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Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese restaurant chain that's known for its xiaolongbao (soup dumplings).  They're maybe a step or two away from being perfect, depending on which location you visit. 

The great thing is that they're all over Asia so if you're in Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo,
Malaysia, Indonesia, mainland China, Australia or even Taiwan, you're not far from xiaolongbao goodness.  If you live in the USA however, you're very far from xiaolongbao goodness as there's only one location outside of Los Angeles and that location has mixed reviews.  

Within Asia, all the locations are at an equally high standard.  Some locations are more equal than others.  For example, the Tsimshatsui location is considered one of the flagships because of its Michelin Star and its larger, more varied menu.  Because of its location and its accolades, it's also one of the more expensive locations.  Compared to this, the Xintandi location seemed like a bargain even though it was in an expensive part of Shanghai and in spite of the inequality of the exchange rate (which will hopefully change in about a year).  

The appeal of Din Tai Fung is not necessarily the special-ness of the menu (aside from the xiaolongbao, whose equal I cannot find in my half of the world) but that the menu is prepared to the highest standard and that the service in the restaurant is also top tier.  That's not saying much, if you were to mention the Tokyo or Singapore locations; service SHOULD be good.  But to get that caliber of service on the mainland or even in Hong Kong is a special thing.  When you visit a Din Tai Fung (in Asia), you will get xiaolongbao hand folded 23 times and it will be delivered to your table scalding hot.  Remember to scoop it out with your soup spoon and nibble the side like a beaver so that the soup pours out of the dumpling into your spoon. Sip then gulp.  Failure to follow these guidelines will probably lead to a burnt mouth.  The beef noodle soup will be, erm, beefy and satisfying.  The noodles will had that neat al dente snap.  The veggies will be locally sourced and fresh.  And although it won't be a lomantic night out, it probably would qualify as a FUN night out.  Lomance is handled by the alleyways and bars of Xintandi...

Hawker's Noodle Soup, Taiwan style

Fried Pork chop over aforementioned noodles

DTF style siu mai

On a recent "suicide run" to LA (despite my vow a few years back not to do them ever again), I had a three hour brunch at FIG in Santa Monica.

But first, what exactly is a "suicide run"? A "suicide run" is when you drive to LA from SF when the return is 3 days or less. Having not done these in a few years, I was amazed to find that the Tejon Ranch near Grapevine had been developed and even has an In & Out, thus bringing the amount of restaurants on the 5 to two! Exciting if you're a fan of driving. And I&O. Despite the suicide run character of this road trip, I've not taken the MX5 out for a proper shakedown cruise. I took the MX5 there on the 5 and back on the 101 and learned that Kumho Ecsta tires are noisy and new struts are in order. But never mind the logistics of driving...

So I met up with a friend and she drove me to FIG at the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica. It's basically American cuisine in nice surroundings. This was the first time there for both of us. It was a fun brunch; I think I spent more time laughing and chatting than eating. It took me two hours to eat a grilled cheese sandwich and another hour to have a couple of drinks in the Southern California sunshine with wonderful company.

I need more meals like this.

Signage is excellent; you definitely know where you are.

Sea salt. Looks good and tastes good too.

When you're seated, they serve you arugula butter with warm mini baguettes.

This is how a 2 hour grilled gueyre cheese sandwich looks like

The aftermath, a half finished pasta-less lasagna, fries and the second half of a grilled cheese. And someone's pair of Ray-Ban aviators...

Great service and validated parking at the Fairmont Hotel. Worth a visit then a stroll afterwards.

FIG
101 Wilshire Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90401-1106
(310) 576-7777
http://www.figsantamonica.com

Mmmmmacaroni salad!

Conversation over Ping! for iPhone...

Pally: "Hey, when are you coming down to LA? I've got some friends I'd like you to meet..."

Me: "As soon as I get some time, I'll swing down for a few days. Think the weather will behave?"

That initial chat was over a month ago. Despite my best laid plans (which involved driving my MX5 down the coast and visiting friends along the way), I've not been able to make the drive to LA. I've been just plain busy! Since I returned to SF from Japan, the weather has been cold and rainy and issues have come up with the money pit that required me to go "out there" to fix things. I don't like being flaky (cuz I absolutely LOATHE it when people are flaky with me) so when I found a SFO-LAX same day turn flight on UA for US$100, I went for it. I figure it's been a long time since I've been to LA strictly to putter. Longer still since I had a french dip sandwich from the place that invented the yummy thing. And since I was arriving around lunch time, I figured that this was a sign.

Nah, THIS is a sign!

Phillipe's is an 91 year old Los Angeles institution; basically a deli that makes short orders (and sells cuppa coffees for 9 cents) and french dipped sandwiches with your choice of meat. It doesn't sound like much. A sandwich (with your choice of meat and cheese) dipped whole into au jus. But like alchemy, the ingredients themselves aren't that fantastical; combine everything and it's wonderous!! There's also hot spicy mustard at all the tables for that added kick. Bam.

I arrived at the restaurant just after 1300 and parked in the free parking lot. A very fast 6 minutes later, I was ordering a French Dip Beef with swiss cheese, macaroni salad, homemade custard and a Diet Coke (burp). $12 or so for the entire thing; if I nixed the custard, it would have been under $10.

Ah, what a healthy lunch!

Oh yeah, the whole reason why I came down to LA? I'll have to cover that next time. I did have the fastest sashimi dinner ever and got from Little Tokyo to LAX in 29 minutes during the evening commute. So I accomplished something else besides satisfying my french dip craving...

