{"id":298,"date":"2016-04-29T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T13:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.citywalkerapp.com\/?p=298"},"modified":"2018-06-05T03:01:04","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T03:01:04","slug":"shanghai-taste-review-the-virtuoso-of-soup-dumplings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citywalkerapp.com\/cw\/shanghai-taste-review-the-virtuoso-of-soup-dumplings\/","title":{"rendered":"Shanghai Taste review: The virtuoso of soup dumplings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tina, a tall, gracious waitress at Shanghai Taste, is scrolling through fish photos on her phone. It\u2019s my fault. I had asked her what species the kitchen uses to prepare its \u201csalty crispy fish,\u201d a plate of small, sinuous, head-on sea creatures that look like they were battered and fried while still gliding through brackish waters.<\/p>\n

Internet photos are the common language between a diner and a server who don\u2019t share the same mother tongue. Tina tells me the slender specimens are called \u201ccrystal fish,\u201d but I later decide that\u2019s a mistake based on a poor Internet translation. What I think she means is that they\u2019re \u201csilver fish\u201d \u2014 not the pests that feast on our books, but tiny, translucent critters that can be eaten whole, head, cartilage, fins, everything. When encased in a cornstarch batter, the silver fish go down like crispy, immature mackerel, light and a little oily.<\/p>\n

I keep knocking back these golden squiggles as if they\u2019re French fries of the sea. And yet, \u201csalty crispy fish\u201d is not the dish that defines Shanghai Taste, a standard-issue outpost in Rockville\u2019s Woodley Gardens shopping center. The dish that attracts diners is a bamboo steamer loaded with xiao long bao, those bundles of molten liquid better known as soup dumplings, or just XLB.<\/p>\n

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Not your pace? Check out some other great places to Eat and Drink around DC<\/h3>\n