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Travelling Taiwan: Eating out at Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐

April 26, 2012 by · 9 Comments

I came to Taiwan with the intention of eating myself silly. I definitely did that and more during my trip as you will have seen and will continue to see for the rest of the week. Evenso, I very nearly skipped past eating at Din Tai Fung as there are Din Tai Fung outlets in Singapore and Sydney, so did I really want to waste my time and tummy real estate on this?

I was told, Yes, yes I did, as Din Tai Fung hailed from Taiwan and the quality of their dumplings there are way better than the ones found elsewhere. With that in mind, one early morning saw my sister and I walking towards Din Tai Fung from the MRT station.

The glass window, the line of dumpling makers, the intense concentration from the mask-clad workers… these are all Din Tai Fung’s signature. Be it Singapore, Sydney, or Taiwan, it seems at least that the branding is consistent with Din Tai Fung eager to draw folks in with their pre-meal show. (Din Tai Fung does have outlets in other parts of the world, but as I’ve never been to them, I cannot say for sure.)

Though a queue was forming outside the restaurant as we approached it, we were allowed to waltz right in thanks to the power of a booking.

Travelling Taiwan Tip #7:

If you know where you want to be dining for sure, make sure to call ahead and make a booking else you’d be stuck in queues for hours at the popular restaurants!

Din Tai Fung is known for their Xiao Long Bao (小籠包) which are little steamed bao/dumplings filled with meat and soup. Biting into one would release the flavourful soup and in that mouthful of tender bao skin, meat and soup, you will find the perfect balance of flavour and texture. Delicious! And since they were famous for it, how could I not order it?

Even so, I found the XLBs (NT95 for 5pcs) to be so-so. The skin was tender and smooth, but the flavouring was a little lacking. While tasty enough, there was no wow factor and I’ve actually had better XLBs before. Oh well.

Shrimp Noodle Soup with Vegetable and Bamboo Shoot (NT170) – what with the previous days of street food and greasy fried foods, the sister and I were keen to get something light to cleanse our systems. So we went with this noodle soup which was quite delightful. The noodles had a lovely bite to them, the soup was nice and clear and it was the perfect cleansing dish to refresh us once more for all the grease and oil out in the streets. (please note that the typical Australian palate will find this bland.)

Steamed Sticky Rice and Ground Pork Shiaomai (NT130 5pcs) were interesting as I’ve never seen them before. What a curious shape! Unfortunately this was bland with the ground pork not quite making up for the lack of flavour. Pity.

Pork Buns – forgot the price and didn’t take a pic of the menu, whoops! Skin was a little too thick, too much chewing involved. Still, the filling was tasty and while unmemorable, it definitely did its job of filling us up.

I’ve left the best for last: Spicy Shrimp and Pork Wonton (NT160 for 8pcs). The wontons had the softest skin possible that melt in your mouth, the fillings juicy and plump and the spicy sauce was to-die-for. Everything came together to make one hella of a dish and I would have licked the plate if I hadn’t been in polite company. (The other diners, not my sis). If there’s any reason to go back to Din Tai Fung, this would be it. YUM.

The total bill came up to a lot less than I had thought. It was actually extremely reasonable! I don’t remember the exact figures but it came up to less than 700 TWD (23 AUD) for the both of us. I don’t know how this compares with the local economy, but for me, this was an amazing price to pay for both of us at such a well known restaurant. I’d definitely come again.

Find Din Tai Fung in Taipei:


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Filed Under: Chinese, Taipei, Things to do in Taipei Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
Review: Colonel Tan’s, Prahran

Review: Colonel Tan’s, Prahran

April 27, 2011 by · 8 Comments

Colonel Tan’s
(03) 9521 5985
229 Chapel Street Prahran
Prahran, 3181
Colonel Tan’s online

The blog’s been a little quiet. A little too quiet, if you ask me, but sometimes it’s hard to find time to blog. There’s just so much going on and my blogging schedule is in tatters while I’m trying to get everything under control. It’s never going to be under control so what the heck, let’s have a go at blogging.

