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NanXiang Steamed Bun Bread Shop 南翔饅頭店 – Shanghai, China

We were thinking about delicious xiao long bao and asked our hotel concierge about a great place for them, and they suggested to us to visit Cheng Huang Temple by Yu Garden. From there, we walked around a bit and found a super long line and looked up at the sign… there, it said NanXiang Steamed Bun, so we got in line and waited about 40 minutes before we got to order.

The menu wasn’t extensive at the street level, but there is an eatery upstairs full of food and other options. Of course, we just stayed in line and ordered their famous xiao long bao Steamed Bun with Pork Stuffing was their English translation. The skin was quite thin and delicate and the soup inside the dumpling was phenomenal! It was one of the best we’ve ever had!

Another item that we saw a ton of people order (but not nearly as much as their dumplings was their Steamed Bun with Crab Roe and apparently the locals eat it by sucking the soup out of the bun first, then then eat the bun. Good thing we watched them!

Overall, this was a fantastic place for us to visit! We really appreciated the recommendation and the neat thing is, it’s kind of famous here!! It was so good and the location was great for both locals and tourist. The shopping area around this place is apparently known to be a bit cheaper than the rest of the places. So, it’s a win-win for us for sure!

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Baozi Inn – London, England

We went into Baozi Inn for a snack, while we were in England, we ate every meal twice, including snacks — so, this was one of many snack meals that we enjoyed! Baozi Inn is located in London’s Chinatown and it’s a little place, but seats a lot of guests. The service was fast, the food was good, and the prices was very reasonable!

The interior was decorated beautifully – traditional Communist China, which really is quite neat! It is a huge part of China’s history and what not, but I’ve never seen any place do their interior decoration to reflect this time period. It was lovely though.

We ordered a few munchies, of course their bao’s (buns) since that’s what the restaurant is called. We tried their Pork Baozi which was a bun stuffed with juicy minced pork and onion. We also tried the House Special Baozi which for the day was Pork filled. Both of the steamed buns was quite large – especially compared to the ones we get get here at home, say T&T. It wasn’t over steamed where it’s mushy or soggy, and it wasn’t steamed for awhile and sitting there waiting for a guest to order it – as it wasn’t hard either. It just tasted like a wonderful bun that was really fresh.

We also ordered 2 orders of dumplings, and tried Chengdu Dumplings which were pork dumplings in Chilli Oil and Garlicky Sauce. The pork dumplings were boiled and seasoned with chilli oil and crushed garlic. It was extremely tasty, as the strong chilli oil and garlic taste was what we tasted more of, instead of the dumpling. But, the dumpling made a great vehicle for the topping as it was a tasty dish.

Finally, we tried just the Boiled dumplings stuffed with minced pork – served Beijing style with vinegar dip. It looked really plain when it got to the table, but because it wasn’t dressed up with anything, you could really taste the freshness of these dumplings, and it was fresh and delicious. The meat filling was indeed juicy and the skin was rolled quite thin and cooked well as the juices from the inside didn’t leak out until I bite into the dumpling.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience here at Baozi Inn, and I must recommend it to anyone going that way! Not just a snack either, those noodle dishes and what not look and smell great! I would love to go back to get more of everything, plus more!

Baozi Inn

25 Newport Court
London
(020) 7287 6877