Shanghai Breakfast for Champions

I always enjoyed a morning jog/walk around The Bund because that would meant that I could enjoy a wonderful breakfast at Taikang.

New York Times called the xiaolongbao 小笼包 from DinTaiFeng as one of the top food to eat in the world. CNN voted it as one for the bucket list. There are many before DinTaiFeng, including where it all began – Nanxiang. And then there’s Taikang. where they popularised another variation of the xiaolongbao – the giant soup dumpling 灌汤包.

Taikang Soup Dumpling has been a staple of Shanghainese along the Nanjing Pedestrian Street. And they are opened very early in the morning for the morning crowd.

Besides excellent noodles and dumplings on the 2nd floor, the 1st floor was packed with the annual pilgrimage of shoppers buying for the Chinese New Year. The local TV crew came to cover the first batch of smoked and salted meat that came on the market that year.

葱油拌面 Scallions oil with noodles

Another favourite that people order in Taikang is their Shanghai noodles. Just like the ramen noodles in Japan, Shanghai noodles are thin flour noodles that are slightly thicker than the No.2 spaghetti. They are cooked al dente and then served with soup. And in this case, it came with a bowl of beef soup that had a strong taste of cumin.

What I really liked was their deep fried scallion noodles 蔥油拌面. The same Shanghai noodles were mixed with a ladle of scallion-infused oil and then topped with deep fried scallions. The whole flavour profile was filled with the satisfaction of the scallion fragrant, and also umami from the lard and scallion infused oil. Just wonderful

泰康汤包 Taikang soup dumpling

At first look, the dumpling looked an oversized xiaolongbao. The waiter will bring it to your table in the bamboo basket that would normally be used for the xiaolongbao, but now it can only hold one instead of the usual 6.

The waiter, wearing a glove, would pick it up and place it on your plate. Amazingly, it did not break. Of course, oversized is an understatement, only when your dumpling filled the entirely serving plate, you know you have a whopper.

The trick was to prick a small little hole on the dumpling with a toothpick. I never managed to do it, and the entire content, i.e. the hot crab and pork soup, just oozed onto the plate. Drink that good and then eat the dumpling. Yum yum.

And when you were done with the soup, there’s the delicious pork dumpling to consume with a bit of vinegar and shredded ginger.

Taikang Dumpling 泰康汤包
768 Nanjing Rd Pedestrian St, NanJing Lu, Huangpu Qu,
Shanghai Shi, China, 200000

Tel : +86 21 6360 3252

Date visited : Jan 2022