Sakura - xiao long bao?

I've been on a personal quest to find a place in Philadelphia that makes really good soup dumplings. In the last year or so, there have been a few contenders that have popped up in Chinatown, one called Dim Sum Garden and there was another small place located on Race between 9th and 10th. I can't quite remember the name but I remember trying the dumplings multiple times at both these locations in a vain attempt to find a good soup dumpling. I got so dumpling crazy that I even ordered them at dimsum once at Ocean City. Now that really showed desperation, as all XLB experienced eaters know - you can't really make these beauties ahead of time and you sure as heck can't wheel them around the room for 20 minutes and expect them to stay plump and juicy. Instead of juicy dumplings, I got 3 dried and shriveled pork dumlings heavily flavored with ginger. And was once again convinced that my search would never be successful.

**Green Beans**

Dim Sum Garden on 11th Street makes a pretty good dumpling but I think the best part of my eating experience there has little to do with the dumpling itself and more to do with the sweet "dumpling" sauce that they have on each table. I like to mix the dumpling sauce with the chili oil and the vinegar to make my own concoction that I use to sauce my dumplings. I also typically really enjoy the napa cabbage that is usually steamed along side the dumplings on the bottom of the steamer and DSG does away with this vegetation. So although the dumplings were decent and juicy they don't compare to the dumplings that are served at Joe Shanghai's/Joe Ginger in NYC and it's these yummy juicy buns that are the gold standard for XLB's.

But sweet success was to be had! after being tipped off to XLB's on FooBooz I quickly made my way over to Chinatown to see if it was indeed true. Winner! Sakura, on the corner of 11th and Race (used to be Ong's) now serves XLBs. They posted little color prints of the yummy dumplings in their windows and Miss HatT and I decided to give it a try. Boy oh boy am I glad that we did. As soon as we sat down a waittress came over to see if we wanted to order dumplings. And this was literally minutes after we got to the table. They do this at almost all the good dumpling places because they steam the dumplings to order and it takes a good 15 minutes for the dumplings to be cooked so to get them to the table ASAP they need to put them in the steamer right away.

**Soup Dumpling on it's way to being devoured**



Miss HatT and I were actually starving having just come from the Art Star Craft Fair on Penns Landing and needed some serious refueling. I had read on the post that the scallion pancakes were yummy and the double cooked porked. So we ordered those dishes as well as string beans. I was so blown away by my dumplings and so happy to see my pork and green beans that I completely forgot about my scallion pancakes which never arrived. I can't even tell you if we ended up being charged for them as with many places in Chinatown, the bill was written in chinese and we just happily paid up and left the joint.

Let me get back to the dumplings, as they were certainly the highlight of the meal. We got 6 good sized dumplings. The skins were delicate and a little on the sticky side. I could literally see throught the skins, they were so delicate. We ordered the pork crab version which is my favorite and they did not dissappoint. One reviewer said that the soup was less salty than other places..but I found it to be well seasoned and full of flavor. The filling itself was meaty but not too dense and the crab flavor wasn't too seafood-y which showed that it was fresh. I would highly recommend that anyone looking for XLB in Philly to check this place out.

As for the rest of the meal, it did not live up to expectations. The double cooked pork had a combo of sliced pork belly, pressed tofu and cabbage swimming in a chili oil bean sauce. I found the dish edible but salty and not at all spicy..there was little to no heat. It wasn't off putting but just not something that I would order again. And the same for the green beans. The black bean sauce with pickled bits of turnip/radish just seemed salty more than anything else. Perhaps I'm used to the sweeter style of cantonese cooking and dirty chinese take out. Or perhaps the chef had an off day and double salted everthing. But after having the leftover green beans with rice today for lunch, it just reinforced my initial impression of the dish being oversalted. I have yet to try to finish off the left over double cooked pork. I'm considering eating it with plain congee as I usually like my congee with some sort of salty side dish.

**Double Cooked Pork**

Anyway, these were minor set backs as the dumplings were really very very very good. And although I have been called (by a good friend of mine), the ultimate hype man, I kid you not, these XLB are the real thing and definitely worth a try to all XLB devotees - newies and old heads alike.