Buns!

[tikistitch]

So, if you're an inveterate armchair traveler (and tiki definitely is--believe us, it's much easier to kick back with a glass of Shiraz and watch Tony Bourdain nosh at a food stand in Nairobi than it is to sample some satai from a street vendor in Beijing and end up with 5 days of explosive diahrrea--as Transformer Andy remarked, "Bourdain travels with a doctor!"), you've perhaps seen some mention of Shanghai dumplings. Typically, the well groomed host will wheel up to the vendor window, snatch a snack, and then declare the superiority of this region's greasy snack food.

So, are you ready for some truth?





Our flight out of Beijing was cancelled, so we got to Shanghai a bit later than we'd expected. Our one quest: to find Nan Xiang, rumored to be the best damn pork dumplings in the entire universe. The restaurant is nestled in a well-touristed, picturesque part of the city. We had a bit of trouble locating the place, and spent much time evading the swarms of "Hello" guys, who want to sell crap (and we mean crap, we wouldn't even take their items for free) to White people.



We finally found Nan Xiang, but it was only an hour before closing time! Since the restaurant requires reservations, we got into the famous takeout line. It's a long line. And for a good reason.



One bun lady mans the window. That's her, on the left. No, she's not at the window--she's making more dumplings. See, after about 5 or 10 minutes of distributing buns, she leaves, and goes to make more buns. For, 10 or 15 or 20 minutes.



Meanwhile, the people standing in line continue to get hungry. We had plenty of opportunity for bad jokes about "get your buns back here!" to the counter lady.



Then, after an hour, just as we began to lose hope.... You'll notice we put the buns on the windowsill, because not only were they too hot to eat, they were even too damn scalding to hold. Also, there's absolutely no place to sit down and nosh nearby.



Hey, wait!



Whoops! All gone.

So, did they live up to the hype? These were definitely amongst the best damn dumplings we've sampled in our whole lives. Perhaps not worth wasting an hour of your life just for the taste. 'Twas quite an experience, we do admit.

Comments

[fushigikb.livejournal.com]

i want that 2nd picture!!!

mmm... you're making me want to eat dumplings or manju (korean dumplings)!
we have a place like that here; where you can see them make the dumplings and they basically cater to only making dumplings (place is always packed). i heard dumpling man in ny is good to. i want to go to ny hence...

[fushigikb.livejournal.com]

p.s. i e-mailed you (way) earlier. i'm sure you're busy, but if it never came lmk please

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear, maybe I didn't get your email! Could you resend?

[fushigikb.livejournal.com]

sent!

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

It made up for the really BAD dumplings we had at the restaurant the night before. They were covered in corn. I guess it's traditional, but it tasted like someone had already eaten the dumplings. Ew.

[setsuna.livejournal.com]

Ooooh!

Food travel writing yum.

Thanks for sharing this!

Btw, how did you hear of this place? I can't believe I'm so ignorant...!

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was in a couple of guidebooks AND one of our party read an article about it in a travel magazine. I really recommend Lonely Planet or Rough Guide books for stuff like this.