"The classic Shanghai street food-the steamed buns filled with soup reminiscent of a soup dumpling, but less juicy, with thicker dough, and fried-must be cooked, several dozen all at once, in a large cast iron, where they are pan-fried, then steamed in the same pan immediately. They're meant to be eaten within 30 minutes."
"Wang and Jen Liao, the two married cofounders behind the frozen Chinese food startup Xiao Chi Jie (or XCJ), were telling me how it all got started, and how they've managed to raise $31 million in venture funding to get their other major product, xiao long bao-known by most Americans as soup dumplings-into more freezers around the U.S."
"Since 2020, XCJ has sold 20 million soup dumplings around the country, and they sold out of all their inventory in the last two months of 2022."
"Caleb Wang and Jen Liao decided to open a restaurant for what they now say is a selfish reason: They couldn't find Wang's favorite food, sheng jian bao."
Sheng jian bao is a Shanghai street food made from steamed buns filled with soup, with thicker dough and less juice than soup dumplings. It must be cooked in large batches in a cast iron pan, pan-fried and then steamed in the same pan immediately. The buns are intended to be eaten within 30 minutes. Frozen Chinese food startup Xiao Chi Jie was created because founders Caleb Wang and Jen Liao could not find Wang’s favorite food in the U.S. Since shipping frozen products from a restaurant in Bellevue, Washington at the start of the pandemic, the company has sold 20 million soup dumplings nationwide and raised $31 million in venture funding. The company does not ship sheng jian bao due to home-cooking difficulty.
Read at Fortune
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