Humble Chinese dumpling stall in a Whampoa kopitiam that probably serves the best cheap and good xiao long bao, pot sticker (kuotie) and wantons in Singapore. The corner stall run by a couple from Qingdao, China had been here under the social media radar for over 6 years.
Restaurant name: Whampoa GuoTie XiaLongBao 黄浦锅贴小笼包
Address: 81 Whampoa Drive, Singapore 320081 (Hong Fu Ling 81 Eating House)
Hours: 8:00am - 8:00pm (Weds off)
Truth be told, I am not a big fan of xiao long bao 小笼包, in general. It's just a steamed meat ball and broth wrapped in a thin dough purse. Its flavour is just savoury sweet which isn't interesting enough to titillate me.
After eating many xiao long bao in Singapore, Malaysia, China and Taiwan, I come to think that they have become pretty generic with not very much separating the best from the good.
Still, I need to tell you about Whampoa Kuotie Xiaolongbao stall as it's the best cheap and good dumplings I have come across in Singapore, so far.
Six XLB for $3.50 which works out to 58 cents each, I think is quite a sweet deal in Singapore today.
The minced pork ball is good sized. There wasn't much of that tongue scathing broth in Whampoa Xiao Long Bao's dumpling.
But, the savoury sweet flavours were well balanced and at the right level of intensity for me. The tender juicy meat ball tasted delicious. At 58 cents a pop, I wouldn't complain if they were frozen pork but I honestly couldn't tell as the savoury sweet flavours were clean and fresh tasting.
The thin dough skin has a tender slightly chewy bite which I like in my xiao long bao.
We also had their kuotie 锅贴 and they were good too. Same 6 for $3.50 deal.
Same ball of minced pork inside with the same savoury sweet flavours. The tender chewy subtly crisped dough skin was nicely browned with no grease on the outside. It's a nice kuotie equal or better than any that I've tasted before.
We also had their big wanton with the same 6 pieces for $3.50 deal.
Same savoury sweet juicy meat ball wrapped in smooth thin dough skin in a bowl of savoury sweet soup. Nice.
They also have 红油抄手 wanton in spicy sauce, 煎包 pan fried bao, 葱油饼 scallion pancakes, and others which I want to come back for.
Popular Tian Cheng Charcoal Roast stall is also in the same kopitiam as Whampoa KuoTie XiaoLongBao, so we had some sio bak and char siew too.
I enjoyed Tian Cheng's sio bak (roast pork belly) even more than before. The golden brown skin was crackly but not chewy, the meat and skin were tenderly juicy and tasted mildly savoury salty with a bit of underlying sweetness.
Tian Cheng's KL style char siew was tenderly juicy, charred at the fringes and enveloped with a gummy glaze of caramelised sugar. It was sweet savoury, a tad too sweet for my tastebuds. Taste profile was similar to bak kwa.
Date visited: 28 Aug 2020
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