Shanghai Shu Mai and Shanghai Pan-Fried Pork Buns

Steamed Crab and Pork Soup Dumplings and Pan Fried Pork Dumplings

Kung Fu Steamed Little Buns Ramen has probably got the best name in the dumpling making game.  I previously reviewed Kung Fu back in June 2014, but one and even two reviews are not enough to cover all of the available dumpling options.  This time I tried the sticky rice shao mai, the crab meat and pork soup dumplings, the pan fried pork dumplings, and a repeat try of the Shanghai pan fried pork buns.

The sticky rice shao mai are filled with seasoned gluttonous rice, shredded pork and chopped Chinese sausage, basically a Chinese version of Southern Dirty  Rice.  This is my favorite style of shao mai and Kung Fu does a excellent, home made, version of this dumpling.  The sticky rice filling was savory with little flecks of sweet and salty sausage mixed in.  The shao mai were big and burly, at least three bites per dumpling.

The soup in the crab and pork soup dumplings was like a creamy, long simmered, pork bone Tonkotsu Ramen broth – WITH CRAB ADDED – it was amazing.  Kung Fu puts a full Chinese soup spoon worth of soup into each dumpling and there was enough crab meat mixed into the pork filling that it seemed like I could taste the ocean in these dumplings.  The wrappers were also perfect, they were thin and supple but didn’t rip open and spill the soup when I picked them up.

Considering that both the soup dumplings and the Shanghai pan fried buns contain soup, juicy seems to be the theme of this post, and the pan fried pork dumplings were some of the juiciest Guo Tie I’ve tried.   Inside the crispy fried outer layer of the wrapper the dough was thicker and fluffier than a typical Japanese gyoza style pan fried dumpling and six of these will fill you up.  The pork filling was savory, salty, sweet and juicy, so juicy they were close to being soup dumplings, they were excellent.