ottawa foodies

A few years back when I was visiting NYC, a friend bundled me into a cab and we got out at a place in Chinatown called Joe's Shanghai where he ordered me soup dumplings. Although this was my one and only experience with them, I have reminisced and talked about these culinary delights ever since. Some research online pointed to a place called DTF in Markham that served something almost as good. Because Markham is out of the way on my trips to Toronto I never had the chance to go until last week. At last, I would introduce my husband to the famous soup dumplings I had been rambling on about for the past few years... except that these paltry, anemic little dumplings were about 1/3 the size of what I had in NYC, and without about 1/3 of the flavour. A disappointment to say the least, particularly after making an hour's worth of a detour.

So fellow foodies... does anybody else know what I'm talking about and, more importantly, any idea where I can recreate my Joe Shanghai experience, without actually going all the way back to NYC? Maybe somewhere else in Toronto, or perhaps Montreal? Anybody?

They have decent ones at Asian Legend in Toronto... the best ones in Toronto are, IMO at a small place called Traditional Chinese Bun somewhere off of Spadina... avoid MTL.

Please also refer to the old Forum Discussion on Soup Dumpling (Xiao Long Bao) in the past.

Forum - The best soup dumplings in Shanghai

Also, a food item called Soup Dumplings.

My friend of Chinese origin (not eastern China though) says you can get them at T & T --- but I have no idea about the quality. Apparently another friend's little ones (under 10/12 years of age) find them quite good. Maybe I'd say "adequate" by adult standards!?!

You might want to call May's Garden (Preston at Somerset) and ask; an acquaintance once told me they sometimes serve soup dumplings (and implied it wasn't on the menu).

edit: oh, it's also mentioned in the thread Ashley linked.