My Favorite Dimsum Place

On my very first trip out of the country, with a good friend, I took on the responsibility of looking for places where we'd have our meals. I went online and looked for popular places and dishes to try. After all, it was one of the reasons why I wanted to travel. 

That was Taipei, Taiwan in 2006 (or 2007, I can't be too sure). 

Fast-forward to 2012, and many restaurants after that first trip, I've come to conclude that Xiao Long Bao is my all-time favorite dimsum, and Din Tai Fung is my all-time favorite dimsum place. Ever since that first trip, I've made sure to eat at Din Tai Fung wherever it's available. Fortunately, the place has spread to other places outside of Taipei, and for a good reason.

Xiao Long Bao is, in a nutshell, and as a friend put it, "wet shomai". It's steamed dimsum made of minced pork and "jellified pork parts" (that I guess turns into soup when steamed) wrapped in a delicately thin flour skin. Paired with a ginger, red wine vinegar, and soy dipping sauce, this dish is is one of the most unique dimsums anyone can have. 

It looks elegantly sophisticated when initially served in its bamboo steamer, like an intimidating royalty being paraded in a carriage.

And since Xiao Long Bao is dimsum royalty, eating it shouldn't be rushed. There's a zen-like ritual when eating Xiao Long Bao. And the ritual begins with the dipping sauce. While waiting for the dish to arrive, you mix one part soy sauce and three parts vinegar in the ginger dish that is served ahead. 

When the dish arrives, and after you've let it rest for a few minutes, you take a piece of it from the steamer, gently enough to make sure that you don't pierce the skin, dip it in the sauce you've made, transfer it on to your soup spoon and pierce it. The broth, gleaming with all the complex flavors of the meat and spices, invitingly flows into the soup spoon and mixes with the sauce. I like sipping the soup with some ginger (that's been julienned). By this time, the dish would have cooled down just enough to be eaten. Done right, the thin flour skin perfectly compliments the minced meat mixture that it envelops. 

They serve other dishes too and some of my favorites include their porkchops with fried rice, the stir-fried spinach with garlic and their pork buns.

Din Tai Fung has branches all over but the ones that I've tried are in Taiwan (the origins), Hong Kong, and Singapore. And there are several branches in those countries too so that makes it more accessible. Other than that, they have stores in Japan, Indonesia, Korea, US, Malaysia, Australia and Thailand. And just now, I wonder when they'd open a branch here.

I've looked around in the metro and fortunately, there are places that serve pretty good Xiao Long Bao. There's Shilin at the Podium. The restaurant is so similar to DTF in terms of ambiance and menu items that I think the owners were inspired by it. There's also Crystal Jade in Greenhills, a Michelin star restaurant that serves pretty mean Xiao Long Bao. And then there's Zu Shou...I don't know if they're still open. They used to have a stall at the Greenhills Promenade and another branch somewhere near Cherry Foodarama in Shaw. 

Din Tai Fung in Hong Kong with family

Last November, I went on vacation with my family to Hong Kong and it was during this trip that I finally got to introduce them to the pleasures of eating Xiao Long Bao. Since then and like me, their standards have been set high on the dimsum scale.

~Troy