Soup Dumplings

Wuhan soup dumplings wrap a thin wheat skin around pork filling laced with aspic; steaming melts the aspic into hot broth, so a bite releases plentiful soup from a delicate skin over tender filling.

Soup dumplings arrived in Wuhan through the lower-Yangtze pastry tradition and were adapted to local taste by houses such as Sijimei, founded in 1922 and crowned the "King of Soup Dumplings."

Etiquette runs "lift gently, move slowly, open a window, then sip the soup": nip a small hole to sip the broth before eating with vinegar and ginger, lest it scald.

Its soul is a skin thin yet unbroken and an abundant, piping-hot broth, best brightened with aromatic vinegar and shredded ginger.