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LA Dumpling lunch

tissue

By tissue
in California: Dining

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tissue

tissue

Posted
Posted

I was talking about this with Beachfan last night about a dumpling lunch at Din Tai Fung in Arcadia. Maybe in Aug 2nd or 3rd.

Let me know if you would be interested. They don't take reservations at this place so we would have to arrive early (before 11am) and wait in line.

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kitwilliams

kitwilliams

Posted
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mmmmm. since I missed out on last night I'd love to join in on this one. the third is probably a tad bit better for me but I can probably make it on the second as well.

great going LA!

and a note to Zephyr gt: Go Bears!

kit

"I'm bringing pastry back"

Weebl

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tissue

tissue

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Ok August 3rd it is. 11am sharp. Pls be on time, even though I know it's out of the way. I will follow up with a phone call. Pls pm me. I will post the address shortly.

Beachfan, there are vegetarian dumplings.

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carpet bagger

carpet bagger

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I'm sorry I have to miss this one. It is my wife's birthday and we have plans already set up. Saturdays are not good for me at lunch time either as that is my busiest day at the store. Let us know how it turns out.

" Food and Wine Fanatic"

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Gary Soup

Gary Soup

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Some of us in Norte Califas envy you guys for having a Din Tai Fung down there. DTF's xiaolong bao are said to be the equal of some of Shanghai's best, and that's saying a lot. Here's a pic of some very tasty-looking xiaolong bao at DTF in Taipei.

DTFXLB.jpg

Come back with a report on them, please.

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Vidia

Vidia

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As a frequent flier at DTF I can attest to the juiciness of their juicy dumplings! In fact, I like 'em so much I always get an order to go since they keep pretty well till the next day!

I've seen raves about Meilong Village's dumplings on chowhound and Jonathan Gold's column - wondered what people on this board think?

V.

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tejon

tejon

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Or, perhaps, two newbies?

I'm just outside of LA, right by San Dimas, and I really, really love dumplings.... :smile:

- Kathy

Edited by tejon (log)

Kathy

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne

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tejon

tejon

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Me, too! I'm hoping we can score an order of the soup dumplings before they sell out. I'm getting there early!

Kathy

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne

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FoodZealot

FoodZealot

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As promised, photos from Din Tai Fung in Arcadia. Please excuse my inconsistent photos and incomplete knowledge of what we ate. Special thanks to Tissue and Gary for being such gracious hosts and patient experts.

Today's eGulleteers: Table for 10, please! Please identify yourselves if you wish - I'm horrible at names and nicknames.

group_shot.jpg

The exterior - hard to see if going South on Baldwin, and I don't think their name is on the sign for the mini-mall:

outside.jpg

The restaurant was slammed, but it churns fairly quickly. After about a 40 minute wait for the table, the food starts to arrive quickly after we were seated. There are several items visible in this shot that I didn't get to shoot individually - the vegetarian, fish & vegetable and pork & vegetable dumplings. The skins are so thin, but have a nice soft chew to them. Everything was very fresh.

first_array.jpg

As billed, these mini dumplings are delicious.

mini_pork_dumplings_in_soup.jpg

Tissue's a connected gal - this was one of the complimentary items we enjoyed - a salad of tofu strips, seaweed, bean sprouts, glass noodles and green onions.

tofu-seaweed_salad.jpg

Dilemma: dumplings must be eaten immediately, but the juice inside is nuclear hot. They are well worth the risk...

pork_dumpling.jpg

Not sure if this is called hot and sour soup, but it was pretty good.

hot-sour_soup.jpg

I love the parade of food concept. Each item has it's moment of glory as it's unveiled with flourish, a cloud of steam, and then instantly devoured.

siu_mai.jpg

A few items were wrapped with similar folds, so the waitstaff would tell us what each set of things were, although some are transluscent enough to see what the fillings are. I liked the big flavor of these crab dumplings, but the texture of the crab itself was a bit grainy.

crab_dumpling.jpg

Some other dishes I didn't get photos of (too busy eating!) were a soup with glass noodles and fried tofu, steamed bao, fried green beans with garlic (salty and good), spinach with garlic, and shrimp fried rice.

For dessert, Tissue ordered a "roll" of glutinous rice with sweet red bean filling, a formed dessert of glutinous rice with sweet red bean filling and decorated with preserved fruits, steamed dumpling skins with sweet red bean filling, and the steamed bao with sweetened black sesame filling pictured below. Of the desserts, I liked this one the best. The dark, almost bitter flavor of the black sesame is sweetened just barely enough.

bao-sweet_black_sesame_filling.jpg

It was a great meal!

Just behind the hostess, they have a window into one of the prep areas. There's an army of people here, probably 9 or 10 in a small space, all standing and making dumplings. There are probably many more in the other kitchen. Quite a few appeared to be other than Chinese. The guy in the background is rolling out the skins with a simple dowel-like pin about 1/2 inch in diameter. The person in the foreground fills in the pork, and others do the pleating and sealing of the dumplings.

making_pork_dumplings.jpg

It was great to meet everyone and I look forward to more outings!

~Tad

I loves the Pork

My blog, http://www.foodzealot.com/blog

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