Street Eats: Summon the Sweat With RMB 25 Pan-Fried Baozi
If you have read our previous Street Eats articles, you may know how obsessed we are with shengjianbao (生煎包), or pan-fried baozi. As one of the most common street foods (normally eaten for breakfast) in Shanghai and Zhejiang province for over the past century, they come both cheap and expensive thanks to their ubiquity, and that’s the charm of street eats – you don’t have to be a millionaire to enjoy the down-to-earth, enticing snacks.
Hidden in the busy basement of Shimao Shopping Mall among a dozen other food stalls – making for what is the liveliest floor in this otherwise run-of-the-mill Sanlitun shopping mall – Susongfu (苏松府) is laid out like many other Chinese fast food stalls: it's composed of several tables, a counter to order and pay at first, and an open kitchen running busily behind.
Believe me, pan-fried baozi (RMB 10) is the answer to everything
Unlike Meiming'r Shengjian, which has several options of pan-fried bao fillings, including pork, shrimp, and cheese, as well as pan-fried wontons, Susongfu only stocks pan-fried pork baozi, making for, if nothing else, a quick selection process. For a very reasonable RMB 10, you get four steaming hot balls of dough and meat, making for a rendition that is RMB 2 more expensive than at Meiming'r Shengjian, not that that'll break the bank.
After carefully taking our first bite, the sweet-and-savory lava-like juice flooded out, just the way it should. The minced pork filling was impeccable, and the bottom of the morsels were fried to brown, and made of crunchy, sturdy bread, and featured a pinch of white sesame seeds and shallots to add even more flavor to the baozi.
Duck blood and vermicelli soup (鸭血粉丝汤, yāxuěfěnsī tāng, RMB 15)
Another must-try is the duck blood and vermicelli soup (鸭血粉丝汤, yā xiě fěnsī tāng, RMB 15), a traditional Nanjing dish featuring slabs of duck blood, vermicelli, dried and fried tofu, duck liver, and intestines, and pairs well with the pan-fried baozi. This rendition was seasoned with white pepper and spicy sesame oil to bring the flavor to another level, and offered a warm respite from a whole summer of bingeing on ice-cold drinks (i.e. beer).
Practice Ariana Grande's songs for the show, anyone?
Believe me: a tray of pan-fried baozi is the answer to everything. If it doesn’t fix your problems, get another tray and add a bowl of duck blood soup. Still not enough? Man, I really don't know what trouble you are in but you could also sing away the pain in the self-service karaoke stall (or maybe more like a cage?) two meters away from the restaurant once you're knee-deep in a self-induced food coma.
Susongfu has a second location on the fifth floor of the north zone of China World Mall. Oh, and whatever you do, don’t forget that you shouldn't ever dare to eat these little soup bombs in white, especially if you are not confident in your baozi-biting abilities.
Susongfu Shengjian
Daily 10am-8pm. B1, Shimao Shopping Mall, 13 Gongti Beilu, Chaoyang District (150 1142 3199)
苏松府生煎：朝阳区工体北路13号世贸工三B1
Photos: Tracy Wang
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