At a moment when birria continues its run across Southern California menus — and, for the record, stop calling it a trend; birria, a Mexican dish from the state of Jalisco, dates to the 16th century — a noted dumpling house in Costa Mesa is folding the dish into something unexpected.
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Available from now until sometime this summer, Paradise Dynasty has debuted a limited-run birria xiao long bao created in collaboration with Burritos La Palma, the El Monte-based taqueria known for its Zacatecan-style burritos that has been churning out birria burritos since 1980.
The special xiao long bao pairs the rich, chile-laced flavors of birria de res with Paradise Dynasty’s Shanghai-style soup dumplings. Inside the thin wrapper you’ll find tender beef, consommé and enough rendered fat to make the whole thing easy to demolish.
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The collaboration will be available at Paradise Dynasty’s South Coast Plaza space in Costa Mesa, as well as its Glendale location through at least mid-June, with the chance of an extended run should demand hold. The birria dumplings will be available for $7.99 per basket until May 22, then increase to $12.99 after.
Birria, for the uninitiated, is a Mexican dish of exceedingly tender beef, goat or lamb slow-cooked in a crimson red adobo sauce. In a 2019 article for the Los Angeles Times, Gustavo Arellano wrote of birria de res, “It’s stringy and savory and spicy and delicious, as important a cultural marker of Southern California’s immigrant culinary heritage as Cambodian doughnut shops and the Dutch dairy farms of Chino.”
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Most notably, birria gained traction in recent years with the advent of quesabirria tacos: cheesy, red-hued tacos that come with a side of consommé for dipping. Food writer Luke Tsai penned a history of the tacos for Eater in 2019, chronicling their origins in Tijuana to Los Angeles and then to the Bay Area.
The new collab isn’t Paradise Dynasty’s first dalliance with are restaurants of acclaim: Soup dumplings made with phở from Phởholic, Central Texas-style smoked meats from Heritage Barbecue and a Tom Yum XLB with Chiang Ra have proved hits in recent years.
Psst: While you’re there, do not miss out on the flaky radish-stuffed pastry, which has developed a cult following of its own.
Find it: South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bristol St (inside Bloomingdale’s), Costa Mesa; The Americana at Brand, 177 Caruso Ave., Glendale
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