So the news is that after landed in Taiwan, Japan, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Korea, US and Malaysia, Din Tai Fung have arrived in Australia! The history and their specialty can be found in here, apparently, they're very famous!
I've never heard of the name before, but everyone that have been to their chain in Singapore, Malaysia or Taiwan have prise them. So, we decided it's time to go and try it out ourselves.
The first time when we decide to go, the queue was too long and we just don't have the patient and took off. ( apparently, this does not apply when queueing for sushi! ).
After that, it was months before we attempt to try again, and this time, we went there with a group of 15 friends, and we book for an early dinner, which makes it easier for us to get a table because there are special big table reserve for such huge group.
When we arrive at about 6, there are a lot of people queueing to get a table already, but when we told the waitress that we have a group of 15, we were immediately invited inside. The only condition was that we have to finish our dishes before 8 because another big group of guests are coming at 8. Though, i do not understand what power they pull to get a reservation since they don't normally took reservation on weekend! But, we assure them that we can finish before 8 if they can have their dishes out fast enough!
Cold Appetizer (glass noodle, seaweed, been curd dress in Asian vinaigrette)
As this chain originate from Taiwan, so most of their dishes are famous Taiwanese dishes.
Taiwanese is obsess with street food, so almost all of their dishes are small/side dishes. Din Tai Fung is also famous for their Siaw Long Bao. Saiw Long Bao is not like the normal bun that we encounter from Asian bakery or Yum Cha, in fact, it's more like a soup dumpling. It have the same skin of the dumpling, but when bite into it, it'll have the bursting of soup into your mouth. Quite addictive to eat, in fact, it's impossible to stop at just 1. I must shamelessly admit that i could finish the whole steamer basket myself, or even 2 !!
Drunken Chicken
We decided that we'll each order one main each, and share the small/side dishes. The small/side dishes that caught our attention were drunken chicken, century egg with tofu and shredded pork, shrimp and pork wonton with spicy vinaigrette, stir fry garlic shoots with prawns, shrimp and pork parcel ( Sao Mai )and their famous steam crabmeat and pork siaw long pao.
Because of the gossip to catch up, I didn't notice what everyone else were ordering. Me and husband however, decided that we should share a Za Jiang La Mien, which is handmade noodle with pork and spicy bean sauce.
Century Egg with Tofu and shredded Pork
The dishes as promised, came out rather quickly, and almost all together. Which is a good thing because everyone pretty much got their food together, save the hassle of food being left cold for those who felt embarrassed to consume first.
But be warned, their side/small dishes are really tiny portion! In fact, when the appetizer came, it was sized like it should be a complimentary dish. We think it's rather expensive, but it was nevertheless, very delicious, cold and tangy, very appetizing indeed.
Next up was the drunken chicken, also, in very tiny portion, was rather disappointing. The chicken was cold, ( i didn't expect it to be a cold dish ), and overpower by the wine.
The century egg with tofu and shredded pork was really nice. It's ironic but the century egg was really fresh, and the shredded pork add texture to the smooth tofu. Yum!
Another good side dish was the stir fry garlic shoots with prawns. I really like the crunch of the garlic shoots, and the prawns are plum and juicy.
The shrimp and pork wonton arrived rather unimpressively, about 8 wonton swimming in a big pool of black vinaigrette. However, it was tasty enough.
Stir Fry Garlic Shoots with Prawns
Shrimp and Pork Wonton witn spicy Vinaigrette
We're all very excited when the waiters arrived with baskets after baskets of xiao long bao. This is their house specialty, so we had very high expectation with them. All the xiao long bao arrived in their steaming basket, and looking smokingly impressive. The skin of the xiao long bao were perfect, not too thick and yet thin enough that there were no breakage. I was too eager to try them, i burnt my tongue when the hot soup burst upon first bite. Hence, my advice for eating these little babies is to be patient. The flavour of these xiao long bao is also very good, we can actually taste the crab meat in them. In fact, it was so good we end up re-order another 2 baskets.
The Ooh and Aahs became louder when the shrimp and pork parcel arrived, in their steaming basket of course. Theses are also called sao mai in Mandarin, but it's no ordinary boring looking sao mai that you got from yam cha, these little babies are tall and elegant, shaped like a vase, and top with a small juicy prawns. They are very delicious, as well as very pricey. I think it was priced at $9.80 per basket ( 4 sao mai per basket ).
Steam Crabmeat and Pork Xiao Long Bao
Shrimp and Pork Parcel (Sao Mai )
Za Jiang La Mien
The Zha Jiang La Mien that was shared between me and husband were OK. I've tested better one before. I think the sauce was quite bland, but the handmade noodle was good. Others that had noodle dishes as mains such as Dan Dan Noodle or Wonton Noodle soup...tend to agree with me that their handmade noodle were very good, but otherwise, quite ordinary.
Their fried rice dishes however, got rave review from many. I got to taste some and it was indeed fabulous. It was fragrance, with a distinctive egg aroma. Fried rice dishes either came in plain, or with chicken cutlet. I was lucky enough to share the chicken cutlet with a friend, it was so good. The cutlet was deep fried to golden, and the crunch when biting into them makes me ask for more!
Fried Rice with Egg and Prawns
Fried Rice with Chicken Cutlet
Taro Ice-cream with red beans
Mango Pudding
Golden Red Bean Bread with Sesame seeds
We left with a big bill of $450, and still wanting a bit more.
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