![]() ![]() Every Din Tai Fung xiaolongbao must weigh exactly 21 grams, about three-quarters of an ounce. Yang installed glass panels in many of his restaurants, so that diners could view dozens of cooks clad in pressed white uniforms and chef hats deftly making their meals, meticulously weighing each piece of soup dumpling dough and filling. It kind of blew everyone's mind in America," says Clarissa Wei, a Taipei-based writer and author of Made in Taiwan, a Taiwanese cuisine cookbook. "When the first Din Tai Fung opened in Los Angeles, most people had no idea what a soup dumping was. Michelin awarded Din Tai Fung's Hong Kong branch a one-star rating five times. The consistent quality of food and level of service led to an explosion in popularity and worldwide expansion, including in the United States, starting in the late 1990s. Throngs of locals and tourists queue outside Din Tai Fung to sample its specialty steamed dumplings or xiaolongbao. Yang Ji-Hua, who became owner of Taiwan's Din Tai Fung business after his father, stands next to piles of bamboo steamers in Taipei in 2007. "They have just perfected standardization and used all the kind of rigor that you'd expect from a global fast-food chain, but applied it to something that is still handmade with very good ingredients and is a sort of premium product," says Dunlop. In 1995, the eldest of Yang and Lai's five children, their son Yang Ji-Hua, took over as head of the restaurant chain. Global expansion began in the late 1990s, and then came Michelin stars Yang later had the article engraved on bronze plaques used to decorate some of Din Tai Fung's locations. All the dumplings are meticulously hand made. So if you want decent and good dumplings, this is the place to go. The dumplings are absolutely mouth watering Having said that, there is nothing to shout about the noodles. Hom wrote an ebullient article about the restaurant for the New York Times in early 1993, bringing the small outfit to international attention. Delivery & Pickup Options - 317 reviews of Din Tai Fung 'One of the best place to eat dumplings in Sydney. It was just fantastic in its simplicity and taste," says Ken Hom, an American chef and writer who was brought to the first Din Tai Fung restaurant by fellow chef and cookbook writer, Taiwan's Fu Pei-mei, in 1992. "I couldn't believe how great the food was. Many of their first customers were former soldiers who had fled to Taiwan and who lived near the restaurant in a government settlement built for military employees and their families. Like many mainland migrants who came to Taiwan in the 1940s and 1950s, Yang was already married - but with all exchanges cut off between China and Taiwan, he was unsure if he would ever see his first wife again or be able to confirm if she was even alive.įor nearly two decades, Yang and Lai fed mostly local Taipei customers their standout soup dumplings. They dated in secret for years before marrying. In Taipei, Yang met Lai, who would become his wife. I don't understand, and I'm not knowledgeable," Yang told guests at a gastronomy event in 2007. They were part of a massive exodus of up to 2 million Chinese refugees who fled the mainland for Taiwan during the end of the Chinese civil war.įew ever went back. Yang went by boat to Taiwan at the age of 21 - as company legend has it, with only $20 in his pocket - to join his uncle, who was already on the island. After Japan's defeat in the Second World War, China's civil war engulfed his city. During his early teenage years, Japanese troops occupied his hometown for three years. Here's how Yang Bing-yi build a legendary business.The Salt Our Quest To Build A Great Global Dumpling Listīorn in 1927 in the city of Taiyuan, in China's central Shanxi province, Yang never lost his heavy provincial accent. Diners carefully bite off the top of the dumpling skin and slurp the steaming soup that awaits inside. When heated, though, the aspic melts and adds a pleasant mouthfeel to the soup. The aspic, when cooled, helps the dumpling's filling hold its shape at room temperature. Mingxian perfected the art of xiao long bao by adding copious amounts of aspic, or gelatin, derived from slow-cooking animal bones. What is known is that in the 1800s, a restaurant owner named Huang Mingxian began to sell the dumplings to hungry Shanghai diners and they proved a hit. They're so beloved that in 2006, the Chinese government took steps to protect them by naming them a national treasure.Īs with many culturally significant foodstuffs, the exact origins of xiao long bao is difficult to ascertain. But few dishes invert this order, with the most famous likely China's xiao long bao - "little basket buns" - which feature unctuous, gelatin-rich soup inside of a sturdy, chewy dumpling skin. It's a match made in heaven, with rich broth the perfect backdrop for hearty, starchy dumplings made from an array of ingredients. There are plenty of soups that feature dumplings swimming in them, from chicken and dumplings to matzoh ball soup. ![]()
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