One of the places I always try to visit while I am in Shanghai is Nanxiang Mantou Dian, which is a well known dumpling restaurant near Yu Yuan Garden in Old City Shanghai.

I am thinking about Shanghai tonight as I was in a meeting with some of my Chinese colleagues earlier today.
After class on the last day of a course back in 2005 I headed out with three of my students. We decided to take a cab and raced through the streets in the Shanghai Derby.

When we got to Yu Yuan Garden I headed straight for Nanxiang Mantou Dian so we could get in line for some dumplings.
We were lucky that the line was not too long. I figured we would only have about a 15 minute wait. Here is a peek through the window into the kitchen where we see dumplings cooking over the steamers. We finally made our way to the front of the line and paid for four servings of dumplings. However, we then had to wait for about 10 minutes before the next batch was ready. It was just our luck that they finished serving the last batch just as we made it to the window.

Maybe that was good luck as I was able to get a few nice picture. However, it was really hard to see the steamers sitting there waiting while they were cooling. They had to let them cool down before serving.Finally the dumplings cooled enough that they could serve them. Each of the steamers hold 16 dumplings, and that is what each of us got.

Here you see the server dumping a steamer full of dumplings into a to-go tray. You can also see a big jar of vinegar, and of course I added some vinegar to my serving.
Here you see my serving of Nanxiang xialong or steamed pork dumplings. Each of the dumplings if filled with a delicious broth. You have to be careful as you eat them as the broth will spray all over the place when you bite into the dumpling. The best way to eat them is to put the entire dumpling in your mouth and then bite into it. I decided to get a closer picture of these delicious dumplings. They were definitely worth the wait. A nice treat to celebrate the end of a course.

After we ate our dumplings we did a little bit of exploring in the area before heading off to the Bund. There we had Magnum Bars for dessert.

Then it was off to see Nanjing Road which is one of the most famous shopping streets in the world.

After the harrowing taxi drive I decided to convince my students we needed to take the metro back to the hotel. Then it was time to repack my suitcase and get ready for my flight. Luckily there was no Packing Formula to solve.

If you are going to Shanghai, this is one of the treats that you don’t want to miss.

Steven