I was raised to believe that food and travel go hand in hand. Because it’s true. Plus I took a poll on instagram and basically everyone wanted to see this story. So here I am to tell you about the self made soup dumpling tour that Jen and I took through Chinatown in NYC, with a special guest appearance from Jackie. So this may not be directly travel related, but I took a train and I had an itinerary, so I’d say it’s close enough.
It’s extremely fitting, also, that Landen’s third birthday is just 5 days away. What does Landen’s birthday have to do with soup dumplings? I’m glad you asked. Let’s start at the beginning.
Exactly three years ago, I was living in Baltimore and just about 34 weeks pregnant. For my very last trip outside of Maryland before baby, I went to NYC to see some people and do some things. One of those things, scheduled for October 16, 2016, was a soup dumpling tour with Jen and Marissa. We did some research, read some blogs, and picked the places we most wanted to try. Everything was perfect and ready to go until about 1:30 am on the 16th when my water broke. The soup dumplings were canceled (postponed) and a few hours later out popped our little preemie, born among random doctors because, as mentioned, I was in New York and my doctors were in Baltimore.
Happy almost birthday, little man.
So for the past three years, we have been dreaming about making this happen again, and just recently we finally did (sorry we left you out this time Marissa).
Of course, three years is a long time and a lot has changed in Chinatown, but Jen did some more recent research and we came up with six spots to try.
We decided to skip stop 7, Drunken Dumpling, because it was the only place not in Chinatown and too far.
Stop 1: 21 Shanghai House (not to be confused with stop 2, Shanghai 21)
Lobster and Pork Soup Dumplings
Stop 2: Shanghai 21
Truffle and Pork Soup Dumplings
Stops 1 and 2 were our favorites. Maybe it was because they were different (most places only offer pork dumplings or pork and crab dumplings) or maybe it was because the soup to meat ratio was good or maybe it was because the dumpling skin was the right level of thin (or thick). I don’t know, I’m not a food blogger and I’m not a dumpling pro. I just like to eat and we liked those the best, that is all. Plus truffle was a fascinating addition even for me, a non truffle person.
At the beginning of the day, we discussed possibly ordering some other dishes at one or two restaurants. I even tried to find some specialties at these restaurants other than soup dumplings, but the internet wasn’t super helpful. We didn’t want to fill up in the beginning of the tour though, so we decided to just stick to soup dumplings at stops one and two. It’s a good thing we did, because stops three and four had required minimums that we could not meet with just the dumplings. I also think stops three and four had the worst dumplings of all of the stops (to be clear though, there really aren’t any BAD soup dumplings, these just weren’t AS GOOD).
Stop 3: New Shanghai Deluxe
Pork Soup Dumplings and Shanghai Dough
Sorry this got cut off, deal with it. I’m not in the mood to fix it. It obviously says New Shanghai Deluxe. 
We ordered the dough to meet the minimum, and because we had never heard of it before and were intrigued. There was a language barrier, so we couldn’t really get a clear understanding of what we were ordering from the waiter. Turns out Shanghai Dough is a fancy word for “tofu”. It was okay and had a good flavor, but served cold. I’m sure I would have really enjoyed it if it was hot.
Stop 4: Deluxe Green Bo
Pork and Crab Soup Dumpling and Spicy Dumpling
These dumplings were very small, meaning they had a lot less soup. They had good flavor though. The spicy dumplings weren’t good at all. They were not spicy whatsoever, and were covered in a thick peanut sauce. We were both expecting more of a spicy oil situation.
May the spicy dumplings and shanghai dough live forever in Jackie’s work fridge.
Speaking of Jackie! She met up with us on her lunch break for stop 5, which was supposed to be 456 New Shanghai. We got there and it was definitely closed. Not the type of closed that looked like it was opening in a few hours either. The type of closed that is somewhat boarded up.
So we proceeded to stop 6, our final stop.
Stop 6: Shanghai Heping
Pork soup dumplings and Shanghai Rice Cakes
I think these dumplings probably got third place, but we were so full at this point it’s hard to tell. They were big and soup filled and pretty good, but maybe a little too much ginger if I remember correctly. We also got Shanghai Rice Cakes with pork, chicken, and shrimp. That was delicious.
We decided not to go to Joe’s Shanghai for this experience because we’ve been there so many times and wanted to try all of the others. Looking back, this was our biggest mistake. It’s hard to compare your favorite soup dumpling in the world with all of the others without a recent tasting of said favorite soup dumpling. Honestly, though, I think I can still say with some certainty that Joe’s is the best. There’s a reason for the line (which we did not experience AT ALL at any of the other places), and it’s worth the wait. And that’s my takeaway from this experience.
Oh, and we ended our day with a trip to Baked By Melissa, as all soup dumpling tours, and possibly all meals, should end.
TRAVELING WITH ARDEN 