Din Tai Fung new menu launch

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Thanks to Ken, I was honoured to be invited as part of the food review group to taste the new menu launched by the one and only Din Tai Fung in Malaysia, located at The Gardens, Mid Valley. I was really eager about this visit because I had always wanted to go there but never succeeded due to the massive queue in front. To avoid this, one is advised to go before 12pm, where the restaurant is still not that packed. The owner of Din Tai Fung Malaysia is the pretty and successful Ms Lim, who was kind enough to host us that morning. This was the new menu for launching, consisting mainly of appetizers, la mian (noodles) and desserts.

Din Tai Fung’s new menu (Click to enlarge)

The restaurant is located at Lower Ground floor at The Gardens, Mid Valley, and I don’t think you will miss it because there is always a long queue in front, which explains the row of chairs prepared for patrons to sit while waiting.

Din Tai Fung at The Gardens, Mid Valley

Din Tai Fung entrance

Before starting our food tasting, we were brought to the open kitchen for a short explanation on how Xiao Long Bau is made. Being a Taiwanese restaurant, one cannot run away from Xiao Long Bau and Din Tai Fung proves to be one of the masters in making the best Xiao Long Pau in Malaysia. The process of making Xiao Long Bau starts with making the dough. The machine shown in the photo below is a dough-making machine.

Preparing the dough

Secondly one needs to flatten the dough by rolling it to a specific thickness. The way the thickness is maintained is by making sure the dough is rolled across 16 times! *gasp* Not easy just to prepare the skin of Xiao Long Pau, eh?

Flattening the dough

Afterwards the sheet of flour is made into small balls of dough with a specific weight. These small balls would later be flattened further to form a circle that would eventually be the skin of Xiao Long Bau. Bear in mind that flattening the small balls of dough is no easy task as the skin at the centre has to be thicker than the skin at the edges. Just learning the technique of flattening could take up 2 months!

Balls of dough and flattening process

Following that, another chef would be in charge to fill in the meat and fold the Xiao Long Bau. This is possibly the hardest task of all, as the chef has to maintain the exact same weight of the meat to be filled, and the technique of folding has to be top-notch. There must be at least 18 folds to one Xiao Long Bau or it is deemed not suitable for presentation. Every fold is so delicate and fine, one has to have a sharp attention and lots of patience to perfect this skill.

Filling up meat and folding

Can you count 18 folds?

Finally, it is the task of the steamer to make sure the Xiao Long Bau is properly cooked without being overdone before serving to the customers. This is also one of the hardest task to do since the steamer has to keep track of the tens of baskets of Xiao Long Bau without mixing them up, while making sure each basket is steamed the exact amount of minutes. One thing for sure, this steamer definitely has to have full concentration on what he’s doing. I believe he’s not even allowed to talk to the others in case he mixes up the baskets.

Professional steamer at work

Now, it’s time to eat! Talking to Ms Lim was really inspiring. She’s very hardworking and dedicated, and her attention to detail is to-die-for. Every small piece of minor detail is being taken care of by her, from the different type of soya sauce to be used, right up to providing a sleeping room for her employees (I’ve always wanted that in my office!). She also strives to ensure a wonderful dining experience for her customers, so even though you have to queue for a long time to get a seat, it is all very worth it.

Table setting

Shown in the photo below were 2 different types of soya sauce for comparison. The darker one on the right was actually an imported version from Taiwan, and she had no choice but to import it because there was no local soya sauce that could match in terms of taste. Even though this meant higher cost of sales, she would rather profit less than to accept second-class quality food. The Taiwanese soya sauce had a very strong bean smell and due to its higher density texture, it would make the soup and noodles more golden. Just the smell alone was a vast difference compared to the local soya sauce.

Local vs Taiwanese soya sauce

The first dish to be served that night was the Din Tai Fung Special Appetizer (RM3.80). This dish requires a lot of manual chopping to be done to produce fine slices of chili, beansprouts and vegetables. Glass noodles were also mixed into this dish. Bear in mind that all the appetizers in the new menu are actually cold dishes, which are popular in Taiwan. This appetizer was slightly sour yet unique. The blended taste combined from all the vegetables was one of a kind and very appetizing.

Din Tai Fung Special Appetizer (RM3.80)

Secondly, it was the Spicy Jelly Fish (RM6.80), which was made from the highest grade of jelly fish. This resulted in firmer texture for better experience, not to mention the spicy taste tickling your senses.

Spicy Jelly Fish (RM6.80)

Third dish to be introduced was the Japanese Cucumber, which was one of my 2 favourites! The cold cucumber must be eaten right after it’s served so that you could taste and feel the chill of cucumber that would cool your senses. It’s slightly spicy due to the chilli oil drizzled on top and mostly very refreshing and sweet.

Japanese Cucumber (RM3.80)

Next up was the Taiwan Century Egg, which was a hot favourite among the food reviewers that day. I personally didn’t have too much fondness for century egg but I must admit I was impressed with the very runny and melt-in-your-mouth texture of the yolk. Din Tai Fung also used duck egg instead of chicken egg, which means higher quality egg for better taste. It went perfectly with ginger slices, which explained the presentation of the eggs as shown below.

