Grubtrotters

Now that I’ve tried juicy buns, I can’t get enough. I’m totally hooked on these Chinese soup-filled dumplings. In the past couple of weeks, Vic and I slurped up pork and crab juicy buns for dinner with his parents at the excellent chef-owned Shanghai restaurant Hunan Cottage in Fairfield, NJ. Then, as soon as we got home to the West Coast, we headed straight to the famous Din Tai Fung Dumpling House in Arcadia, CA, for a brunch of 10 juicy pork and crab dumplings and another 10 without the crab. Soup dumplings are just so much fun. They’re like Christmas presents, nicely wrapped and filled with goodies. Feasting on them is sheer juicy nirvana.

Having tried them three times in as many weeks, I think the buns at Cheng Du 23 are the best, maybe because they were my first. Of course, Vic is more of a soup dumpling veteran, and he agreed. They were huge and bursting with flavorful soup. Hunan Cottage comes in a close second and Din Tai Fung third, only because their dumplings were smaller and slightly less juicy. At Din Tai Fung, I could pop the entire dumpling in my mouth and swallow it almost whole. At Cheng Du 23, I had to poke a hole in the dumpling and sip the soup out first, savoring the flavor longer.

Of course, dumplings were not all we ate at either location. It wouldn’t be a meal with Vic’s parents without ordering far more than we could possibly consume in a single sitting. Some of the highlights included fantastic drunken chicken, a Shanghai specialty that used Chinese rice wine as a marinade, and tasty vegetarian mock duck, made of tofu and flavored with star anise.

The giant shrimp in a spicy chili sauce was also extremely tasty, so much so that we brought the extra sauce home. It was too good to waste. Messy, too, though. These prawns came with the heads on, and you had to get your fingers dirty to get to the good stuff. At Din Tai Fung, we mainly stuck to dumplings, their specialty, but we also enjoyed a special noodle dish topped with beef and spicy roast beef soup. The shrimp and pork shiaomai were also lovely.

Vic had visited Din Tai Fung in Taiwan years ago, but this was our first trip to the dumpling house in Arcadia. Our new friends Annie and her husband Victor — another Chinese Victor — joined us. The restaurant actually has two locations in Arcadia, and we visited the newer one, which had a sleek contemporary look (pictured below). There’s a window near the entrance where you can watch the guys in the kitchen rolling the dough and making the dumplings. You know you’re in L.A. because the guys in the kitchen are all Hispanic rather than Chinese.

The restaurant is also packed with cute little Asian babies. I’d heard nightmares about the wait at Din Tai Fung, but we only had a few minutes before getting seated, and all the adorable kids kept us amused. At the end of our meal, I was so full, I thought I’d have no room for dessert. But then they brought the red bean dumplings, and I gobbled them up. Now that we’ve tried it, I have a feeling we’re going to be making regular trips from Venice to Arcadia. Given the lack of decent Chinese food on the West side, it’s well worth the drive. — Jenny

Din Tai Fung: 1088 South Baldwin Ave., Arcadia, CA; 626-446-8588
Hunan Cottage: 14 US Highway 46, Fairfield, NJ, 973-808-8328

BBQ Duck Fried Rice from Wirin Thai in Venice. Decadent and delicious. And they deliver, too.

Photo from www.orderinfood.com

I have been traveling nonstop for the past three weeks and haven’t had any time to stop and post. Between Florence, Siena, New York and New Jersey, I have had some amazing meals that I hope to find time to blog about in detail. But let’s start with last night’s meal and work backwards. I’m visiting my in-laws in Northern New Jersey. They’re Chinese, and they sure know how to eat. Last night, we visited a nondescript little joint in a Wayne, NJ strip mall called Cheng Du 23. From the outside, it didn’t look promising, with a sign touting “Asian Cuisine.” It opened about a year ago, and Vic’s parents didn’t have high hopes, either, until they tried it and found some of the most delicious, authentic Sichuan food around. They’re regulars now. If your palate is adventurous and you like your Chinese food spicy, you will love Cheng Du 23.

Vic’s parents ordered a ridiculous amount of food — so much so that the owner, who was waiting on us, asked if we were expecting more people. I have no idea how Vic’s Mom stays so skinny. She must weigh less than 100 pounds, and she chose five entrees and two appetizers for the four of us.

We started with a traditional Sichuan cold appetizer of ox tongue and tripe in a roasted chili peanut sauce. This was actually the spiciest dish we had all night so starting there made me a little nervous. But it was just this side of painful. The strips of tripe were long and thin like a flat pasta, with tiny chunks of tongue mixed throughout. For the uninitiated, tripe is made from the stomach of the ox. One of the things I appreciate about the Chinese is something they share with the Florentines in Italy: They make use of parts of the animal that many cultures waste.

My favorite dish, the lamb with special pepper sauce, doesn’t look that great in the photo (sorry, we only had the iPhone) but was really distinct and delicious. Strips of lamb were seasoned with hot red peppers and a cumin found only in the Himalayas near Tibet. This is not something you see on many menus in the U.S., and the flavor had a wonderful, smoky depth. If you have the chance to try this, please do. It’s worth a drive. Even smokier than the lamb was the tea smoked duck, another traditional Sichuan dish that was really done well here. All the flavors were strong, and the meat was moist.

Of course, most moist of all were the wonderful steamed juice buns (labeled “bum” on the menu). These dumplings were filled with soup and pork. We had to carefully pick up the delicate buns with a spoon, take a small bite and then sip out the soup before eating the rest of the dumpling. I had read about similar dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai Restaurant in New York but had never actually tried them until, now. How fun!

We also loved the whole fish in Chili Sauce, which was striped bass with minced pork and homemade Sichuan pickles on top. Fresh, hearty and fantastic. With all these strong flavors, the two least spicy dishes kind of got lost in the mix. The shrimp duet was a combination of stir fried shrimp with vegetables (mushrooms, carrots and baby corn) and jumbo shrimp with garlic sauce. We also had a chicken in garlic sauce, with the breast meat shaped like little flowers. Both were lovely, but the flavors paled next to the other dishes. If you don’t like much spice, these are the ones for you. Then again, I took a menu home and was shocked to read that the spiciest dish we ate (the tripe) only had one star next to it, denoting “medium spicy.” I can’t imagine how hot the two-star “extra hot and spicy” and four-star “very hot and spicy” dishes are. I think most mouths would be on fire. There’s also a handful of Americanized Chinese dishes, such as General Tso’s Chicken, listed as lunch specials. But skip those boring choices and go for something authentic and special. You won’t regret it. — Jenny

Cheng Du 23, 6 Willowbrook Blvd., Wayne, NJ, 973-812-2800