Get 8, not 6.
That is the whole ordering instruction for Liu Liu Sheng Jian, a stall on the lower level of the New World Mall food court in Flushing. Back right corner. I asked someone, and once I knew where to look, the signs were obvious.
Sheng jian bao are the pan-fried, thicker-skinned cousin of the soup dumpling. The soup in a soup dumpling is gelatinized stock folded into the filling; it melts when it steams. A sheng jian bao does the same thing with a thicker wrapper and a bottom crisped in oil. You can order six or eight. I went alone on October 4th, on my first visit, and ordered eight.
I had a gut feeling I’d love them, and I was right. I should have placed two take-away orders.
That is the whole reason for eight. I walked up already fairly sure (based on recommendations), and six felt like hedging. If you are going to Flushing for one dish, don’t hedge.
Unbelievable is the word I put in my notes that day. I put 8.5 next to it. They are the best dumplings I have had in New York as of October 2026, and I am saying so in print with the date on it, because that is how The Map works. One visit, one number, left up.
For anyone new here: The MAP has 295 pins across the city, about 200 with a public score. Every score is from a real visit, and I don’t go back and soften a number because a place got famous or because I was in a better mood the second time. A 6 stays a 6.
Here is the honest part.
Liu Liu is the only dumpling pin on my map with a number next to it. It is not the only dumpling I have eaten in this city. Jin Mei on Henry Street is $5 for 15, cheap and good. White Bear in Flushing is good, and the sauce makes it. Both get numbers at the month-end fold-in. Liu Liu is much better than either.
So the dumpling column on a 295-pin map is one number long. That is not a finished map. I know it. The question is how to fix it without publishing a list, which this publication doesn’t do. A top-ten is the influencer’s unit. Mine is a dated score on a pin, with the misses left up.
One more from the same food court, since I ate it: the hand-pulled beef noodles at Lanzhou Handmade Noodles were not good, too salty, and that goes on the record the same way the 8.5 does.
The fix is you.
Most of you know a dumpling; I don’t — I’m sure of it. Some of you have known it for twenty years. I am not asking for a list. I am asking for one, and a reason, and then I am going to go eat it with the same scale I brought to Flushing.
The rules
One place, one dish, one reason it beats eight sheng jian bao at Liu Liu. Not “it’s great.” A reason: the skin, the fold, the fat in the filling, the dip, the price.
Put it in the comments on this post. Not email, not Notes. The comments are where the count happens, and everyone can see it.
One nomination each. Nominations close Friday, November 20th.
The most-nominated place wins. I go, make my first visit, and score it the way I scored Liu Liu. I will be there by Friday, December 4th.
The number goes on the Map, with the nominator’s name next to it. Win or miss. If your pick scores a 6, your name is still on it. They asked if I would do that. Sure.
If two tie, I pick. It’s my map.😜
Why most-nominated and not my favorite from the pile? Because if I choose from the pile, it is my list again with extra steps. The count picks. I show up and eat. And why name you on a miss? Because a 6 next to your name is not an insult. It is a dated opinion from one visit, like every number on the map.
I won’t turn the comments into a ranked list of New York’s best dumplings. Everyone else does that. The nominations stay in the comments where you can read them. I score one. That is the shape of this: a 295-pin map, one dumpling with a number, and an open seat for whatever beats it.
Comments are open. Today is a fine day to nominate. Monday is fine too. After the 20th is too late.
The Long Table — food, restaurants, and the New York (and beyond) that survives at the table. My taste, not a star rating.
Open Tab → I dove deeper: Liu Liu Sheng Jian is one line on a much bigger Map. The full Randy evolving Map — the burgers, the tacos, the one martini worth the trip — is its own thread, THE MAP.