Taiwan Century Egg (RM3.80)

The last appetizer was Stewed Beancurd with Honey Sauce, which was my favourite of the lot! Seriously, when I saw this dish, I was thinking ‘How uninteresting!’, due to the dull colour and rough beancurd. But lo and behold, the taste was amazing! I could immediately taste the high quality Taiwanese soya sauce that I smelled earlier, and it went extremely well with the so-called beancurd, which was made from gluten. Very creative indeed.

Stewed Beancurd with Honey Sauce (RM6.80)

Moving on to the mains, we started with Fish Dumplings, which were painstakingly folded into nice shapes not unlike curry puffs. Bear in mind that fresh garoupa fish was used in the filling of these dumplings, so rest assured that you won’t be eating kampung fish. One bite into the dumpling would release a gush of aromatic soup that warms your palate. There was certainly no fishy smell at all, and the combination of fish, celery and soup was delightful.

Fish Dumpling (RM10.80/6pcs, RM19.80/12pcs)

Presented next was the Spicy Shrimp Pork Wanton, which had a slightly oily outlook due to the chilli oil used. The chilli used here was also imported all the way from Shanghai. Doing away with the oil and taking a bite, one could taste a mixture of shrimps, pork and vegetables in the wanton. Not to mention the barely-there layer of smooth skin holding it all together. The taste was slightly salty and spicy.

Spicy Shrimp Pork Wanton

Next up, we moved on to steamed Xiao Long Bau. This was initially not in our tasting menu, but since most of us never visited Din Tai Fung before, the kind Ms Lim ordered several baskets of these jewels for us. I guess after witnessing the tedious process of preparing the Xiao Long Bau, I learnt to appreciate it more. Each piece was a work of art, an attention to detail, a mark of excellence. Simply awesome.

Xiao Long Bau

Immaculately wrapped

Ms Lim also taught us the correct way to eat Xiao Long Bau, whereby we’re supposed to mix 1 part of soya sauce and 3 parts of vinegar into the shreds of ginger. I really didn’t know this, because I used to just mix ginger with vinegar.

Ginger shreds

Continuing with the new menu, we were served la mian, which is the Taiwanese version of ramen noodles. The first was Dry Mustard Green La Mian, which was actually la mian with salted vegetables mixed with sesame seed oil. My first impression upon biting the noodles was that they’re springy and firm. The salted vegetables added much needed flavour into the otherwise plain noodles, while the sesame seed oil gave it the aroma boost to open up your palate.

Dry Mustard Green La Mian (RM12.00)

One is recommended to mix the whole bowl up thoroughly before eating the noodles, and I heartily agree with it.

Throughly mixed noodles

Springy and firm texture

The second la mian presented was the Cong You La Mian, which was noodles with spring onion-fried oil. It had a very distinctive and strong fragrance that came from the oil. The top of the noodles was laden with chicken shreds. Ms Lim mentioned that the oil was fried with spring onions for 1 whole hour to obtain this fragrance! *gasp* This was definitely my favourite among the noodles.

Cong You La Mian (RM12.80)

Shreds of chicken

Halfway through the meal, the head chef came to talk us and explained the difference in local glass noodles and imported ones. The local ones were more fragile and easily breakable while the imported ones were whiter in colour and more elastic.

Ms Lim and head chef of Din Tai Fung

Can you differentiate the different glass noodles?

Imported vs. local glass noodles

The final noodle dish was the Glass Noodle Soup with Beancurd. This was easily the plainest dish of all, because the soup was clear and the beancurd was pretty bland. To put it in a good way, this was a healthy dish, for people keeping their weight in watch, or for those who are sick and have to eat less-oily food. The noodles were springy as expected, and the pork dumplings used here tasted similar to Xiao Long Bau.

Glass Noodle Soup with Beancurd (RM12.80)

Pork dumpling and noodles

Desserts would be coming from the steamer as well, in the form of mini buns! The mini sesame bun was improvised from the previous version of normal-sized sesame buns. According to Ms Lim, the previous size was too big that most customers requested for the buns to be cut into half before being eaten. This would take away the feeling of eating the bun complete with its wholesome ingredients. Hence, she came up with the idea of serving them in smaller sizes instead, at the same price. So now, more people can enjoy the buns without having to cut them up.

Mini Sesame Bun (RM5.50)

Look at the cross section of the bun, dense filling and firm dough. Most importantly, it won’t stick to your teeth, like most irritating buns.

Black sesame seed filling

Last but no least, the Red Bean Dumpling was served. They looked exactly like Xiao Long Bau, only firmer. The skin was thin as usual, and the filling was rich and smooth. Definitely ending our culinary adventure on a sweet note.

Red BeanDumpling

Red bean filling

It was definitely my pleasure and honour meeting the successful Ms Lim, the proud owner of Din Tai Fung Malaysia. This experience just confirmed that those people queuing outside the restaurant were not doing it for the wrong reasons.

Ms Lim and witch

Din Tai Fung

LG207, The Gardens, Mid Valley City

Tel. no: 03-2283 2292

Popularity: 15%