Shanghai Dumpling House - San Gabriel

I never cry for any reason. I usually have the once-a-year shedding of the tears, but I'm starting think it's a literal cry for attention from my long-neglected tear ducts. Nothing makes me cry. Not weddings, not births, not fatigue, not emotion. But show me a person who hasn't tried dumplings and I'd probably use up my annual arsenal of tears.

Barring a life-threatening allergy, there's no good reason to deprive yourself of these dimpled delights, and I'll be crying tears of joy while I haul your desolate, sorry self to Shanghai Dumpling House for the classic Pork and Crab Xiao Long Bao, the delicate mix of soft pork with a tinge of crabby brine you've been missing all your life.

Shanghai Dumpling House knows the classics, and they're not afraid to bring on the heat. The Spicy Xiao Long Bao won't make you cry from just the slightest red-tinged burn, but I'd be shocked if I didn't see at least one glistening happy-tear while sipping the savory soup.

You may not have had a lot of dumplings in your lifetime but I have. It's hard to impress me, and I'm rarely blown away. Case and point, I find Din Tai Fung to be highly mediocre. So believe me when I tell you that the Salty Egg Yolk Pork Dumplings will change your life because they blew my mind. The egg acts as a thickener, adding a grainy texture with an element of richness to the already-savory soup.

I've never experienced half of what I tried at Shanghai Dumpling House, and I don't know if an experience elsewhere will ever come close. Now I'm shedding enough tears of sadness to fill all the dumplings at Shanghai Dumpling House because I may never enjoy other dumplings again.