Xiao long bao soup dumplings served with sweet soy sauce and ginger. $3.75
Mama Ji’s, San Francisco CA

I love XLB partly because they’re SO fun to eat. People have always warned me of the ones served in aluminum containers though because the dumpling wrapper tends to stick and break, and I’ve learned first hand that this is certainly true. So when these arrived to the table, I was already skeptical. Low and behold, they did break and not because of my amateur chopsticks-handling. What I could eat in one bite was good, but I would have loved for them to stay intact.