According to my mom, I’ve had this before when I went to Taiwan, but since that was a loooong time ago (maybe 8-10 years ago?), I don’t remember. In any case, went here with my sister and my friend from college, Kevin (same friend who came and ate at the Nueva Leon foodventure, and the Ethiopian foodventure). Since it was Kevin’s last full day in Shanghai, we decided to go eat xiao long bao (literally: small dragon bags). Xiao Long Baos are very fragile—you take them carefully with your chopsticks and place them on your soup spoon, then bite a small hole in them, let some steam escape (optional), suck out its juices/broth, dip the dumpling in vinegar-ginger sauce and eat it. Ironically, even though Shanghai is known for their xiao long bao, many people say that Din Tai Fung has the best xiao long bao, even though it is a Taiwanese restaurant that has branches all over the world.
Xiao Long Bao
The menu had at around 6 (maybe more) different kinds of xiao long bao, and they all looked generally the same (which is why I only took pictures of one set). We ordered the Pork Xiao Long Bao and the Chicken and Foie Gras Xiao Long Bao, one the classic xiao long bao, and the other more of a fusion. Both were pretty amazing, as the skin was really thin, yet stayed intact when we transported the xiao long bao with our chopsticks; moreover, the broth was excellent and the meat filling was juicy. Won’t really say much about the pork xiao long bao except that it epitomized the classic preparation of xiao long bao, but the chicken and foie gras xiao long bao was really surprising, as I didn’t expect the combination to work as well as it did, but the addition of (I think) white wine made the foie gras xiao long bao less heavy (since foie gras is quite heavy/filling as it is), yet still preserved its rich flavor really nicely.
(Note on photo: all the xiao long bao basically looked the same, so I only took a picture of one kind of xiao long bao)
Other things. Aside from the xiao long baos, we (and it was truly a collaborative effort) ordered the Drunken Chicken, Vegetable Dishes, Spicy Shrimp and Pork Wontons, Pickled Black Fungus, and for dessert ordered the Tapioca Balls and Taro with Coconut Milk and the Red Bean Dessert Xiao Long Bao. I thought everything else that they had wasn’t bad—it all tasted good—but wasn’t operating on the same (high, and “godly” in Kevin’s words) xiao long bao. In particular, I didn’t like the Spicy Shrimp and Pork Wonton too much (too much oil) nor the dessert xiao long bao (too dense and heavy).
(Note on photos: didn't have all of the pictures of the food for some reason, but will upload as time goes on and I can steal them off of people's Facebooks--also, the vegetable dishes generally looked the same. In any case, the food itself looked like standard Chinese food--so not much of a stretch to imagine any of them I would think...)
Overall—amazing xiao long bao and outstanding service (no joke); even if their other menu items were relatively average, still a must-go wherever you may be that has a Din Tai Fung location*.
*In addition, I really liked their bathrooms, which had a button that you could press and a sound effect of "running water" would play so you could not hear yourself peeing. WOW TECHNOLOGY.
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