Three Los Angeles icons: free parking, Phillipe's and an LAPD radio car

Phillipe the Original
1001 N. Alameda St
Los Angeles CA 90012
+1-213-628-3781
http://www.phillipes.com

Sooo...I've got a friend who would like to visit the Delta. Got another with an SUV. Got a free Sunday with nothing major planned. So...time to move tables and bookshelves and kitchen appliances to the Delta. We're all getting up and leaving The City early to avoid the traffic and the forecasted 91F (33C) high. Because of the "getting up early" part of this endeavor, I'm actually home at midnight. ON A SATURDAY! Sheesh.

On the plus side, since we're going to be passing the Brentwood Costco, hopefully USDA Prime New York Steaks are in order! Since the "recession", big shot steak houses haven't been as busy as before. There's lots of USDA Prime that hasn't been picked up by steak houses and as a result, picked up by Costco, to be picked up by me! This IS a big deal if you like to eat real food. The WSJ even wrote about it back in July.

And once we get this fantastic meat, there's only ONE way to prepare it. Some sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. And then...FIRE!

This is the enviro way to fire up coals. No lighter fluid here!

I made a brief visit to the North Beach Festival last Sunday.

Washington Square all crowded

The North Beach Festival is one of the mainstays of San Francisco summer fair season where Washington Square and part of Grant Avenue is taken over by musicians, food, art and product vendors. The same vendors who are also at the Chestnut Street, Castro and Fillmore Street fairs, in case you missed them there. The North Beach Festival is different. Unlike the Chestnut Street Fair, you're not confined to a corral if you wish to indulge in an adult beverage. Of course, maybe it was logistically impossible because of the density of the crowd. Problem is that when you have a crowd like this, this is what happens to your AT&T signal.

Notice the upper left corner of my iPhone? It says "searching". And that's all.

Of course, it's not all smug and maturity. It's an opportunity for local merchants (who are hurting due to the City's policies) to attract customers too.

Why visit this place?

Because of its creative advertising!

A total bummer if you're a foodie that likes chocky. The corporate owner of Scharffen Berger and Joseph Schmidt chocolates will be closing their original factories in Northern California and will be consolidating their production outside the state. Link here.

Although the official reason was to consolidate production at their Illinois plant, one can't help but wonder, could the cost of doing business here in California have something to do with it? It costs too much to run production here so the Hershey company moved production to a state that wants jobs from a state that feels entitled to them (and all the tax revenue they can squeeze)?

An unfortunate side effect is that there's a high probability that ingredients will be replaced by cheaper substitutes and the quality of the product (chocky, which is a serious thing!) will go down, thus cheapening the brand. Bummer. Totally.

Since when did 20:00 become "late" for a meal??

The last time I experienced this was when I was 10 years old OR...whenever I'm home in San Francisco.

I mean, there's clues abounds. The dearth of good late night (or horrible) late night places to eat. When even dives like the Grubstake have queues on the deck, down the stairs and onto the Pine street sidewalk, replete with bums and gusty westerly winds. Its 4-star rating on Yelp BTW is for being open late more than anything else.

I guess it's this. Either its "ignorance is bliss" or I'm not dead old enough to be here in ess eff. For the former, since I've been to a lot of Asia, LA and New York, I've gotten used to living life and being sociable. If I never left San Francisco, I may have thought that running home before the sun went down and not staying out past 20:00 was normal too. For the latter, it seems like people can be full of life when they're elsewhere. Once they're in SF however, they mutate into TV watching homebodies with no souls. Bah!

This blows! Time to get back to Asia! Anyone hiring out there?

Actually, that sounds like a Stephen Chow movie. Like God of Cooking. But unlike his movies, Won Ton King is a serious thing...

Serious Wontonmein. Seriously good...

San Francisco, which is still lacking good quality ramen, also lacks good proper Hong Kong style wontonmein. Well, it did until King Won Ton opened in the Sunset. When you first walk into the restaurant, you see a photo of a bamboo pole and noodle dough. They say that they make their noodles by using the pole, much like the celebrated shops in Hong Kong and Macau. The noodles come out springy and delicious. Besides the noodles, the rest of the restaurant also reminds one of Hong Kong. The entire place is fluorescent lit, the menu is on colored copy paper and the service is brusque and curt.

In other words, just like Hong Kong!! YAY!

The one area that's hit or miss is the wontons. On my first visit, the wontons were almost good enough for me to reduce my HKG trips to annual instead of biannual. The prawns tasted fresh. My second trip, the wontons weren't quite as tasty (frozen?) but the beef stew was very good. It practically fell apart when it was lifted from the bowl with chopsticks.

Mmmm...beef stew. With mein. And wontons!

So, what's the verdict? Is it the best in San Francisco? I think so. What to order? Anything that has the mein in it. But i'd go for any of the wontonmein variants. Order some Gai Lon and get some dong ling cha. Try to imagine being in Central just getting off of work. The illusion almost works until you receive your bill, which may as well be in Central because for what you're eating, it's expensive. It's a cheap meal here in SFO but it costs a lot more than it does in Central...

Guess I'll be still be traveling biannually to HKG, but Won Ton King will make the months I'm stuck here bearable. Like right now.

Won Ton King
1936 Irving Street (between 20th & 21st Aves)
San Francisco CA 94122
+14156829813

The day before a trip, it's good to have a proper brekkie before having your body all messed up by time change, jet lag and horrible airplane food.

Stack of pancakes at Stacks!

Of course for some people, this is the first real meal after time change, jet lag and horrible airplane food...

Don't let that charming face fool ya; she really liked the banana pancakes there!

Personally, I think, "not enough coffee"!

I mean, this is how I am after I take a shower!!