Xiao long bao... 小籠包... 小狼包?!
小籠包 Xiao long bao (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaolongbao) has been one of my favourite Chinese dishes for a very long time. It's also known as soup dumpling... because it has soup/juice/whatever you call it inside the dumpling (the soup comes out of the meat when the xiaolongbaos get steamed). My habit of eating the xiaolongbao is first, bite a small little hole from the dumpling and pour out the soup ON TO A SPOON and drink that soup... then dip the soup-less dumpling with black vinegar and eat it. ^_^ I am pretty sure it's not the proper way of eating it but meh, I don't care XD;;
(Note that, good xiaolongbao's skin shouldn't break and leak out the soup when you pick it up with chopstick. If the skin breaks easily, then it's not a very well-made xiaolongbao.)
Anyways, on to the main point XD;;
So I just downlodaed Kotoba chapter 5 raw and skimmed through it (not in the mood to actually attempt to read it since I would need dictionary aid...) and then the last page of it is about CLAMP and food...
It's quite interesting... it got a bunch of food that got named with CLAMP characters... such as the ice cream & cocktail - mokona, chicken wings - tsubasa XD;;; and such, you can check out that page by clicking this link --- http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v317/Alphonse-kun/15.jpg
and here is what caught my eye and had me start this post.
小狼包~! (Syaoran dumpling) OMG, that's hilarious XD
Not too sure how Xiaolongbao is pronounced in Japanese, but for Mandarin, anyways, Syaoran dumpling would be pronounced as Xiaolangbao 8D
XD omg @ the similarity!
It says there "元気な小狼をイメージて小籠包をアレンジ" which translates into we've arranged/made this xiaolongbao with energetic Syaoran in mind... (thx to sugi_s for the correction)
*fangirl squee*
Now I got a new reason to love Xiaolongbao and Syaoran. XD
Speaking of xiaolongbao anyways... there is this place @ No. 3 Road / Park Road in Richmond that makes reallly good xiaolongbao *___* (I forgot the name of that place in English... in Chinese it's called 大鴻運) I love that place's xiaolongbao... it's $4.95 for 6 pieces, and you can watch them make it too :o Give it a try when you have time (if you actually live in the area, that is XD) It's a pretty small and crowded store, though.
I can picture Syaoran going all "OMGWTFBBQ I AM NOT A DISHHH!!!!" at my post. XD;;
*points to avatar*