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