Now, as an Asian girl, it goes without saying that I really, and I mean really love Asian food. But with that being said, I grew up always feeling hyperconscious about the things that I consumed because I was just born with an unlucky amount of commonly found allergies such as nuts, fish, bananas, you name it. Because of that, I just got used to sticking to the same dishes that I knew I wasn't allergic to. One of those dishes that I grew up eating was dumplings. Oh yes. Sweet, juicy dumplings. But if you grow up only getting to eat those while you're out at some fancy Asian Dim Sum place while all your relatives devour all these more complex and exotic dishes that are probably filled with things you can't eat, it starts to get a little, well, repetitive. Not to mention boring. But that notion has been forever changed as of about a week ago when my boyfriend took me to a certain place called Din Tai Fung. Now, this place originates from China and expanded to Los Angeles which is such a hub of great food so you already know this place is good. There's currently two in the Seattle area--one in Bellevue and one in the University District, which is the one I went to. It's newly opened and sometimes chain restaurants can be a hit or miss, but wow this was more like a hit and a half.
Behold! The juicy pork dumplings.......It almost brings tears to my eyes remembering how succulent they were. First of all, when you walk into the restaurant, you can literally see the chefs in the back hand-making each and every dumpling, and it truly exemplifies how much of a wondrous art dumpling-making is. The dough is just the perfect combination of chewy and moist, and the meat is always bursting with flavor. But here's the hook---Now i'm no expert chef, but through some sort of beautiful, mystical cooking process, the DTF chefs have somehow found a way to fill these delicious dumplings with some sort of broth that you can't really describe. It just tastes so right. It's not too salty, not too bland, not too overpowering to where the ratio of flavors doesn't balance out throughout the dumpling. It's simply perfection.
Here's also the chicken fried noodles that we ordered. The portion was a little small in my opinion, but, then again, maybe we were just really, really hungry. It was still a great dish though, so you know this place isn't just a one-hit dish wonder.
So in light of my recent newfound love and obsession for dumplings, I suggest if you have a DTF near you and have yet to try it to get up out of that uncomfortable chair you're sitting in, close your laptop, and go try their juicy, succulent dumplings now!!
