Xiaolong Soup Dumplings 小笼馒头
Xiaolong Soup Dumplings is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
Xiaolong Soup Dumplings (小笼馒头) in Wuxi (无锡) have thin skins, plentiful juices and a notably sweet-savoury filling. Yangtse Evening Post’s 2024 visits to local dumpling shops describe them both as a sit-down snack and as gifts carried to friends and relatives in neighbouring cities.
Wangxingji’s pork filling and pleats
At Wangxingji (王兴记), practitioner Li Zhenghua (李政华) identifies the filling as pork from the centre of the leg, pork-skin jelly, scallion, ginger, yellow rice wine, sugar and salt. The dough is rolled thin and even around its edges, with a slightly thicker centre. Filling is added, the wrapper is pleated shut, and the dumplings are steamed in small baskets.
Wangxingji’s traditional form combines chrysanthemum-like folds with an opening shaped like a carp’s mouth. Each dumpling has eighteen to twenty-three pleats. After steaming, the wrappers are white and glossy.
Sipping the juices
The dumpling is moved gently to a small dish with aromatic vinegar. A small bite opens the wrapper so the hot juices can be sipped before eating the rest. For gifts, steamed dumplings are cooled and packed in baskets woven from fine bamboo strips.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-27. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.
Image credits & notes (1)
- A soup-filled xiaolongbao dumpling on a spoon, the pleated steamed dumpling style Wuxi is known for. · 小笼馒头（小笼包），无锡一带常见的汤汁蒸饺点心，置于汤匙上。Photo: Willis Lam · CC BY-SA 2.0 · taken 2015-10-16Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited. Thumbnails may show a cropped view.
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