Say This Ten Times Fast...

Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung. Okay, you catch my drift, how did you do??? Well, perhaps you find yourself tongue-tied or maybe you drifted into a deep meditative state while saying the name of this famous dumpling house. Either way, you're setting yourself up for copious amounts of culinary pleasure, this I can promise you. Jonathan Gold of the L.A. Weekly even recommends you go to Din Tai Fung before you die and I'm jumping on this bandwagon myself after eating there last night with a bunch of friends. This place was jam-packed and apparently unless you hustle and get there right when it opens, you're likely to stand outside and wait for a table. Large round tables and a couple of booths are filled with people slurping away. It's hopping there, the servers are hard core, it's all about filling the order and clearing the tables. This isn't a restaurant to lounge around and eat your dumplings leisurely, you are in it to win it.

The dumplings were light, juicy, full-flavored bites of pork and/or shrimp goodness. Dipped in a ginger based sauce with soy and vinegar, these dumplings rival any dumpling you've had otherwise. We had juicy pork dumplings, vegetable dumplings, fish dumplings, pork and shrimp dumplings,juicy pork and crab dumplings and the list goes on. What tops the juicy dumplings above the others are pockets of juicy pork fat that has melted inside the dumpling.The fried pork chop rice was pretty ridiculous too, the perfect ratio of meat to fat. I'm already planning my next rendezvous there with another batch of friends. They also served several sweet dumplings like the red bean dumplings and the sesame buns which were filled with this black sesame paste. This dumpling gem is too good to hide from all of you. Run, don't walk to Din Tai Fung, you'll be thanking me. You may even invite me to join you.

dim sum anyone?

When you crave something, they say you should give it to yourself, otherwise you won't be happy. I dig this philosophy and fully embraced it over the weekend. I've been craving dim sum. Luckily back in Los Angeles, I had the pleasure of going out for dim sum on a regular basis, being that I worked downtown. Empress Pavilion, baby!! Dim sum is definitely a different style of eating. When you go out for dim sum, usually you're sitting in a big banguet hall and servers are pushing carts filled with all sorts of delectable treats. You kinda hail then down, like getting a taxi in NYC, and order what you want. Think of it as the Chinese version of tapas. One of my favorite dim sum treats is Sew Mai, steamed dumplings of ground pork and chopped shrimp. Dipped in a mixture of garlic chili sauce, hot mustard and soy sauce, I could easily drown in these delectable treats. I conveniently own a bamboo steamer, which is a cost effective steamer, not only for dim sum, but for veggies or meat too. I got this recipe from the New School of Cooking in Culver City, California, where I took a dim sum class a couple of years ago. Another reason I love making these is that they are a breeze to freeze, in fact last night I just popped a bunch back into the steamer until they were heated through and enjoyed.