Xiaolongbao

Xiaolongbao is a type of steamed dumpling from the Jiangnan region of China.  With visitors in town, we had to make sure they got to try this traditional food.  At this restaurant, the different colors represent different flavors of filling including crab, black truffle, curry, vegetable, and garlic.  The filling includes about a spoon-full of soup too, so there's an art to eating them.  The usual method involves using chopsticks to pick up the dumpling by its top, holding it over a spoon and taking a small bite to let the hot soup drain into the spoon, and blowing on the hot delicacy to make sure it won't burn your tongue.  Then the dumpling and soup can be eaten individually. 

There are many many different types of dumplings, but unfortunately our English language doesn't have specific words for each.  My Chinese friends often ask how to say one or the other, but all I can do is start describing what they are made out of or how they are cooked.