Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao

It was really my doing. I’d built up soup dumplings so much that after our Tim Ho Wan lunch, we had to go in search of the missing piece of dim sum perfection… By the grace of the culinary gods, one only has to walk a few East Village blocks to reach Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao.

I think I went to the first Nan Xiang in Flushing a decade or longer ago and had a delicious lunch; the details have faded. Things have gotten shinier and more aspirational…but no matter! Since this was Round Two of dim sum, we limited ourselves to one order, the “Lucky Six” ⊕ You should click on that link; the webpage is fun. of cheerfully colored xiaolongbao with different fillings. Of these, the classics were best: pork and pork-and-crab, though the green-colored dumplings with luffa gourd mixed in were also very good. (Black truffle and pork was aggressively truffle-y. Only worth trying once.) The style here is lots of liquid and quite delicate wrappers, making somewhat lump, conical dumplings. It works very well. ⊕ I also enjoy any other style of XLB. It’s a good dumpling. Eat it.

I would gladly go back on an emptier stomach and make a full meal of xiaolongbao and their many cousins, and my offspring, duly warned of consequences if she disagreed, agreed. We’ll see you again, Nan Xiang. ⊕ Adding this, November 20. We did. It was great.

Source: Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, East Village

Dumpling type: xiaolongbao, obvi

Modality: postprandial stopover

Adult rating: 🥟🥟🥟🥟🥟 (insofar as I was in a position to judge by that point)

Child rating: 🥟🥟🥟🥟🥟 (because good children know what’s good for them)