Hand in Hand Beijing Restaurant: Xiao Long Bao is here to stay

With Sumosumo, Champagne, Mr Yakwang, Jems and our latest makankaki, lovejade

Xiao Long Bao $6.50 for rack of 8

Some foods come and go, but I think in the case of Xiao Long Bao (XLB), it has gone past the stage of being a fad to becoming a firm favourite amongst Singaporeans. And I would not be surprised if 20 years from now, XLB is considered as Singaporean as Hokkien Mee. Although it is still sold mainly in restaurants at the moment, we are beginning to see some stalls beginning to sell them in Hawker Centres.

Now, you might think that it is far fetched to say that the XLB will become a Singaporean dish, we might as well say that Pasta will be considered a Singaporean dish since we are beginning to see lots of stalls in hawker centres selling Italian food. But there is one big difference. We are going to have a bigger population of Singaporeans of Northern Chinese descent in the future. Right now, they are still considered "China born Chinese" but their offspring will become Singaporean and bring with them their own cuisine and culture. So as our Dialect mix of mainly Southern Chinese become more diluted with the Northerners, our "local" food will surely change as well.


Testing the Xiao Long Bao skin for resilience

Anyway, I for one have grown to like this little dumpling a lot and whenever I hear of a new eatery selling it, I am always tempted to go try them out. So when Sumosumo started raving about the food at this place, it did not take us long to organize a makan session to check out the XLB.

I think part of the success of the XLB is the fact that it is a dumpling with distinct characteristics. It is easy to tell if the XLB is good or not even before you put it into your mouth. When you get presented with your rack of XLB, the first thing to observe is the number of folds it has and whether the skin is thin enough to see the pool of soup inside. Then comes the acid test which is the ability to pick up the XLB without the skin breaking. Some restaurants take so much pride in this that should your XLB burst before you put it in your mouth, that they would happily replace the XLB should it burst before its appointed time.

Well, the XLB here certainly passed the skin and soup test, what remains is the taste of the meat and the soup which I thought was very good but just lacks that X factor to make it truly exceptional. At $6.50 for a rack of 8 XLB, it is certainly good enough to make me think of coming back and ordering 2 racks and a pot of tea for a nice lunch. 4.25/5


Seaweed Tofu $9.80

There were several other dishes here that were surprisingly good. The homemade Seaweed Tofu was unexpectedly good. This is one of those really popular dishes that a lot of restaurant and Cze Char places are dishing up nowadays, so I have had it on numerous occasions, but this one really stood out. The tofu itself was very eggy and there was something in the sauce that had that "eat more rice" quality about it. 4.5/5


Sliced Pork Belly with Garlic and Chilli oil $9.80

The other dish that we ended up ordering extra plates of was the Sliced Pork Belly with Garlic and Chilli Oil. Everyone was quite unanimous about this dish. It is quite addictive and is an excellent first dish to wet your expectation for the rest of the meal. Actually we had it as a first dish and the last dish since we couldn't get enough of it. 4.5/5


Bittergourd with salted egg

The bittergourd dish drew mixed responses. Some of our kakis really loved it but I felt that the combination of bitter with salty just did not do it for me. Bitter goes well with sweet, like coffee or Durians, but bitter with salty is a difficult combination to get right. 3/5


Pancake with Chives $6.80

The Pancake with Chives was a little different from the usual as it had minced pork in it. For $6.80 it was excellent value I thought. Tastewise I felt that the crust lacked a certain amount of chewiness underneath the crispy crust. However, the mince pork gave it a great savoury flavour. 4/5

Conclusion

Fancy finding a Little Chinese Restaurant in Little India. If you are looking for an alternative place for your Xiao Long Bao fix, you might just like to pay this place a visit. Parking is convenient, prices are reasonable and there are a couple of dishes that will make you go "Phwaa!". Another great thing is that they open till midnight, just in case you suddenly get a craving for XLB late at night.

What to do next?

