these delicate little dumplings are
called xiaolongbao
they're filled to the brim with piping
hot pork broth
but how does the soup get in there
what's the secret to getting those
perfect folds
and what's the right way to eat it
without burning your tongue
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when it comes to chinese food few dishes
are as recognizable as the bow
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simply put it's a dough wrapper with
filling
but there are so many variations in
china that you can do a whole series on
it
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so for this season of eat china we'll
look at 10 different bows
and show you how they're made and the
story behind them
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we're at nancyang steamed bun restaurant
this place has been around for over 120
years
and it's famous for its soup dumplings
the chinese name xiaolongbao means
little caged buns
and refers to the steamer baskets used
to cook them
they can be found all over the world but
they originally came from here
the story goes that a guy was wrapping
dumplings one day
when he decided to add aspic into the
filling of his pork bow
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when he steamed it the aspic melted into
soup
and thus the soup downplaying was born
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in
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um
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so how is the soup dumpling made
there are two main components the skin
and the filling the filling is made with
ground pork and aspic
aspic is made by boiling pork skin and
bones for 4 hours
pork skin is high in collagen so when it
cools down
it becomes a gelatin when it's steamed
it turns back to liquid again
the aspic is then mixed with ground pork
to
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the skin is flattened using two methods
hand pressing and with rolling pins
the hand pressed method is the oldest
method though there are some downsides
one transl
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the filling is placed inside and the
whole thing is wrapped with at least
16 pleats
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after they're wrapped the soup dumplings
are steamed
and then delivered to tables within half
a minute
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and how
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foreign
[Applause]
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up next what's in eastern china other
than regular sized
soup dumplings giant soup dumplings of
course
we'll show you a dumpling called pang
pao that's filled with soup
and lots of crab row stay tuned
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you