Oil steamed and fried buns with a pork filling and garnished with sesame seeds and scallions.  $5.25
Shanghai Dumpling King, San Francisco

I consider my co-worker, Alan, to be a Chinese food expert since he’s a native San Franciscan/Chinese American and I’ve learned quite a few things from him. I sometimes wish he doesn’t tell me certain things, like how these pork buns are cooked, lol! This was the first time I’ve tried these pan fried pork buns and I naively assumed they were first steamed, then fried since they are brown on the bottom. The dough has a different consistency than other buns so I also assumed that they used a special dough batter. I was wrong! It’s the same dough batter is used as in other pork buns, then the buns are steamed and fried simultaneously in a pool of oil! The hot oil sears the bottoms while the steam cooks the rest of the buns to a soft, squishy consistency. No wonder they’re so flavorful! Even knowing how they’re made now, I will order these again in a heartbeat since they are addictingly delicious!