September's Pick: Take a Bao at Taiwan's Finest
A lovely flashback to my first trip to LA this past May visiting my best friend Kent. I airbnb-ed in Glendale and this restaurant Din Tai Fung was just around the corner of Americana at Brand - a large shopping & residential complex in Glendale.
Totally unexpected as I was walking down the street after having visited a museum and was googling "dimsum" on google search - Din Tai Fung showed up as the highest rated restaurant. It knew it was my calling! :D
The place has such a classy interior with lightwood lines running across all corners. The touch of the round shapes on the ceiling and the wall reminds me of the dumpling steamers or them tasty baos! Which made me so much more hungry while waiting for a seat! :D The wait ended up being 15 mins as mentioned and the staff was just so nice!
I did not know how popular this restaurant is before picking up their menu! Holy-fuck! A list of Michelin stars and their locations across different continents pushed up my expectation so fast my wig disappeared.
I scanned through the menu and asked for suggestion on what to feast - the lady kindly explained to me that they are well-known for xiaolongbao - and so obviously they were my first item! HA!
Ordered the pork & shrimp as recommended and as high as my expectation could had already got, they still blew my mind away.
It was the softest and smoothest dough I've had, ever, and the juice from the filling bursting into your mouth was just like a flow from a magical fountain. Sweetness, savouriness, the aroma, the texture, everything exploded within my first bite!
As a shrimp addict, obviously I had to order the shrimp xiumai or (shu-mai)! Oh boy they kept on killing it with how incredibly well-blended the filling was!!! The best part is they walked you through a process of how to mix your soy sauce with ginger and thinly sliced scallions before dipping in your xiaolongbao or xiumai! It was so delicate and made the experience so wholesome that I won't share any further details but to let you visit and experience it yourself! Ha!
This next dish was also a recommendation from the lovely lady after I told her that I love noodles LOL. Their special beef noodle soup's broth was almost as good as the Vietnamese's beef noodle soup version (maybe I'm a bit biased here haha). However, I do have to say that the beef was incredibly tender and the dash of ginger made the bowl LIVES across the room! The couple next to me instantly got the amazing scent and asked should they order it. I answered "Ummm, you better!" :D
On my way out, a guy came over to me and said "they have this in Hong Kong too and I saw you with that camera so I figured you must be a food blogger of some sort. Make sure you visit their location in Hong Kong and thank me later!"
- people! They are so nice! And yes sir, HK is on my list!!!
Let me know if you ever decided to visit!
Visit http://dintaifungusa.com/ for more info! All photos are taken by Huy Tran.
