Soup dumplings are a snack that can be found in both the north and the south. In the south, they are also called "soup dumplings." Their basic feature is that the dough contains both meat fillings and fresh soup. The dough is crystal clear. , the soup is watertight. Xi'an has the famous "Jiajia Soup Dumplings", and Shanghai has the "Nanxiang Xiaolongbao" that is queued up every day. In Tianjin, Kaifeng in Henan, Nanjing, Yangzhou and Jingjiang in Jiangsu, soup dumplings are all famous products.
Crystal soup dumplings have the same formal beauty as soup dumplings, and their contents are exquisite and unique. The meat filling and fresh soup live in the same room. Eating it will bring you to the northern country of eating noodles, eating meat, and eating soup. Trinity is a kind of integrated charm. When eating steamed buns filled with soup, the presence of soup comes first, followed by the meat filling, and then the dough. The soup is like poetry, the meat filling is like prose, and the dough is like novel. Because novels are inclusive of everything, if prose is more refined, poetry will be the essence of the text. Therefore, after eating the steamed stuffed buns with soup, I was the first to remember the freshness of the soup. The meat filling is close to the taste of the soup, and the chewy texture of the dough is almost negligible.
What kind of food are soup dumplings made from? As the name suggests, it is a kind of steamed bun, but with soup inside. Why is this? In fact, it is just a layer of window paper, which cannot be broken unless it is poked. Those who don’t know may think that some kind of tool is used to pour the soup into the stuffing. Otherwise, the soup is already in the stuffing. It’s just that the aspic is placed in the stuffing before being wrapped, and then it is cooked in the steamer. Once steamed, the frozen meat will melt without leaking. When making soup dumplings, the soup must not leak out, and the dumplings must not stick to the basket. This all depends on the skill of the chef.
In fact, the "soup" in soup dumplings is not poured into the buns afterwards. The secret lies in the fillings of the buns. The usual method is to cut the pig skin into fine pieces, simmer it into the soup stock, and solidify into skin jelly after cooling. This is the secret of the soup dumplings. The jelly is solid when put into the filling, but melts into a thick soup when heated. Soup dumplings in the South often add crab roe to the filling. You can imagine how fresh the soup is. Jiajia soup dumplings in the north are halal food, so the method of jellying pig skin cannot be used. This is not a problem for the Hui people who also love soup dumplings - beef and mutton bone soup is mixed with yellow beef filling. After heating, the soup can overflow from the meat filling. The soup is also delicious.
A basket of freshly steamed soup dumplings is placed in front of you. Looking down, you can see that the jade-white dough has more than 30 folds, like a blooming white chrysanthemum. Use chopsticks to gently pinch the pleats and slowly lift it up. The fresh soup is filled with it, and the "chrysanthemum" turns into a "lantern". Through the shell that can be broken by blowing, you can faintly see the soup trembling in it. But in order to "eat" such a delicious soup dumpling, inexperienced diners will have to make a fool of themselves, accidentally burning themselves, or surprising others with the splash of juice. To eat a soup dumpling, you need to gently bite a small opening and slowly suck out the soup. This series of procedures is summarized as the twelve-character key - "lift gently, move slowly, open the window first, then drink the soup."