Nearly FOUR long months have passed since I last blogged.
WTH happened?!
A lot of family milestones done and upcoming—happy, sad, and bittersweet. Lot of travel for work and for fun. A little bit of cooking in between.
There is plenty to back-chronicle, but while it’s fresh—let’s get started with dinner at Din Tai Fung.
Last night, after booking a month in advance, the ohana was seated at the full-of-fanfare world-famous, Michelin-star restaurant. First off, score one for the service. Fast, clean, friendly, and helpful without being intrusive. Water and tea filled regularly and quickly, and steamer baskets streamed in and cleaned up at regular cadence.
WTH happened?!
A lot of family milestones done and upcoming—happy, sad, and bittersweet. Lot of travel for work and for fun. A little bit of cooking in between.
There is plenty to back-chronicle, but while it’s fresh—let’s get started with dinner at Din Tai Fung.
Last night, after booking a month in advance, the ohana was seated at the full-of-fanfare world-famous, Michelin-star restaurant. First off, score one for the service. Fast, clean, friendly, and helpful without being intrusive. Water and tea filled regularly and quickly, and steamer baskets streamed in and cleaned up at regular cadence.
They are are world-famous for xiao long bao, or soup dumplings. We had two orders of pork xiao long bao and one pork/crab. As a nice touch for those of us who are seriously allergic to crab, they even mark the dish with a little crab made from wonton skin.
LOVE the way they help out those with allergies! 
Perfectly made, every time. Three important pieces of advice.
#1 Put them on the spoon. There really is soup inside.
#2 Do not take a big bite. You will burn your tongue, splatter soup all over, and the rest of your table will mock you. Loudly.
#3 Nibble off the top and allow the soup to flow onto the spoon.
They do not disappoint. How they get actual soup into the dumplings is like WIlly Wonka secret stuff for dim sum.
There are six in an order. With five of us, and there was none of the usual “Let’s be good Asians and leave the last one.” We gobbled up every last one.
The other food is pretty darned good too. We had noodles with spicy sesame sauce, Shanghai rice cakes with chicken, wonton soup, sticky rice and pork shao mai. And dessert. Definitely stay for dessert. We had sweet taro xiao long bao (again six in an order, but not broth), black sesame bao (individually ordered, and we all had our own).
At tad pricey at $120 (including tax and tip), and we had absolutely no leftovers. We would definitely consider going again—food is very, very good, and the restaurant is super-duper clean right down to the bathrooms. It is ideal to go in a group of 6 because the orders come in 6s, and then you can try different things.
That said, a friend of ours has mentioned a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the ‘burbs that has soup dumplings that we may try, but Din Tai Fung did indeed live up to the hype.
#1 Put them on the spoon. There really is soup inside.
#2 Do not take a big bite. You will burn your tongue, splatter soup all over, and the rest of your table will mock you. Loudly.
#3 Nibble off the top and allow the soup to flow onto the spoon.
They do not disappoint. How they get actual soup into the dumplings is like WIlly Wonka secret stuff for dim sum.
There are six in an order. With five of us, and there was none of the usual “Let’s be good Asians and leave the last one.” We gobbled up every last one.
The other food is pretty darned good too. We had noodles with spicy sesame sauce, Shanghai rice cakes with chicken, wonton soup, sticky rice and pork shao mai. And dessert. Definitely stay for dessert. We had sweet taro xiao long bao (again six in an order, but not broth), black sesame bao (individually ordered, and we all had our own).
At tad pricey at $120 (including tax and tip), and we had absolutely no leftovers. We would definitely consider going again—food is very, very good, and the restaurant is super-duper clean right down to the bathrooms. It is ideal to go in a group of 6 because the orders come in 6s, and then you can try different things.
That said, a friend of ours has mentioned a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the ‘burbs that has soup dumplings that we may try, but Din Tai Fung did indeed live up to the hype.
