For those of you who don’t already know, Din Tai Fung is a world renowned restaurant, famous for its xiaolongbao (ε°η¬Όε ). Xiaolongbao is a Chinese steamed bun dish, traditionally filled with pork. Modern Chinese restaurants have changed up the xiaolongbao to include vegetables, shrimp, seafood, and other fillings to appease new and modern audiences. Often, xiaolongbao has hot soup inside, my favorite. When I was younger, I’d often poke a small hole in the xiaolongbao with my mouth, letting the soup seep into my soup spoon. Now, I just eat it whole and let the hot soup spread in my mouth (cause I’m old now π ).
In case you can’t tell, I’m a HUGE fan of xiaolongbao, and Din Tai Fung has always been one of my favorite restaurants. Here’s a link to the menu, below.
We went to the location at Del Amo on 21540 Hawthorne Blvd #519, Torrance, CA 90503. As a kid, before Din Tai Fung expanded into the U.S., I reserved a special (trademarked π ) xiaolongbao face, featuring huge bug eyes, an open mouth, and jumping-up-and-down excitement for the certain occasions we visited Taiwan and ate delicious steamed buns and xiaolongbao.
We started out our meal with the soy noodle salad, the only vegetables on our table and a favorite (we ordered a second one after an initial taste).
One of my grandmother’s favorite dishes is braised beef noodle soup (ηθι’). It’s a spicy soup with thick noodles, perfect for a slurping five-year-old (definitely not me– of course not me).
We also ordered some spicy shrimp and pork wontons (ηΊ’ζ²Ήζζ). This dish has always been one of my favorites as well as my mom’s; Din Tai Fung makes theirs a little differently. Their wontons have a sweet taste in them, as compared to an overwhelmingly spicy taste like usual Chinese restaurants.
And of course, we had to finish the meal with the famous xiaolongbao, or soup dumplings. We ordered pork dumplings as well as two orders of pork and crab dumplings. Our entire group dug into the xiaolongbao, so that’s why we had to order a second plate of pork and crab xiaolongbao towards the end of our meal to satisfy our appetites. Xiaolongbao comes in small bamboo baskets with easily stackable lids (these are often seen in dim sum restaurants). When the lid is opened, the fresh xiaolongbao lets out hot steam, reminiscent of the hot soup inside. A small bowl of ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, and chili oil is prepared by each customer to fit their individual tastes. The contents of this container should fill the whole soup spoon (excluding the xiaolongbao). The combination and the stacks of bamboo and soup dumplings are below.
Below, you can see what the bamboo container for xiaolongbao looks like.
That’s the end of this post! But wait… boba.
Din Tai Fung’s Boba is always delicious; but this time we got a to go order. We needed to walk off that huge, but delicious meal. π
Smiley Face Rating: π π π π π
P.S. If you go for lunch- especially on a weekday, there’s virtually no line!!
Cheers, and keep eating!
Anya