Experience Shanghai: Dumpling Cooking Class and Tasting Tour
Shanghai, China
Rating: 
Trip Type: Food Tours
Duration: 3 - 3.5 hours
Dumpling lovers unite: Taste fried pot stickers, wontons, and Shanghai’s famous ‘xiaolongbao’ (soup dumplings) during this half-day culinary adventure that includes a one-hour cooking class. You’ll taste samples of the best dumplings the city has to offer at street stalls recommended by your knowledgeable guide. After your walking tour, try your hand at making your own ‘shengjianbao,’ Shanghai’s classic pan-fried buns, in a cooking lesson taught by a local chef. Numbers are limited to 10 people, ensuring an intimate experience with a small group of fellow food lovers.
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Dumpling lovers unite: Taste fried pot stickers, wontons, and Shanghai’s famous ‘xiaolongbao’ (soup dumplings) during this half-day culinary adventure that includes a one-hour cooking class. You’ll taste samples of the best dumplings the city has to offer at street stalls recommended by your knowledgeable guide. After your walking tour, try your hand at making your own ‘shengjianbao,’ Shanghai’s classic pan-fried buns, in a cooking lesson taught by a local chef. Numbers are limited to 10 people, ensuring an intimate experience with a small group of fellow food lovers.Meet your guide and small group in front of the Hengshan Picardie Hotel for a walking tour of the former French Concession, a beloved tree-lined neighborhood, to find some of Shanghai's best dumplings.
Stop by street stalls and casual local eateries to watch the experts cook the fresh dumplings that you get to try. Depending on what’s available, your eight samples may include typical guotie (deep-fried dumplings); jianbing (pancakes); jiaozi (northern-style dumplings); qian li xiang (wontons); and Shanghai's renowned xiaolongbao (steamed soup dumplings). Along the way, your guide talks about the differences in taste, texture and cooking techniques of China’s bite-size snacks.
It's food for thought as you continue on a short walk to the venue where your 1-hour cooking class takes place. During your lesson, a local chef introduces you to shengjianbao, another Shanghai classic. Following a demo, try your hand at making these pan-fried buns. Start by creating the dough that makes the dumpling wrapper. After rolling out the sticky shells, you'll blend minced pork with other ingredients such as gelatin-based soup stock, soy sauce, green onion and ginger. Then it's time to put it all together and arrange the buns in a frying pan. Throughout the steps, you gain valuable tips from your master instructor.
Once the work is done, sink your teeth into your creation and sip the flavorful broth; the treat is similar to steamed soup dumplings, but with a heartier texture. Wash it all down with complimentary soft drinks and water.
After you’ve had your fill, head out once more on foot and follow your guide to the nearby wet market to see where the locals shop. This two-story market offers just about everything: pork, live fish, fresh fruit, tofu products and noodles, all of which are sold by local vendors under one roof.
Following your brief visit, you’ll make one final tasting stop (if you still have room to eat!) before your culinary walking tour concludes. From the corner of Xiangyang Nan Lu and Nanchang Lu, your guide can assist you in boarding a taxi or the subway back to your hotel.
Stop by street stalls and casual local eateries to watch the experts cook the fresh dumplings that you get to try. Depending on what’s available, your eight samples may include typical guotie (deep-fried dumplings); jianbing (pancakes); jiaozi (northern-style dumplings); qian li xiang (wontons); and Shanghai's renowned xiaolongbao (steamed soup dumplings). Along the way, your guide talks about the differences in taste, texture and cooking techniques of China’s bite-size snacks.
It's food for thought as you continue on a short walk to the venue where your 1-hour cooking class takes place. During your lesson, a local chef introduces you to shengjianbao, another Shanghai classic. Following a demo, try your hand at making these pan-fried buns. Start by creating the dough that makes the dumpling wrapper. After rolling out the sticky shells, you'll blend minced pork with other ingredients such as gelatin-based soup stock, soy sauce, green onion and ginger. Then it's time to put it all together and arrange the buns in a frying pan. Throughout the steps, you gain valuable tips from your master instructor.
Once the work is done, sink your teeth into your creation and sip the flavorful broth; the treat is similar to steamed soup dumplings, but with a heartier texture. Wash it all down with complimentary soft drinks and water.
After you’ve had your fill, head out once more on foot and follow your guide to the nearby wet market to see where the locals shop. This two-story market offers just about everything: pork, live fish, fresh fruit, tofu products and noodles, all of which are sold by local vendors under one roof.
Following your brief visit, you’ll make one final tasting stop (if you still have room to eat!) before your culinary walking tour concludes. From the corner of Xiangyang Nan Lu and Nanchang Lu, your guide can assist you in boarding a taxi or the subway back to your hotel.
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