We did a poll to see how people eat their XLB, the results are here

Hand in Hand Beijing Restaurant
141-143 Jalan Besar
Between Hindoo and Veerasamy Roads
68415301
11am to 12 midnight daily

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Shanghai RenJia: Shen Jian Pao Surprise!

Xiao Long Bao $4.80 for 5

I don't remember ever eating Xiao Long Bao (XLB) when I was a kid. I think it is something that has taken Singapore by storm in the last decade. The beauty of the XLB is the spoonful of soup that you get in each dumpling.

I have always wondered how they managed to get the soup in the dumpling. Was it from the meat or do they somehow add it in. Well it happens that there are many ways of getting the soup in the dumpling. The shortcut way is to add more oil into the meat filling. This would make the dumpling very rich. The proper way is to prepare the soup before hand, chill it such that it has a jelly like consistency and mix it into the meat filling. The soup in the dumpling is thus very light and tasty after having extracted the flavors from the meat filling.

Since we were sitting in a restaurant where the hosts were Shanghainese, I asked them what the proper way to eat XLB was. There are a couple of ways I could think of. I used to dip the whole thing in the vinegar, put a few strands of ginger on top and put the whole thing in my mouth. This way, the dumpling bursts like a balloon in your mouth releasing all that wonderful soup and meaty flavours. (Have to make sure its not too hot) The Lao Ban Niang suggested that one should put the dumpling in the soup spoon, bite a little hole and suck out the soup first, then dip the dumpling in the vinegar and eat the rest. This way you get to savour the beautiful soup first. My son likes to break the whole dumpling open in the bowl, eat the skin first, the meat second and drink the soup from the bowl last. (Talk about menu deconstruction!) So pray tell, how do YOU savour your XLB? (Tell us by taking part in the latest poll!)

The XLB here is very good. There is a good amount of soup in each dumpling and the skin is resilient so that it does not break easily. The Lao Ban had been in the flour business all his life and is very knowledgeable about all sorts of different flours. So the skin of the baos here are excellent. I felt though that it would have been perfect if the skin was a fraction thinner and the filling had more ooomph. Nonetheless it is a XLB that I would rate as one of the best in Singapore. 4.25/5


Shen Jian Pau $7.20 for 6

The Shen Jian Pao (SJP) on the other hand is an item that I would drive all the way from Siglap to eat again tomorrow! This is seriously a delightful and exciting discovery. I would even go so far to say that it is most special Pao one can ever savour.

The Pao is fried in a covered saucepan. So the oil cooks the bottom half of the Pao skin so that it is crisp on the outside. The steam trapped in the saucepan steams the top part of the Pao to a nice fluffy consistency.

When you bite into the Pao, the juices just flow out and, if you are not careful, down onto your chin! So in one bite, you get a tender meat filling, an explosion of juices which is absorbed by the soft skin and lastly a crispy caramelised skin to tease your palate. It is such a joy to eat! I just crave to rave. Crave to rave, I say! Best SJP in Singapore, JB and maybe even Shanghai! 4.75/5


Special Ter Kah (not on the menu) $20

The restaurant serves a host of other Shanghainese favourites like drunken chicken, deep fried ribbon fish, la mian and so on. We were recommended this Shanghainese style Ter Kah which is excellent. Shanghainese Lor (Braising Sauce) is thick, gooey and sweet. The meat is soft and well caramelized. It is different from the Teochew and Hokkien style that we are used to but shiok nonetheless. 4.5/5

The lady in the middle was introduced to us as the Masterchef who taught the Masterchefs in Shanghai, before she came to Singapore. The Lao Ban said that he was extremely fortunate to get her to work in the restaurant. Both he and his wife lived in Singapore for almost 15 years before starting this restaurant out of a love to share their Shanghainese food with Singaporeans. They were passionate about their food and provided great service as well.