There are many places in Melbourne that I’ve been meaning to get to. Much like blogging, it does get a little “when I have time”. Being away from Melbourne for most of the time also means that when I’m actually back in Melbourne, I cram too much in. And by cramming, I actually do mean physically cramming of food. So much eating was done in my two weeks back in Melbourne. Too much, my diet would say.

Colonel Tan’s has been on my to-go list for awhile now. I first heard of it when the housemate and I were trying to find other american diners that wasn’t Misty’s. We made an agreement that we’d go check it out as the housemate loves american diners. But it was one of those things that never got done. Then K started hanging out at Colonel Tan’s, and I wanted even more to check it out…..

I guess the important thing is that I did finally make it to Colonel Tan’s. And I wish I had a whole lot earlier. To be honest, I very nearly didn’t turn up for that dinner date because I was sick and having a sore throat and generally feeling quite ill. But I hated the idea of abandoning my friends so popped a couple of pills and headed out. And I was so, so, so glad I did.

Those chips! I had a sore throat but even I couldn’t stop eating them. I had to restrain myself so I wouldn’t end up ruining my throat more than I already did. But they were addictive and boy do I wish I had them right now. Yum. Do yourself a favour and order them when you go. You will thank me.

I’ve always liked beer. But I never drank a lot of it till I came to Murrayville. Then boy, BOY did I drink beer. Even so, being so far away from all the fancy bottle shops and what not, the beer you get up in Murrayville is crap like carlton draught. You learn to drink it and not complain about its crap-ness because if that’s all you’ve got… then that’s all you’ve got. (To be fair, we do have Cascade light and Coopers as well. But I get picked on if I drink Cascade Light up here. Hurdedum.)

Handcrafted beers is not something I’m terribly familiar with. But good beers are something I can most definitely appreciate (especially after Carlton Draught) and boy was this a good beer. I really should have picked up a six pack somewhere along the way before heading back up to Murrayville, but that’s okay. I’ll pick some up on my next trip back.

The sweet potato and cashew dumplings were sublime. I really really liked them. I can’t think of what else to tell you other than, I really liked them. It was a pity there was only enough for one each. Darn. I could have eaten a whole lot more. Definitely ordering more.

The rendang chicken curry dip with roti bread was okay. The rendang was a lot nicer than I was expecting it to be, so that was a nice surprise. But as far as blowing a person away or wowing them… this was about average.

In my opinion, this was the star of the night. The fat duck noodles kicked me straight back to nostalgia lane and the greasy goodness was just greasy enough to be delish and not overly so. Incredibly tasty, incredibly flavourful, every mouthful was a pure injection of happiness and joy into my veins. (Along with an injection of cholesterol, but let’s not think of that) Much like the dumplings, I’d have loved more. The portion wasn’t big, and we shared it out between 4 of us which was just nice but I’m being greedy and I would have liked more. More, more, more!!

This. Definitely order this if you go.

My next favourite would probably have been this. The Bangkok Bolognaise. Little surprise that my favourite dishes are of noodles, I’m noodle obsessed! Still, it was lacking a bit of wow factor. I’m still going to try it at home tho. I’m pretty sure I can come up with something with a little more zing in it.


Vegetable and Coconut Yellow Curry – mmhm. You can move along.

And lastly, The Colonel’s Five Spice Chicken with Sweet Chilli. K did warn that they are a bit inconsistent and we must have hit an off day as I was quite unimpressed by it. Tough chicken, not yummy skin. Pass.

All in all, an absolutely enjoyable experience. While some of the dishes weren’t wow, they were nonetheless of a very decent quality and coupled with the environment and atmosphere definitely puts a very different spin on the typical asian dishes that I know. Would I go again? Hell yeah. That fat duck noodle has my name all over it!

Colonel Tan's on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Fusion, Melbourne, Prahran, Thai Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

International Incident – Dumplings, another variation.

