Bloomberg: It’s raining soup dumplings in Manhattan (feat. Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao)
A selection of soup dumplings at Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao. Photo credit: Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao
Across Manhattan, diners are picking up their soup spoons and chopsticks and biting (ever so carefully) into the city’s hottest order.
Xiao long bao, aka the soup dumpling, is a dim sum classic, traditionally with ground pork and/or crab or, increasingly, unconventionally with options such as matzo balls, in a little pool of molten broth within a pleated dumpling wrapper. An enduring staple of food halls in Queens and storefronts in Brooklyn, they’re also nothing new to Manhattanites.
For example, exponentially increasing the supply of soup dumplings in Manhattan is Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao. The group, which has been a staple of Queens’ Flushing neighborhood for almost 20 years, just opened its second Manhattan location, on St. Marks Place; the first opened in Koreatown in October 2022. Each location typically serves about 700 baskets of dumplings, or roughly 4,200 individual pieces, a day.
Michael Ma, a partner at Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, says the company expanded in Manhattan because of growing demand and also to be near the New York University crowd. “The East Village has such a diverse and lively energy in the food and beverage scene. It resembles downtown Flushing, where our original location is,” he says.
Nan Xiang’s roster of dumplings has expanded over the years as the brand’s audience has grown: It now offers about a dozen flavors, including uber-comfort chicken soup dumplings and gourd luffa shrimp pork soup dumplings enhanced with the squashlike vegetable.
The shiny new East Village outpost of the popular Queens spot Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao. Photo credit: Nan Xiang Xia Long Bao
Ma credits TikTok and Instagram with the explosion, pun definitely intended, of soup dumpling popularity. “Social media has been the biggest impact on Nan Xiang growing into the restaurant it is today,” he says.
Another benefit: Diners are getting better at safely consuming xiao long bao. Before the rise of social media, people vividly remembered their first encounter with soup dumplings, Ma recalls, where “they would be warned by dining companions, followed by a demonstration, carefully instructed by a server, or simply learn step by step from a placard at the table” how to eat them properly without scalding themselves with the broth.
Now, TikTok has helped customers become experts by the time they sit down for their inaugural xiao long bao. “Everyone has their own unique way of enjoying their soup dumplings,” Ma says. “We only ask that people not try the one-bite method with a freshly steamed soup dumpling, for their safety and the safety of diners around them.”