It’s been a little bit since I’ve posted on the blog because I spent a week in Las Vegas for work and then my lovely wife had a multi-day work event up in Baltimore… so our forays into dining in Howard County were on pause for a bit.
But that ended today because we went back to Nan Xiang Express (read about our first visit here) in Ellicott City. My wife had a hankering for xiao long bao (I always have a hankering for xiao long bao) and I was happy to join along.
We got two orders of the signature pork soup dumplings (though I’m really tempted to try the crab meat next time we come, I keep forgetting!) along with some of our favorite sides.
We got the Four Happiness Sponge Tofu, which is often just called Kao Fu after the largest piece (it’s gluten squares). Our favorite version of this comes from A&J Restaurant in Rockville and these were close. The Kao Fu itself was larger and denser and the overall flavor was slightly sweeter. Despite the name, it doesn’t have tofu in it.
We also tried some of their dumplings, instead of their pan fried pork buns, and they were good too. Chewy skin, nice filling, good change of pace from soup dumplings. These are the Steamed Pork, Shrimp & Chive Dumplings. They have a slight greenish tint, probably to differentiate them as they’re the only one with chives in it.
And we rounded it out with Seafood Crispy Noodles, which are those thin yellow crunchy noodles topped with a seafood and vegetable “gravy.” One fantastic thing they did was package the gravy separate from the noodles, so the noodles stayed crunchy. I really liked that nice attention to detail.
When you go to pour the gravy on, don’t pour the whole thing. Try to just get the “stuff” into the bowl and keep some of the gravy itself back. It may be too much liquid and the bottom becomes more of a soup. You can always pour more gravy if you need it.
It sure hit the spot on a slightly chillier day before our warm temps this weekend!