Xiaolongbao & Cornish pasties

We were in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago (thank you Penny and George). As well as getting very wet (but happily so), I found myself comparing Cornish pasties and Xiaolongbao.

For those of you who don't know Xiolongbao, they are steamed Shanghai dumplings - a thin dumpling skin filled with minced pork and broth and, unsurprisingly, steamed. Read more about them here.

I have a passion for XLB and invariably spend any time in Hong Kong looking for the latest "best". But I think the best are still the ones I had in Times Square in 2005 with Richard Bamping. Infamously, I snuck back there on a different visit for a pre-dinner snack of 8 of them.

But what does that have to do with Cornish pasties? We had a slightly damp lunch at The Hidden Hut and George and I had pasties. My first bite was almost alarming as it was VERY peppery, but it was the right side of too peppery; and that, for me, is the perfect pasty.

And eating Xiaolongbao is a tricky business - too soon and your mouth is scalded hideously, too late and they can be a bit gelatinous; timing is everything, and they are at their best when almost tooo hot, just as the perfect Cornish pasty is almost too peppery.

If you are waiting for the link to my London-Brighton - sorry, there isn't one.

But you can read more about it here.