I consider myself to be quite a Xiaolongbao connoisseur. My personal favourite is a little franchise store in the town of Shihua. Though its moved about 3 or 4 times since I was 4, I still eat there every time I get the chance.
The common mistake 外地人/gweilos/tourists make when they visit Shanghai in search of Xiaolongbao is that they go to premium restaurants or the actual 老城隍庙（Lao Cheng Huang Temple Area) as it is quite famous for their buns, in fact my favourite franchise pictured above is named after the area.
In actual fact, no locals would go to the Lao Cheng Huang Temple Are to eat this local dish, in my opinion, the restaurants in the area have lost the touch of making the buns, possibly due to the amount of pressure involved pumping out thousands of these buns a day for all the tourists coming by.
The best places to eat them are these little shops pictured above.
The menu also consists of dumplings, fried noodles, basically all you need to survive in China. And they're generally quite cheap.
So what does a true Xiaolongbao taste like? What should it taste like?
The actual taste is very hard to describe, but I can certainly describe the physical features of a perfect Xiaolongbao which would at least indicate that the chef knew a little about what he was doing.
The whiteness of the skin generally signifies the freshness of the bun (or they could have used bleach I don't know), if the bun is too yellow, it generally means that it has been sitting for a while, or that the guy who made it probably used too much mucus. Yellowing skin could also mean that the pastry was too thin and the soup inside has soaked it, which makes the skin weak and easy to break.
Generally you dip the full bun into Chinese vinegar and you bite a hole to enjoy a bit of the delicious soup/tears inside the bun before you consume the whole thing. The vinegar not only provides it with a tangy taste but also is used to cool down the temperature of the bun itself so you don't burn your noob tongue.
Having said that, it still all depends on the taste of the filling. Genuine Xiaolongbao has a very distinct taste that bursts into a beautiful soupy orgasm in your mouth. If you don't feel that sensation every time you bite into one, chances are its not genuine.
If the people cooking your buns don't look like this, then you in the wrong place.
The little blue sign is a mark for their hygiene, unsurprisingly the less smiley the face = the better tasting the buns.
Now that you've read this, people in Melbourne, please think twice before telling me how great the buns are at Hu Tong. They ain't got shit on Shanghai.
