Old Street Tangyuan (Soup Dumplings)

Old Street Tangyuan

　　Old Street Tangyuan

　　　The “Old Street Tangyuan” shop in Qibao Ancient Town offers four flavors of tangyuan: pork filling, red bean paste, sesame, and date paste. Each one costs six jiao. Customers line up neatly in front of the big steaming pot—the dumplings are already cooked and ready. With such steady foot traffic, there’s no worry about overcooking or unsold dumplings.

　　When you bite into the pork-filled tangyuan, a burst of savory juice spills out—you might yell “hot!” but still quickly try to catch every drop of the delicious broth before it’s lost. The soft glutinous rice skin requires little effort to chew, while the meat filling is tender and delicate, breaking apart into fine grains with no starchy aftertaste. As for the date paste tangyuan, a simple nibble reveals that distinctive sweet date aroma. Between the two halves of the glutinous rice ball, you’ll see just a thin line of date filling—the wrapper is extraordinarily soft and sticky. The date paste filling is made from dried dates that are deseeded, chopped, and steamed with sugar until soft. It has a silky texture that glides over your tongue, leaving a lingering date flavor behind.