May 13, 2010 by · 12 Comments

Today, I don’t seem to have much to say. The cold seems to have sap me of brain cells and I cannot seem to say much more than “brrrr…. cold…”

Oh wait, I do have something to say. Thank you so much for all your amazing comments over at Jeroxie’s blog about my cupcakes. Aside from my submarine/sewing machine blob, I’m actually rather proud of my sugar creations and would like to try my hand at more sugar sculpting. But it’s so heart warming to read all the comments, I hope that you will gift me with the same comment love as you did over at Penny’s.



This month’s International Incident Party theme was dumplings and I must admit that I didn’t spend too much time thinking about it. I didn’t really have time to be honest. I was bogged down by uni assignments, running a craft market and stressed out of mind while maintaining my full time hours. So I went with whatever came the easiest and most naturally.

This recipe for the dumpling filling is adapted from Penny‘s recipe.


Garlic chive filling:
Ingredients


* 1 bunch of garlic chives and garlic shoots, finely chopped



* 20g cup dried black mushrooms, hydrate, de-stemmed and finely diced
* 1 carrot finely grated



* 1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
* 3 cloves of finely grated garlic
* 1tbsp light soy sauce
* 1 tbsp sesame oil
* Salt and white pepper for seasoning
* 1 small egg



I made the filling then sat down to watch Masterchef while filling and pleating the little dumplings. I’ve made them so many times now that I hardly look at what I do.



And they go absolutely beautifully with vinegar. I’ve never had a dumpling filling go so well with vinegar before. By itself, the dumpling filling is rather too raw in taste, a teeny bit confronting. But vinegar smoothens down the rough edges and gives the whole dumpling a rounded and complete taste. Heaven.

Also, I know I’m late to the Party (in this case, the International Incident party).. in fact I know that the blog has been a little too quiet over the past two weeks. I’ve just been so stressed, so bogged down by reality and my little projects and uni work that I haven’t been able to do much other than eat and collapse in a heap every night. If my mind had its way, it’d skip the eating and concentrate on the collapsing but my stomach doesn’t quite agree. So eating stays.

But I do have quite a lot of posts to write up, and more recipes to share, so I hope that you don’t run off and forget about me. Things are starting to look slightly more manageable this week, so hopefully you guys will get the almost-daily posts that I do again. Until then, here’s the list of #iips to amuse yourself with:

Filed Under: Chinese, Cooking, Cooking & Baking, International Incident Parties, Recipes Tagged With: , , , ,

CNY: Vegetarian Dumplings

March 5, 2010 by · 1 Comment

Dumplings aren’t traditionally a Chinese New Year dish. However, I’m listing it under Chinese New Year as this was part of the menu on Chinese New Year day.



I love making dumplings. There is something oddly satisfying of standing in the kitchen: stuffing, folding and pleating neat little dumplings. When I started to plan the menu for CNY night, I originally wanted to try the garlic chive recipe that @jeroxie had introduced me to at the Dumpling Party, but after a hunt around my local stores and failing to find garlic chives I decided to make up my own recipe.



Ingredients

300g Hard Tofu
100g Shitake Mushrooms
80g Carrot
1 tbsp Ginger
3 tbsp Sesame Oil
2 teaspoon Salt
1.5 teaspoon Sugar
1 tbsp Soya Sauce
Pepper (to taste)
1 Egg
1 tbsp Corn Flour

Dumpling skins

Method

1. Dry the hard tofu by putting it in between paper towels and pressing down firmly and evenly at regular intervals.



2. Cut the hard tofu into small squares to aid with mincing.



3. Mince the tofu, either by using a food processor or a Slap Chop. (I have a slap chop wannabe, and it’s made my life so much easier: if only because I’m too busy laughing at it to realise how silly I look slapping away.)



4. Mince the ginger, dice the mushrooms and grate the carrots.



5. Mix everything up starting with the Tofu, Salt, Sugar, Soy Sauce then Mushrooms, Carrots, Ginger, and everything else, ending with the Egg. Make sure everything is evenly mixed. Don’t use a food processor or a blender or anything electronic for this. Get your hand in that bowl and mix it up manually.



