Ding Tai Fung

Since I am on a short trip to Taiwan I had to make a stop at the famous Ding Tai Fung.  They have opened several branches in Taipei and around the world in recent years.  The place is always filled and overflowing with tourists in knee high socks coming off huge tour busses all saying"ahh sugoii yo.. oishii desu!"   Totally lame.

The model for their restaurants is fast service and

 turning tables. Every location also has an open kitchen separated by glass behind which two dozen or so men (only men) roll out dough paper thin, fill and crimp dumplings at super speed.  Massive custom steam tables are lined with bamboo steamers full of dumplings at all times making it possible to get your order within seconds.  They remind me the commis kitchen at Perse but more like yellow skinned robots.

My staple order is the regular soup dumplings ( I don't like the fishy flavor the crab ones have), a hot and sour soup, fried rice with porkchop, and one of the cold side dishes of the day, usually the marinated seaweed with dried tofu strips. The cucumbers are also very standard but can lack seasoning.  I always mix my own dipping sauce with 1 part soy and 3 parts vinegar over

 the juliene ginger.  I am always tempted to put hot sauce as well but don't do it, because its just wrong.

The soup dumplings are good but must be inhaled as soon as the lid comes off the steamer.  If you eat too slowly the skin gets dry and hard. Best to eat with multiple people and have an iron clad mouth.  You will burn your tongue.  The meat and soup are just ok; very consistant flavor, seasoning and texture but nothing outstanding. The skin is the key part, thin thin thin.. like girls on the paris runway.

There is nothing thin about the hot and sour soup, my favorite dish there.  The flavor is delicate and its full of ingredients such as tofu, ducks blood cake all perfecly juliened (seriously these guys must have trained with TK).  Unfortunately the soup is always underseasoned for me but they have all the vingar and hot pepper oil you can add till your tastebuds content. 

The fried rice with the pork chop on top is pretty good in that the rice is the right texture, chewy, what Taiwanese people would say QQ.  Other things that are good, chicken soup and the chinese liquior marinated chicken; a cold dish certain to warm you right up.

Overall is it worth beating down Japanese tourists to get a table? Sure why not as long as you politely say "sumi ma sen" in a high pitched voice as you do it, it's cool with them. 

What I learned from them is consistency is key, turn those tables and push the food out.  The covered baskets they provide for your designer purses is a must have. When a girl's purse is safe from damage its easier to focus on the food.