JJJ Family: What is Din Tai Fung anyways? 鼎泰豐的媚力兒!

About more than a decade ago, way before we migrated down to the Southern California, Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) had branched out to the States and had became the “carrot on the stick” to us. Seems like, we always had to make a special stop at Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) whenever we travel south to the greater LA area and/or San Diego to visit friends and/or for sightseeing. After a while, we forgot the real motive behind making all these trips, whether we must make time for our friends or we were simply making excuses to satisfy our taste buds for the “good eat” at Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐). Over those years, it’s managed to entice our appetite and secretly we were bewitched.

When Josh was barely over a year old, he was introduced to Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) for the first time. Like father, like son, Josh single-handedly gobbled up two dozens (兩籠) of steamed pork and crab dumplings (蟹粉小籠包) in one meal. As the new and proud parents, we were not surprised by Josh’s hunger for authentic Chinese food at all ! For a party of three, (well, it’s actually two plus one 兩大一小), the damage was: seven dozens of steamed pork and crab dumplings, one veggie dish, and one steamed beef soup (原盅牛肉湯). I don’t remember if he ever breaks his own record since.

Things have changed after we moved 300 miles closer to the area a little over four years ago, we have since discovered many other (物美價廉的) Chinese restaurants that we had failed to notice before. The long wait for Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) certainly had helped to push us away. We just happened to be in the neighborhood the other day and had this opportunity to return to this long-lost favor, this place still serves the same quality food and has the same crowd. Every now and then, we cannot help but wonder if it still plays the same trick on us!