MSF Bacon Soup Dumplings
I love soup dumplings. Also known as “Shanghai” dumplings, these little dumplings are filled with delicious soup and ground pork. Think about it – while deconstruction and miniaturized tasting portions have become all the rage in fancy restaurants these days, the Chinese have been doing just this for ages, long before there were sous vide machines or food blogs to obsess over them. It’s the perfect bite, with an entire bowl of soup, miniaturized into a single dumpling. So, when Mission Street Food decided to put their twist on them in collaboration with Lung Shan, how could they improve upon perfection? With bacon, of course!
The dumplings are served in a classic steel steaming vessel, and each dumpling is delivered in an individual silicone cup. The cup holds any escaping broth, and helps the dumpling travel safely to your table. After burning my mouth on the first one I tried, I restrained myself until they were cool enough to eat. A thin layer of dumpling skin holds the whole thing together, encapsulating a nugget of Benton’s bacon, ground pork, and chives. The broth is the real star of the show – it’s infused with a over indulgent smokey bacon flavor that dominates the flavors, and leaves you wanting just one more dumpling. Kudos Anthony, on a great collaboration with Lung Shan.
Bacon not your thing? I suppose you could skip straight to dessert then, and have Anthony make you one of these: a chocolate brownie with Brillat Savarin and toasted hazelnut.
April 22nd, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I disagree about the soup dumplings. I think they are waaay too smokey. All four of us at our table agreed that it tasted like we had licked a BBQ (not hot of course). We could have used a dessert like that to kill the flavor, cause that’s all we could taste for the rest of the dinner.
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Ok Jesse that is it – I wanted to go to MSF before – you have hyped it – but bacon soup dumplings (smokey or not) and chocolate brownie with Brillat Savarin and toasted hazelnut – wow – it is time to make my reservation.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
I agree that the smokiness was way overdone. I love smoked pork. I love to make smoked pork. But the smoke here totally obscured any underlying porky goodness in the meat. On the other hand, I could have eaten about 10 of the crispy duck confit/duck crackling tacos turned out by the Nopa MSF crew.
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Beer and food tasting – how interesting.
Bacon truly does make everything taste better. I would’ve loved to try the dumplings.
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:39 pm
What about the beer?
;-}
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Dr Wort – rest assured, I was drinking an Amarillo Hops-only IPA off camera, followed by the sweet, sweet nectar of life that is Miller Lite.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
AH!!!!! My eyes are burning! Blasphemy!! Why would you do or even consider such a political and gastronomic fopah?? Why, why, why!? What next….. Thunderbird and and Mad Dog 20/20??? My day is ruined, I need to bath in tub of ‘Triple Karmeliet’ just to clean myself of such blasphemies ….. :-O
We’re going to take your “Quality Beer Drinker” badge away from you… ;-}