Christmas in Shanghai day 4: crab roe OD

I was hung over this morning, and woke up a little later than usual. After cleaning myself up in slo-mo, I went off in search of more xiaolongbao.

Linlong Fang (麟笼坊特色小笼包) is a copycat Jiajia (佳家湯包) – the layout of the whole place looks just like the Jiajia outlet on Huanghe Road. I placed my order for two baskets, and they arrived a bit more than 15 minutes later.

The egg yolk and pork dumplings (蛋黃鮮肉小籠) were pretty good. This combination seems popular with some xiaolongbao specialists (and customers of course!), and I can see why. The salty flavor and powdery texture of the yolk contrasts with the smooth, naturally sweet pork. Lots of soup inside the nice, soft skin.

The pure crab roe dumplings (純蟹粉小籠) came in two baskets, and were about double the size of the regular dumplings. There was so much steam coming from these baskets I could even see it on the pictures I took. A little bit of the yellow crab oil had already oozed out. I picked up the first one, and decided to shove it whole into my mouth. Maybe it’s a little too much, but I wasn’t given a spoon and was too lazy to ask for one. Very rich with lots of crab roe chunks inside. Yummy.

I devour the dumplings one after another in quick succession. As I got to the second basket, I started to find pieces of shell in the crab roe filling. Aaaarrrrggghhhh!!!! This is so annoying! Occasionally one will find small pieces of shell in the crab roe, because the maker of the stuff wasn’t very careful. But the pieces I had in my mouth were pretty significant in size, and tells me that the source of their roe isn’t very good. So even though the dumplings here were bigger compared to Jiajia, I still have to put Jiajia as my #1 for crab roe dumplings.

Two dozen xiaolongbao was definitely too much to eat on my own, especially since one basket was filled with rich crab roe, and those were double the usual size! I started to feel a little nauseous towards the end, but I didn’t want to waste food… I left the restaurant and decided to walk a little to settle my stomach.

I met up with the sisters again for dinner, this time at Sophia’s Restaurant (原创私房菜). It’s a cute little place not far from the house, and the food turned out to be pretty good.

Starters:

Beancurd roll (素鵝) – this was actually pretty good. Nice flavors without being overly smoky.

Hot pickle (宮廷榨菜) – also nicer than expected for something so simple. Actually a little bit sweeter than usual.

Bean paste with egg (三色豆瓣酥) – I guess I’m just not a fan of 豆瓣酥… The presentation was pretty, with the bean paste sandwiched between layers of egg yolk and egg white. Taste was a little bland, which is why it needed a sweet and fruity sauce.

Given our experience yesterday, we tried not to over-order main courses.

Prawn and crab meat with pancake (金菊蟹蝦夾餅) – this was kinda interesting. River shrimps are stir-fried with some crab roe and meat, then you wrap it in pancake along with some julienned cucumber and yellow chrysanthemum petals.

Sophia’s Kungfu chicken (別有天功夫雞) – I know it’s the signature dish that has been cooked for 2 hours with 28 types of herbs and spices… but to me it’s just a decent chicken with some subtle herbal flavors on top of the sweet soy sauce.

Meatball on seashell (蛤蜊獅子頭) – very interesting take on the traditional meatball, made with clams and apples. Presentation was very pretty and they were encased in open clam shells. The flavor was definitely sweeter than the normal meatball, which probably came from the apple. Very nice.

Stir-fried greens with winter bamboo shoots (塌菜炒冬筍) – I’ve been dying to have this veggie and finally got it. Love that very mild bitter aftertaste along with the sweetness.

I was happy…a simple, casual yet delicious Shanghainese meal, and I didn’t feel stuffed at the end!