What are your Top 5 at Din Tai Fung?

 

 

Din Tai Fung — I could always count on getting a great meal there.

We did not go often because it was quite expensive to get full.

I went to Din Tai Fung for 5 specific items on their menu that I craved:

1) organic chicken soup

2) spicy vegetables and pork wonton

3) noodle with sesame sauce

4) pork soup dumplings

5) sweet and sour spare ribs

The cold cucumbers and taro dumplings were also exceptional.

The organic chicken soup was the most pure concentrated chicken soup one could ever had.

It was simply stewed with chicken pieces, ginger and green onion.

Delicate, intense and rich chicken flavor, one could taste its fat and last ounce of juice; and at the same time, simple, clear and unassuming — I just loved it.

The very first time I had the chicken soup in Taiwan Din Tai Fung, I drank 3 or 4 bowls of it.

I only stopped because I realized the bill was stacking up with one single item quickly; certainly not because I did not want more!

The vegetables and pork wonton with spicy sauce was my next favorite.

The wonton wrapping was decent with nice, soft yet crunchy fillings from the tender pork and fresh vegetables.

The star was the spicy sauce — it was garlicky and addictive.

The hot sauce was so good that they actually sold the hot sauce by the bottle as well.

The sesame noodle’s sauce was smooth, delicious and with hint of roasted peanuts; the noodle was tender and cooked just right.

I loved mixing the spicy sauce from the wonton to zest up the sesame noodle.

Of course, the meal was not complete without having their famous soup dumplings.

Granted, the Din Tai Fung in Bellevue was not Taiwan Din Tai Fung, it did serve the best soup dumpling in our area.

Thin and elastic wrapping, the small dumpling packed a great amount of soup which more often than not, burnt my palate and my tongue because I just could not resist the piping fresh, off the steamer dumplings.

The pork filling was always juicy and well-flavored with ginger.

I love the black vinegar ginger dipping sauce for the dumplings as the tartness of the vinegar accentuated the delicate soup of the dumplings.

I usually skipped the soy sauce as I felt that the dumplings were perfectly salted and the soy sauce would mask their excellent flavors.

I was obsessed with the cold sweet and sour spare ribs.

The bite-size spare ribs were coated with the fantastic sauce that was exactly tangy enough and sweet enough to be coveted at maximum.

I would be very happy to  eat a whole bowl of rice just with the rib sauce!

Finally for dessert — taro dumpling.

We usually get one steamer with 2 flavors: taro and red bean, since DH liked red bean.

Personally I found the quiet and subtle taro flavor soothing and delicious; the occasional small chunks of taro gave a bite and a surprise to the filling which was thoroughly enjoyable.

We had taken to go to Din Tai Fung at odd times to avoid waiting in line; sitting at the bar was also a great option for us.

Mee Goreng, Nasi Goreng, Soto Ayam and Balinese BBQ Platter

Doof Out

Continued our days with big breakfasts of Mee Goreng, that was fantastically cooked with shredded egg omelette on top.

The noodle was cooked to perfection – just right chewiness and softness, and great flavoring to this quintessential Indonesian dish, of course, crispy and delicious Krupuk Udang, shrimp crackers as well.

DH got the Nasi Goreng, which was just as wonderful — fluffy light fried rice that was not greasy.

For dinner, we got this Balinese BBQ platter, and it was quite a treat!

Aside from the usual chicken, pork and beef sate, there were sate Lilit.

Sate Lilit was a traditional Balinese seafood sate.

In our case, it was made with mahi-mahi.

The unique part was that instead of using the usual bamboo skewer, a lemongrass stick was used, and the fish paste was adhere onto the lemongrass stick for grilling.

The resulting tender soft fish was pleasantly scented with lemongrass.

The platter also came with Ayam Betutu, a chicken dish wrapped in banana leaf with lots of hot pepper and spice paste; and Urutan Celeng, a grilled pork sausage.

The chicken was well-flavored but was a little dry; however, the pork sausage was excellent with all the spices and aromatics that were used in it.

The staple of Nasi Goreng and Krupuk Udang were delicious accompaniment with the barbeque meats.

We got the company of sambal sauce, peanut sauce for the sate, spicy soy sauce, sambal colo-colo, and another sambal that I was unfortunately unfamiliar with.

We also got a soup, Soto Ayam, that was particularly enjoyable; it was a meal on its own.

Soto Ayam was a chicken soup with lots of clear mungbean noodle, tomatoes, bean sprouts, cabbage, with lots of spices, such as ginger, garlic, lemongrass and fried shallots.

It was simply delightful!