Xiao Long Bao (XLB) are no ordinary dumplings. To describe them as soup dumplings, which is how they’re often translated, is actually misleading. They are not at all like the wontons, kreplach or tortellini you find in a bowl of soup. When you eat XLP, you find the soup inside the dumpling.

XLB are thin-skinned dumplings that are stuffed with both a meat filling and a gelatinous glob of soup. As the dumplings are steamed, the meat cooks and the soup liquefies, so the dumpling becomes, in effect, the bowl for the soup as well as the wrapper for the meat.

If XLB are in a class of their own, the XLB from Din Tai Fung are even more exalted. They are considered the best there is—and they’re coming our way. Bellevue’s Lincoln Square will soon house the second Din Tai Fung in the U.S., and the excitement surrounding them is palpable when you walk past the construction site that will soon be the restaurant or continue down the corridor to where some dozen or more aspiring dumpling makers (above) have been working for months to perfect the art of XLB.

Everyone who knows about the arrival of XLB and Din Tai Fung, and there are many who are waiting impatiently, have wanted to know when the restaurant will open. The answer, at least for now, is sometime in November. The wait is on.

But it doesn’t begin and end there. In December, Revel, a sister restaurant to Rachel Yang’s and Seif Cherchi’s Joule, will open in Fremont. Serving Asian street food, Revel will feature pancakes, noodles, rice and, of course, dumplings. Joule regularly serves some sort of dumpling, but always in a new and unusual way. Take, for example, their mac and cheese, made from black sesame spaetzle, or their mochi casserole (above), made with sliced Korean mochi, chorizo and sweet chili. On the flip side, Revel will be much more simple and straight-forward, offering three types of Korean dumplings, one filled with meat, one with seafood, and one with vegetables.

If you’re not prepared to wait for Din Tai Fung or Revel to open, but want your dumplings now, then I advise you to make the trek to Garden Korean Cuisine in Federal Way. Choose from the thin-skinned, half-moon shaped Tong Mandoo (above) or the soft and doughy pinched-top variety, Goki Mandoo, (below) both filled with beef, pork and vegetables.

And while you’re at it, why not enjoy an enormous bowl of SooJaeBi (at bottom), a hot soup served with homemade dumpling skins? Remember, it’s going to be a long wait ‘til your next (or first) Xiao Long Bau.

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