Conclusion

The Shen Jian Pao is the best I have ever eaten. Not only I say, my other 3 makankakis all concur that it deserves a 4.75 rating. There is only one potential problem. If you go on a weekend, you have to be prepared to wait a long time for your pao. It takes them quite a while to prepare each one!

Shanghai People
906B Upper Thomson Road
(Next to Han's)
64567752
12pm to 10pm daily

Recommended by Koolabee

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Shanghai Delights: Delightful Indeed: Sim Lim Square Food Centre Part 1 of 3

With PK, smart, liverpool, tamago, yummydummies and iwatch_ueat


Next time you are at Sim Lim Square and are feeling peckish after all that shopping for computer stuff, make sure you visit this Shanghai Delights stall at the food court. I guarantee (Did I say guarantee? I take it back. No guarantee, no refunds!) that you are going to be delighted! Just look at how big and juicy the Guo Tie is! At 50 cents a piece, it is a real bargain.



The skin is nice and crisp and the filling is generous and juicy. I felt the filling could do with a bit more ooomph though. 4/5



The one dish that you really MUST TRY is the Stir Fried Beef with rice. Yes, when I was recommended the Stir Fried Beef with rice, my first reaction was also: "Huh? Sure or not?" How good can this be? BUT it was GOOD! There was some flavour in the Beef that triggered that part of my brain that archives tastes. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something in the Beef that triggered a brief flashback to my childhood days. It tasted like some sort of really tasty canned meat, like Ma Ling Kong Bak or something like that. It got me tasting it again and again to try to retrieve the info from the deep storage archives of my temporal lobes. Unfortunately I still could not positively identify the flavour, but boy was it pleasurable. 4.5/5



The other signature dish is the SzeChuan La Mian. Not bad if you like Hot and Sour soup. The gravy was full of chucky chicken pieces and the bowl was very generous. Quite shiok on a cold rainy day! 4/5

Conclusion

Great food and very generous portions! Though there are an increasing number of Shanghainese food places springing up in Food Centres, this has got to be one of the best ones around for affordable and shiok Shanghainese Food.

Shanghai Delights
Stall 14 Sim Lim Square Food Centre
10am to 10pm

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Shanghai Tim Sum - SingShang Cuisine

I thought that Shanghainese dumpling and la mian cuisine was quite a recent trend in Singapore until I found this 30 year old little Shanghainese Food Stall in the old Margaret Drive FC! Oh, you mean the Shanghainese were around 30 years ago! Ah Soh Des Ka! Started by Sebastian's father over 30 years ago, the food here has evolved into what I term as "SingShang" cuisine.

Take for instance the Tom Yum soup pictured above, this is like Tom Yum meets Sharks Fin soup. It is thick and gooey like Shark's Fin soup but it has the chillies, lemon grass, galangal, lime flavours of Tom Yum. Whoever heard of Shanghai Tom Yum? Quite interesting. $4 per bowl (bigger bowl then picture above) (Ok, I realised that Tom Yum is Thai cuisine, but this is the SingThai version of Tom Yum, ok? Pedantic!) 3.5/5




The handmade Guo Tie deserves to be raved about. Crispy on the outside, juicy and savoury meat morsels on the inside AND you get 10 for $4!! Nothing better then good food then GOOD AND CHEAP food. Buy two plates and you will be very happy. Simple pleasures in life. 4/5




This is the Shanghai rice cake. It's like hor fun, but instead of kway teow, you get what looks like sliced Marjong tiles. Its very chewy and supposedly, the yardstick in gauging its quality is how much of it gets stuck to your teeth. Good to try it once, but not really my cup of tea. (Don't try it if your dentures are loose) 3/5




The steam dumplings are quite commendable, the main main selling point being real value for money. Not as tasty as Crystal Jade or Imperial Treasure which are my favourite Shanghainese food places, but hey, $3 per plate, can't complain, especially if you have a family of 10 mouths to feed. 3/5



Conclusion

The original sign board says it all! This is one unique food stall in a Food Centre thats looks like its next on the HDB upgrading program. So try it will you still can!

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