A (short) Return to Japan

For one glorious week I was back in Japan. I ate (and photographed) enough to keep me busy for a while. So here are my reports from Japan, in no particular order.

First, I'll start with my obsession - 小籠包/shouronpou/xiaolongbao. You don't need to go to Japan to eat these - they aren't even Japanese - but for some reason in Japan they are so, so good. I used to eat them every weekend, without fail.

The distinguishing characteristic is the soup. Outside of Japan these dumplings are juicy, but they don't actually have a noticeable amount of soup. In Japan the soup is half the fun. You have to be careful biting in because the soup is HOT and squirts everywhere. A less obvious difference is that the dough for the fried versions (not steamed, those are pretty much the same) in Japan is thinner, which makes the meat/dough/soup ratio just right. Finally, the dough is also slightly chewier. Outside of Japan you often get fluffy or flaky dough with the fried dumplings. While I guess these changes make the dumplings less "authentic",  I think they are an amazing innovation.

Unfortunately the place I usually went in Nakano closed (gasp!) but there are still plenty of places to choose from. For the sake of convenience I went to a relatively new spot in Musashikoayama, Fire Dragon (yes, that is actually the name). Unfortunately, I did not get the freshly fried boiling hot ones, but you are usually not that lucky.

Look at those beauties! Brings tears to my eyes and saliva to my mouth.

And here is the inside (minus a lot of soup). You get at least one generous spoonful of soup for every dumpling.

Magical sauce. Cannot get enough.