the dumpling house of the gods

Friday night.

There's only one place to go: Din Tai Fung.

This place is a world-famous dumpling house that opened its first ever restaurant in Taiwan.

This is the place you go after you've gathered your friends and loosened your pants.

This is the place you go to feast:

Dumplings, every kind imaginable, steamed buns, sweet and sour soup, peanut noodles, pork fried rice, steamed cabbage, pickeled cucumbers, shrimp rolls.

You cannot go wrong with their menu, which serves 50+ handcrafted, fresh, made-to-perfection dishes.

Tonight, the four of us ordered 15 plates and shared them all.

Chops sticks and soup spoons and small bowls and teaming dishes passed around the table; for a while all was quiet except for the clanking of cultery and sighs of appreciation.

Steaming mugs of tea were refilled and room had to be made on the table to accomodate the stream of arriving dishes overflowing with flavor and color and texture.

Some of our favorites are:




Steamed + garlic cabbage. Drool.

Spicy pork + spinach dumpling.

Pork soup dumpling. How do they do it??

Shrimp + pork dumpling

And for those of you state side, there are more and more of these restaurants opening each year. I know there are two in Seattle alone, which means this summer we can enjoy home and still have a taste of Taiwan at the same time! Check out their website and see if there is one near you!