Dumplings at Din Tai Fung

Shrimp and melon dumplings

Place: Din Tai Fung

          1088 Baldwin Ave.

          Arcadia, CA 91007

Genre: Chinese food - dim sum

$$

Hit or a Miss? Hit!

My opinion:

Good dim sum is hard to come by in Los Angeles. Well, perhaps the right word would be authentic instead of "good." The best dim sum is really only found out by Monterey Park and Arcadia. Dim sum consists of small chinese delicacies: various dumplings, bao, sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves etc. Din Tai Fung has the best dumplings I've ever had. I wouldn't say it's the best place to get Dim Sum, only because dim sum includes more than just dumplings. Din Tai Fung really only serves dumplings, a sub category of dim sum. Of course you can order noodles, rice and vegetables, but they aren't considered 'dim sum.' Din Tai Fung is world-famous for their 'xiao long bao,' otherwise known as juicy pork dumplings (which of course aren't pescetarian-friendly). My family jokingly calls them soupy dumplings. Why? Inside the 'skin' of the dumpling lies a ball of chopped pork and hot broth, which, when you bite into the dumpling, oozes out. So why am I writing about a restaurant famous for pork dumplings? As I mentioned before, Din Tai Fung serves a variety of dumplings, all of which are fresh and handmade daily. So for those of you who are pescetarians, your best choices would be the vegetable dumplings and the shrimp and melon dumplings. The steamed vegetable dumplings are filled with chopped thin glass noodles, mixed mushrooms and chopped bokchoi. My favorite dumpling would be the steamed shrimp and melon dumpling. Inside is chopped melon and shrimp sitting in a little puddle of hot shrimp and melon broth. It's just delectable. The reason why I prefer the shrimp/melon dumplings is that they have a much springier/fresher taste than the vegetable dumplings. Plus, you get the 'juice' experience, and they're much lighter than any of the other dumplings Din Tai Fung serves. So if you're ever in the area, you should really stop by. Warning, they don't take reservations and if you don't get there exactly when they open, you could be looking at a 45 minute wait, which is totally worth it. Even if you aren't in the area, I highly recommend making the trek to Arcadia. Try to get there right at 11am if you can. Trust me, you won't be sorry.