Din Tai Fung

(From December 28)

K. and I met up at Din Tai Fung for lunch. This dumpling house is a famed chain that serves up legendary xiao long bao in Taipei. Buzz on the interweb indicates that the Arcadia branch isn't up to snuff with Taipei, but many people were completely enraptured with the place. Buzz from the parental units was that it was expensive, overrated, and certainly not worth the 1+ hour waits. K., however, enjoyed her many visits and her co-workers love this place. So, with all of that, there was no way I could have any solid expectations going into lunch.



We met about 15 minutes after opening and the restaurant was packed. We ended up waiting another half an hour, which wasn't bad. If you are close enough, you can amuse yourself by watching the cooks make dumplings.



If anything, I have to give this place props for being insanely efficient. You're given an order sheet when you request a table, so you can create your order while you wait. The xiao long bao are already steaming in stacks of steamer trays, so you have a tray plopped in front of you within 5 minutes of seating and taking your order sheet.



They are pretty awesome, with a delicate wrapper and a burst of flavorful soup. I've never encountered a wrapper this thin, but it's fabulous and surprisingly sturdy. We also ordered the shrimp and pork dumplings, which were good, but not as good as the XLB.



Portions are not large at all and for me and K., it took four dishes to complete a meal. We decided to not binge on dumplings and had two non-dumpling items. The first was the House Beef Noodle Soup.



The beef was tender, the noodles good, and the broth was slightly bland with ginger as the primary flavor. It wasn't bad at all, but it was barely enough for one person, let alone two. The second dish was the vegetarian Shanghai rice cake.



Chewy-but-tender slices of rice dough seared on a hot pan, then tossed with veggies. I like this dish and the dough is perfectly cooked. Slightly gummy without being tough, tender without falling apart.

In the end, I'd say I'd agree with K. and my folks. It is a great meal and I would definitely eat here occasionally if I lived in the area. However, it is expensive with small portions and I found the interweb buzz to be a tad overrated (as all "buzzes" tend to be). While the food is great and well-made, would I battle crowds for it? Eh. Maybe not. Would I go early to avoid the wait? Definitely.

The Mom Series: Typical Dinner

My mother is a fantastic cook. She's so good that I will indulge in some daughterly hubris and say that "fantastic cook" is a fact, not opinion. Obviously, I have a lot to learn from her. If I'm going to write a blog about everything I eat, I'm going to have to write about the best food I've had: Mom's home-cooking. Hence, this kicks off "The Mom Series". Hi, Mom!

This December 27 dinner is a classic example of a weeknight dinner. When I lived at home, we'd eat meals like this daily.

Napa cabbage cooked down in a hot pan with a little chicken broth. Then, vermicelli and dried shrimp are added. Fun note: the cabbage was from our CSA box.

Steamed whole tilapia, topped with scallions, flash-fried ginger, salt/pepper, and soy sauce.

One of my favorite childhood dishes, egg fried with shrimp and onions. The dish is topped with scallions and goes fabulously with rice and Maggi sauce.

My mom also made my favorite soup, a broth made with chicken and a variety of Chinese herbs. It has a pungent and very slightly bitter flavor. I love it, although it is an acquired taste. I'm not sure what the herbs are, specifically, but they look like seeds, pods, and branches. Yum.

Sunday Bistro

(from December 26)

Another Hong Kong-style cafes on my dad's regular rotation. The service, quite frankly, is shit. Really, what any patron must keep in mind here is that you're not here for the service. You're here for the tea drinks, the cheap food, and the clean restaurant. As long as they bring your food with a minimum of speaking, you'll be fine. This is their new location on Valley Blvd. Enjoy it while it lasts, because it's going to wear out pretty fast.



Every meal is served with vegetable soup. Made with beef broth and lots of cooked-down veggies, this is one of my favorite soups. It's generic, simple, and delicious.



My mother ordered chicken lern mein wong, which translates to "two-sided toasted noodles". A pile of cooked egg noodles are toasted into a crispy patty and topped with chicken cooked in a thick sauce. Sunday does a pretty good job with theirs.



The worst dish of the night as the wor wonton soup. It was a bland seafood soup with a few wontons in it. We wished we'd ordered the regular wonton soup.



Clay pot rice was pretty good. We ordered the classic mixture of Chinese sausage, pork, and shittake mushrooms. It's cooked with a little bit of seasoning, then presented with a side of sauce to add more flavor.



All in all, the food's decent and the drinks are ok. Dad goes here regularly and I tend to visit occasionally whenever I'm home.