Chu Long Ji

You may know there are some rules to xiao long bao. First, there’s the number of pleats that seal up the bun’s soupy insides; according to Din Tai Fung, the now-global chain of restaurants that first started up in Taipei in 1958, 18 pleats is ideal for making the perfect xiao long bao. (Eighteen is a lucky number in Mandarin, as saying the individual numbers out loud sounds like the phrase for ‘to get rich’.) Then there’s the way you eat it: cradled in a soup spoon, you should bite a little hole to let the heat out and slurp up any oozing soup. It’s easier than it sounds. If you’d like to try this for yourself, tucked away in the semi-industrial area of Wairau Valley, alongside a community of other Asian eating places, fruit shops and retail outlets, Chu Long Ji serves (arguably) the best xiao long bao in Auckland. Every table in this small, neat restaurant is stacked with steamers of the stuff, diners tucking into them alongside simple bowls of noodles flavoured with soy sauce and aromatic scallion oil.