We went for a tasty event at this spot, which just opened earlier this year. We enjoy some good dim sum every once in a while, especially dumplings. This event included demonstration on how the soup dumplings were made. How fun! Their sign says “Shanghai Street Foods” but since I have never been to Shanghai, I am not sure how authentic and true their claim is…but hey, as long as they are tasty, I am ok with that!

The inside was open with ceiling of the first half of the space going all the way to the top of second floor. They had small seating on the first floor by the entrance, just a couple of tables.

There is a second floor above the ordering counter and their kitchen. They had menu with photos on the wall next to the ordering counter, nicely lit. It is always helpful to be able to see a picture of the food before you order.

The second floor is where our event was held. They had much more seating here than down the stairs. It was clean and open, not too many tables in this space, allowing enough space to move around. They had all the condiments like few kinds of soy sauce and sriracha.

They had incredible art on most of the tables. They were sculptures of birds, all made of food ingredients! They were super detailed, remarkable pieces of arts! I heard that one of their chefs made them. Serious talent here.

Then the demonstration started. Their chef had everything prepared. The dough for the wrapper and the stuffing. He was making soup dumplings. We asked what kind it was, and we were told Spicy Pork Soup Dumplings. He took one of the round dough out of the bag, and used wooden roller to form it into a think, round wrapper.

He as really fast and the wrapper looked pretty perfect, the consistency of the thinness was awesome, and they came out all about the same size, what a skill! After that, he put some soup dumpling filling in it, and closed it with ease.

He was pinching and folding the edges until it was completely closed, and all the process took him only a couple minutes or less. He allowed brave challengers to try and make the dumpling, and it did not look easy at all…

While he let others try to master his skill unsuccessfully, he continued making more and more dumpling. Well, they do need to let us taste them after watching them being made…and we were all hungry and eager participants. He was making lots of those fluffy dumplings, I was curious what it would look and taste like when they finally come out.

They had two kinds of canned beers from Bronx Brewery, one of the best local beers around. Awesome!

Then, the feast started. They brought out Pork Dumplings in Sweet & Spicy Sauce. The staffs made sure we all got the paper dishes containing two dumplings.

The wrapper was nice and think, and had a good amount of filling. The pork meat was more minced than I was used to, it was like a hardened mousse. The sauce was really tasty, a bit salty but full of flavor for sure.

Then we got Pan Fried Pork Bao and Chicken Shao Mai.

Chicken Shao Mai is a Sticky Rice Dumplings, and it was sticky alright. I have never had this item before, it was interesting. The entire thing was kind of sticky as its named for, but didn’t taste much of chicken.

Pan Fried Pork Bao had nice crispy bottom from being pan fried. It looked a little deflated, maybe because it didn’t have as much filling? It looked more thin, like some sort of UFO, rather than nice round little mountain. The filling was again more minced than I am used to, like a hardened mousse. Funny enough, the crispy bottom of the bao was my favorite part of this bao.

The another dumplings were brought over. It was Fish Dumpling in Sweet & Spicy Sauce.

The funny thing was, the staff wasn’t absolutely sure if it was a tray of fish or pork dumplings, and she asked us to taste it and see which one it was. We tried it, and actually…we were not sure after tasting it. Since the filling was more white, we figured it was fish. The flavor itself was not distinguishable… Seems like the source of flavor was the sauce. With it soaked in the sauce, it was tasty, but not the actual flavor of the port or the fish.

Next up was Soy Garlic Noodle with Cilantro. The noodles were kind of stuck with each other, didn’t have the silky smooth exterior. The noodles had nice chewy texture, but not so much garlic flavor… The flavor from soy was definitely present, but I wanted it to be more garlic-y.

Then, a few pieces of Fried Chicken Cutlet. It was a bit of surprise, I don’t really think of this items being offered from this type of Chinese eatery. It is kind of like Japanese chicken katsu, but much thinner. It was comforting and the breading was crunchy.

Then finally, long awaited soup dumplings! We got the Spicy Pork Soup Dumplings. They were a nice size and steamed to perfection.

It was the best thing we had out of all the dishes we received. It was juicy, flavorful and piping hot! It is important to poke a hole into it first, sip the soup (carefully!), then it was suggested to eat the dumpling with ginger vinegar soy sauce. It was not so spicy but tasty. The only thing was that we only got to have one, while other tables were getting several more of them…

Spicy Diced Chicken Over Rice was up next. This one was kind of strange, the meat was quite dark in color, and had…well…interesting taste. I was not so spicy, whatever the seasoning that had on it was…well, again, interesting.

Then more rice dishes came out. At this point, we were so full… This one was Braised Pork Meatball Over Rice. The meatball was huge, it was quite juicy and meaty. The texture was kind of “loose” instead of tightly packed. The flavor itself was nice, not amazing but quite tasty.

The last rice dish we received was the Sweet & Sour Pork Ribs Over Rice. The ribs were cooked well and really tender. It was pretty darn tasty, I think this was one of my top three of the evening.

When we thought we could not possibly have another bite, we saw a tray of shrimps coming our way. I could not resist but take one… Since it was still completely shelled, it was a challenge to eat it. You had to commit yourself to get down and dirty. It was a Spicy Shrimp, and of a good size. Once I peeled off the shell and taken off the head, I went in for a bite. It was quite flavorful, not really spicy but definitely was tasty.

The last thing we had was Pan Fried Vegetable Bao. This one had nice light green color, and formed into a perfect little mountain. The dough was fluffy and it had lots of filling. And the filling was surprisingly tasty! It was one of my favorite item of the evening. It was packed with flavor, satisfying yet light.

 

We had a really nice and fun event here, with crazy amount of food. Most of the items had very similar flavoring (sauce) that kind of made them taste the same. Few of them did stood out with unique flavors. The staffs were nice and friendly, and it was very interesting to be able to watch them make the soup dumplings that we later had the opportunity to consume. This place did make curious about Shanghai street food…if I get to travel there one day, it wold be cool to see what they really serve there as their authentic street foods!

 

Yaso Tangbao – 220 East 42nd St, New York, NY 10017