midweek gems #21
Din Tai Fung (what's good and what's meh) + pho menu decoder and pronunciation guide + Feb 23 🥟 Class!
Hello everyone!
Prompted by last Sunday’s dispatch, many of you contributed ideas for future content. Thank you! I’m organizing them into my to-do list.
Today I’m feeling some wanderlust. My siblings and some of my colleagues are heading to Vietnam! I’m here working on the Cooking Thai book manuscript, hoping to wrap it up in a couple months.
But just because you’re staying at home doesn’t mean you can’t savor the flavors from other parts of the world. You can travel to different parts of the world many ways, with or without your passport. Cooking and restaurants let us do that.
💎 Din Tai Fung: Is it worth it?
For on-point Taiwanese-style food and Shanghai soup dumplings, many people head to Din Tai Fung (DTF). I’ve been to DTF in Southern California, Taiwan and Shanghai. We finally made it to the San Jose location at the Valley Fair shopping center last week.
Mall eating is cool nowadays but you need a reservation at DTF, or you’ll have to wait 30 minutes or so for a midweek lunch. The food and service at DTF are very consistent, almost too consistent. But if you are exploring Shanghai soup dumplings (xiao long bao, XLB), you can’t lose by dining at one of DTF’s Stateside locations.
First off, the savory XLB — which DTF has perfected, is excellent. Each location sources and formulates the dough to a precise calibration set forth by the company. So eat up the XLB if and when you go!
The stir-fried Taiwanese cabbage with garlic and Shanghai rice cakes with pork and veggies were excellent.
However, not everything is good. The vegan wontons in chile oil were disappointingly bland, slightly sweet, and unexciting. Maybe order the wontons with a meat filling? (Or, make your own with my recipe for gingery wontons in chile oil.)
Sadly, the potstickers were not as special as the menu promised either. The dough bordered on being plasticky because there was too much of some kind of starch in the wheat based wrapper. However, the presentation was stunning with that rectangular crispy skirt deal. It looked just like the online menu photo showed.
The wood ear mushroom salad and all the condiments (vinegar, chili oil, and soy sauce) on the table lacked verve. So, about half of what we ordered was so so. DTF is a bit factory-ish but I appreciate its consistency and professionalism. The staff is friendly and helpful; they are there to ensure you have a good experience and then move you out because there are other diners waiting.
Walking into and out of DTF, you always get to watch the process:
Yes, I’ll teach you some of these moves in the February 23 DIY Dumpling Fest class! You’re not expected to work as fast as these folks. I don’t. But my dumplings taste just as good, I think. 😁
The ambiance at the San Jose outpost is clubby with diners speaking many languages. So when you’re in the restaurant, you could be in any of its other locations in Asia or elsewhere. It’s nice.
💎 Pho menu decoder and pronunciation guide
Pho is also a great way to travel with our taste buds. For instance, when I set foot in an extra good pho joint, I can smell the broth. Or, when the bowl is set down in front of me, the first thing I do is inhale its perfume. When I make pho at home, the aroma transports me to my mom’s home or to Vietnam, like the Fatty Pho spot in Hanoi that I visited last year.
Pho also reminds of my dad. In 2016, before The Pho Cookbook released, he helped me by recording audio for a pho menu decoder and pronunciation guide.
Polish your pho prowess for your pho adventures near and far. Head to the website to master how to order pho like a pro.
⚡️ Bonus for Paid Subscribers ⚡️Download the pho menu decoder as a convenient one-page PDF. Print it out and take with you to a restaurant. Or, open the PDF and listen along to my dad’s audio recording to practice. Get the document and audio file in this special spot.
💎 2/23 Dumpling Class Reminder
We’re ten (10!) days away from the DIY Dumpling Fest. I’ve been making dumplings and going to dumpling restaurants and all I gotta say is this: Dumplings make people smile.
They’re pleasure filled, cozy morsels that will lift your spirits. They’re meditative and fun to experiment with. No matter how crappy or grumpy I may feel, once I get dumpling-ing, the world seems better. There’s a lot of uneasy feelings these days so if you’re feeling down, try dumpling therapy.
🥟 For the February 23 DIY Dumplings Fest, we’ll be making wrappers from scratch and I’ll show you how to work with store-bought wrappers too. On the menu:
Land-or-Sea Dumpling Filling
Vegan Dumpling Filling
Basic Dumpling Dough (+ ancient grain options)
Tangy Soy Dipping Sauce
Impromptu Gingery Napa Salad
Cost: $40 per person (deal!)
As with all of my classes, the 2-hour session will be packed with tips and know how from Asian market shopping to history. We swap tips with one another and you’ll get a detailed recipe packet too.
Will the livestream class be recorded? Yes! Every registrant will receive a link to the playback so you can review the tips and moves. If you cannot make the livestream, you’ll have the recording. If you attend the livestream, you can watch it as many times as you like.
🤞 I hope to see you there. Get details and register for DIY Dumpling Fest! (Paid subscribers — save 20% with the special code here.)
That’s it from me for the gems this week. Coming on Sunday behind the paywall is a a nifty way to make panfried fish or crab cakes, with or without 🦀 seafood. Rory asked me how I’d do that and I said, “Trust me.”
Join us, if you’d like.
That sweet picture of your Dad and his voice — this post is filled with gems, Andrea.
Fine, I surrender - only joking - I have just stepped aboard the dumpling train.
I'm pretty sure I won't watch/do it live but the fact I can watch it later at my leisure convinced me that I wanted this.
Thanks for offering - and reminding!