6. Using a teaspoon, stuff the dumpling skins and pleat to seal.



7. Pan-fry, steam or boil the dumplings and you are ready to eat!



I feel that I should point out now that mincing hard tofu by hand, even with a Slap Chop Wannabe, was hard work. I’ve never worked with hard tofu before so wasn’t aware of exactly how much tofu would end up in my bowl after mincing it all up. It took us a whole hour to mince through 650g of hard tofu. Next time, I really should get a food processor.

Nevertheless, it was fun! And I got to teach my housemate how to make dumplings. Do you have a favourite dumpling recipe? I’m thinking to try all sorts of different ones, so am on the look out for a new recipe to try.

Till next time, eat on!

Filed Under: Chinese, Cooking, Cooking & Baking, Recipes Tagged With: , ,

Beijing Royal Dumpling House @ Chapel street, Melbourne.

February 27, 2009 by · 4 Comments

Please note that this restaurant has now closed. If anybody has any information on them and potential future branches, please do let me know!

Let me begin by saying that I am truly not a big fan of Dumplings. Don’t get me wrong, I like them well enough. But I am not one to go gushing nor chasing after them or even have massive urges to eat them quite unlike the other foods that I cherish so much.

However, Beijing Royal Dumpling House may have quite possibly change that. Even now as I type this up, I am having massive urges to hop down there for a quick dumpling or two.



Beijing Royal Dumpling House: The Menu

As the name of the restaurant suggests, Beijing Royal Dumpling House serves dumplings. In fact, their menu boasts of Dumplings, Won Tons, Handmade Noodles and even ‘Normal’ Noodles which one will assume just means factory made like any other noodle. They also have a variety of other things, but really who goes to a dumpling restaurant to eat Japanese food or Malaysian curries?

The place was empty when we stepped through the door, save for a table or two. Had it not been for my friend who highly recommended the place, I would most likely not have stepped in here. Empty restaurants usually mean bad food. But in this case, it really just meant that the word had not gotten out about how good this place was: It had only just opened a few months ago after all.



Beijing Royal Dumpling House: Panfried Pork Dumpling (Fresh and Home Made!)

Between 3 of us, we ordered Panfried Pork Dumpling (15 pieces) – $9.00; Stewed Beef Noodle Soup – $9.80; and Won Ton Noodle Soup – $ 10.80. You could tell that the pork dumpling was really popular: every customer (be it the ones already seated or the ones who had just stepped through) ordered the pork dumplings. The food arrived really quickly and I was incredibly impressed by the size of the servings. They were massive, to say the least. Even between the 3 of us, we couldn’t finish everything on the table!

The dumplings were very tasty, very juicy. The dumpling skin was soft and just right, quite unlike many other dumplings that you find out there where the skin tends to be chewy. Biting into the dumpling meant an explosion of flavour in your mouth along with very yummy juices that only made one hunger for more. It was love at first bite!



Beijing Royal Dumpling House: Stewed Beef Noodles

The noodles did not disappoint either. The beef was beautifully tender and moist, not dry like I had been afraid of. The noodles themselves were just the right amount of chewiness and bounciness. Suffice to say, we fell to eating with great gusto, and it didn’t take too long before we were completely stuffed and with still more food on the table to go. It was worth every cent, and I’d have gladly paid more if the prices had been higher. That’s how good everything was. However, with the low prices being the way they are now, that makes the place even more worthwhile, and an even better hangout to bring friends!

So give them a visit, or maybe even two. I think you will find yourself quite hooked!

BTstars: 9.5/10

Beijing Royal Dumpling House
286, Chapel Street,
Prahran VIC, 3181
Tel: (03) 9533 8880

Trading Hours

Monday
5.00pm -10.00pm
Tuesday – Thursday
11.30am – 3.00pm
5.00pm – 10.00pm
Friday – Saturday
11.00am – 11.00pm
Sunday
11.30am – 10.00pm

Filed Under: Chinese, Restaurant Reviews Tagged With: , ,
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