Shanghai-style dim sum. Xiaolongbao became the house speciality, and his son Yang Chi-hua helped refine the skin to 18 folds. The food critic Tang Lu-sun praised its crab-roe soup dumplings in a 1978 newspaper column, and in 1993 the New York Times named it one of ten restaurants worth travelling for. Its first branch abroad opened in Japan in 1996.
How it is made
The trick is aspic. Meat stock is chilled until it sets, then chopped into the minced pork filling. The filling is wrapped in a disc of dough and pinched into pleats at the top. Steaming melts the jelly back into soup. Unleavened dough gives a thin skin around a large filling; partly leavened dough is softer, smoother and slightly translucent. Kaohsiung's big breakfast tangbao look more like small steamed buns.
How to eat it
The soup inside is scalding. Lift a dumpling onto a spoon, bite a small hole and sip the broth before eating the rest. Shredded ginger in black vinegar is the usual dip. At Kaohsiung breakfast shops such as Hsing Long Ju, the big ones come early in the morning with sesame flatbread (燒餅, shaobing) and savoury soy milk.
Around Taiwan
- Kaohsiung
- Hsing Long Ju (興隆居) on Liuhe 2nd Road has made its big cabbage-and-pork soup buns for more than 60 years. It opens before dawn, and queues form from opening time.
- North
- Din Tai Fung began in Taipei as a cooking-oil shop that turned to dumplings in 1972. Its pleated xiaolongbao carried Taiwan's name abroad, starting with a branch in Japan in 1996.
