Ding or Din Tai Fung.

Ding or Din Tai Fung.

Markham, Ont.  2012 04 22

If the spelling error is intentional, then that would explain the discrepancy in taste of the xiao lung bao (xlb) here and the din tai fung in Taiwan, the original, and the ones in Hong Kong.

The xlb in the Taiwan stores are drop dead great! Hong Kong slightly farther away. But the ones here although good, are only passable compared to the ones in Asia. The taste is quite off and the soup is too hot. A perfect bun/dumpling should be eaten whole. No biting. If it burns, it is wrong. (Sounds sexual or sensual? intentional lol...)

All the other traditional stuff here is also very canadian-ized and good but not great... e.g., beef noodles (a Taipei classic), minced pork noodles, tan tan noodles, long beans, snow pea sprouts, chinese gyozi (pot stickers) ..... all getting to the poor level as we move down the scale...

And I remember coming here since the early 1990's, so... but had never been to the Taiwan and HK stores before, till recently. What u don't know ....

It was however still very good value compared to Asia, C$80 for 5 people! (standard in HK is C30 a person) .. but no booze here... no license? the real din tai fung would never have allowed that!

Din Tai Fung may just have to sue...... LA and Seattle appear to be the only two official north american locations!

http://www.dintaifungusa.com/index.html

where it is at .... for foodie... vs goodie...

pls see 'comrade cholly chee' for intermediate comments on HKG et al restaurants, and foodie, etc stuff.....

and i shall put all 'food and drink' in asia and australasia, here in this blog... or 'moodie foodie goodie' ... lol....

'comrade cholly chee' is now for commentary on the 'state of the nation' of china, taiwan, hong kong, macau; and other australasian; japan, and other asian; and other non foodie and cultural or political issues ....

Some Resto's in HKG....

Btw, one of the more interesting things about my scallop caspaccio at 'Gold by Harlan Goldstein' was that as soon as i tasted it i knew something was wrong.... when i came back and looked up the guide, it was suppose to have truffles in it. And this one did not. Now this is something that Hong Kong does because it has so many people, but it is an unforgivable sin in any of the world's decent restaurants..... i would have expected them to say .. sorry sir, no truffles today, how about something else, instead of making and serving it hoping that the customer would not notice! As soon as i tasted it, i knew it was wrong... but they delayed it so long and i did not want them to delay more.... harlan or the executive chef must have been absent, but this is unforgivable....... anywhere else in the world i would have asked for a refund.... but HK.. nah... not worth the effort... i will mention it to frankie the next time, if there is one... lol...

everything is just that point of good, but never great!

i am just glad i was able to finally buy you lunch ... lol... next time, you buy at Robuchon.. and let's see if i am more impressed...... but u know my experiences.... in Macau....

I went to 8 1/2 Mezzo and was quite impressed.... and we should try Tango Argentinian again... I was most impressed.... see how much fun a lunch can emote?