Day 1 - Dinner at Din Tai Fung

stir fried kailan with garlic - 7/10

so sometime close to christmas last year i took a trip to shanghai. it felt good to be out of ns (even though i don't really do anything there) and to take a week plus of work to just relax. it so happened that i decided to go overseas so there was so much new food to try!


xiao long baos - 9/10

so anyway, after we landed and checked it, it was late evening already. we decided to take a cab out to the nearest huge mall around the corner and decided that we would eat whatever whatever we found. we were walking and walking and super hungry by that time, and i was desperately craving some xiao long baos. i think it must have been all the damn hype that i got reading about shanghai and all the food. anyway, we saw din tai fung! the din tai fung in taipei is supposed to be the 4th best restaurant in the world. anyway i tried it before and thought it was pretty good, but definitely not top 10 restaurants standard.

so anyway we walked in and after staring at the menu for quite awhile, we ordered. by that time i was already starving and was sure that i was going to pass out from low blood sugar levels if i didn't get some food into my mouth. but apparently i didn't.

fresh river shrimps - 9/10

so one by one our food came. overall, i thought that the food was fantastic. the din tai fung in shanghai is not like the DTF in sg. its much nicer there and the food selection is totally different. its more like crytal jade/imperial treasure type menu.

one of the first dishes that arrived was the fresh river shrimp.Turns out to be our staple favorite dish in Shanghai. We tried the same dish at several other restaurants too. The shrimps always had a fresh spring to them and were really tasty.

tofu cooked in crab sauce - 8.5/10

the xiao long baos came next. they were insanely good! much better than the dtf-taipei ones! it was so good that i lost count of how many i ate. perfect texture of dough on the outside; not to thick to ruin the taste of filling and yet not too thin to cause premature punturing of the skin. the meat was tender and there was lots of juice inside.

the tofu on crab sauce (pictured) was another thing that we saw all over shanghai restaurants. its basically a soft tofu served in a crab based sauce with chunks of crab meat and some crab roe mixed together inside. it you like crab and tofu, you'll definitely like this. the taste was very strong and bold.

pork and shrimp dumplings - 8/10

last but not least we have the pork and shrimp dumplings. its kind of like a shiu mai plus xiao long bao combo where they put shrimps on top of the pork filling that is inside. its really meaty and tasty and was super juicy to the bite.

zha jiang mian - 8.5/10

last but not least we have the zha jiang mian. i don't know why i have such a fascination with zha jiang mian. i think its cause when i was in the states and super craving chinese food i suddenly was recommended by the chinese chef to try his new dish which was zha jiang mian. i remember it turned out to be very good and from then on i fell in love with the dish. anyway its basically la mian with some minced meat on top. a very simple but tasty dish.

all in all i think that this place was really good. if i lived there, its definitely one place that you could count on me going back to time and time again.