Din Tai Fung - 小笼包

Din Tai Fung(鼎泰豐) starts with a small shop, located on the intersection of Xinyi Road, in Taipei City. It has become a symbol of Chinese delicacies with its "Steamed Dumplings - 小笼包". This small shop has venture out into international market where they have many branches in countries such as Taiwan, Japan, USA, China, Singapore, Korea and etc.

Din Tai Fung(鼎泰豐) has about 5 branches in Singapore located at Paragon Orchard, Bishan Junction 8, Tampines Mall, Wisma Atria Orchard and Raffles City. They have a many varieties of Steamed Dumplings varies from Savory to Sweet. Other than steamed dumplings, they also have a few choices of La Mian.

My mum and aunt love to order this "Appetiser - 小菜" which is on a mixture of seaweed, tofu, bean sprout, chilli etc whenever they visit Din Tai Fung. They always kick off with this signature appetiser before starting their main course.

This is one of our favorite dish called "Pork Chop Fried Rice - 排骨蛋飯". I love the way they seasoned the pork chop which the spices and the combination of the pork chop goes well with their fragrance egg fried rice.

First time ordering this "Glass noodle soup with fried bean curd and pork rolls - 油豆腐粉" which is one of their recommendation dish on the menu. The soup base is great and overall this dish is light and healthy with their self-made Pork Rolls. But if you do not fancy "Glass noodle - 冬粉" then don't expect too much from this dish.

The distinguishing feature of Din Tai Fung's dumplings is that the chefs would make 18 folds to seal the dumplings. I love dumplings especially the "Steamed Dumplings - 小笼包" which I will use the chopsticks to poke a little hole in the skin of the dumpling to let the soup flow out onto the spoon and sip the soup. Then I will add some julienned ginger (soaked in black vinegar) on top of the dumpling before eating it.

Other than their signature "Steamed Dumplings - 小笼包", we also ordered their special promotion "Steamed Chili Crab Dumplings" which is one of the Food Festival Award dish. Although the dumplings that serves on us is not what we expected it to be, it still have it's unique taste. The combination of chilli crab gravy with the soup base of the usual steam dumplings makes this festival dumpling a special dish to venture on.

Fancy Delight - Assorted Egg Tarts

Come across this bright orangy colour stall known as "Fancy Delight" at level one of IMM Building where they display many different varieties of unique Egg Tarts. The tarts are very different from the usual one that we had at Dim Sum restaurant. Their tarts are shaped like a little cup that comes in around 20 or so different flavours range from sweet & savoury. So after some discussion we decided to settle with these 4 flavour.

Banana Tart - which topped with slices of fragrance fresh banana gives it an irresistible Goreng Pisang taste. This is Rey's favourite compare to the Double-Chocolate Tart that he pick because of the sweet and tasty aroma of the banana that is infuse in the custard.

My pick is this Green Tea Tart as I was attracted by the bright green colour of the crust and also I love the fragrance of any green-tea products. And true enough, the tart shell is very fragrance and it match well with the inner custard which release a very refreshing taste when consume.

This Double-Chocolate Tart is chosen by Rey but in the end he prefers the Banana Tart over this. It has a chocolate marble tart that is filled with chocolate milk custard and top with extra chocolate chips.

We keep this Durian Tart for the very last as we are afraid that the taste of the Durian might over power the rest of the tarts. But then we are kind of disappointed with the taste as we think the amount of durian flesh added is still not enough to bring out the flavour of the tart.

But overall, it is still worth to try out these tarts and I will sure to get back with some of their new flavour like pepper chicken, gula malak, orange chocolate and etc.


Outlets:
~ IMM Jurong
2, Jurong East St. 21, IMM Building, #01-K05.
Monday to Sunday. 10.30am to 10pm or while stock last.

~ Suntec City
3 Temasek Boulevard, Suntec City Mall (Tower 3), #01-140F (near Carrefour).
Monday to Sunday. 10am to 10pm or while stock last.

~ Tanjong Pagar
Block 1, Tanjong Pagar Plaza, #01-04.
Monday to Friday 7.30am to 7.30pm
Sat 7.30am to 5.30pm.
Closed on Sunday and Public Holiday.

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Cordyceps Militaris Chicken Soup

I have read about the usage of this Cordyceps Militaris in some Chinese Soup Book some months back but I didn't give it a try because I thought we might not be able to find this in Singapore as it is not a common soup herbs. But my view changed when I chance upon a soup recipe from FOOD 4 TOTS called Chicken & Cordyceps Militaris Soup. Thank LK, for sharing this herbs and a wonder soup recipe :)

She mentioned about this herb and how she got it from her mother-in-law. So without hesitate, I also try my luck in one of the Chinese Medical shop in Chinatown where I managed to get hold of this herbs at $11.00 (during their promotion) for "一两 (38g)".

Ingredients:
1/2 Chicken
5-7g of Cordyceps Militaris (虫草子实体)
6 Big Red Date (红枣)
1 Tablespoon Wolfberries(枸杞)
5g Yu Zhu (玉竹)
1000ml water

Method:
1. Clean, remove the extra fats from the chicken then cut it into half if your double-boiled pot is too small.
2. Bring some water to boil in pot, blanch the chicken for about 2 - 3 minutes, rinse and set aside.
3. Rinse all the herbs and set aside.
4. Next bring the 1000ml of water to almost boil, add in the rinse herbs and bring to boil for about 2 minutes then add in the chicken.
5. Let it bring to boil again then simmer for about another 3 minutes.
6. Transfer to the double-boil pot and place it in a slow-cooker with hot water in it.
7. Double-boiled for about 2 - 2.5 hrs.
8. Serves with rice or you can drink before meal.

Note:
1) I just season the soup with pinch of salt before consume. The adding of herbs do makes the soup taste sweet and fragrance so it's ok if you omit the salt seasoning.

According to the shopkeeper by adding some Yu Zhu (玉竹) can nourishes Ying and stimulates saliva to quenches thirst. It also can be used to heals coughing and clears the internal Heat as well as pain the the throat. And there also also a few types of Yu Zhu available is most of the medical shop which I have shown two types over here. The 1 on the left which is darker brown in colour is more towards the fresh cut without being press thin and dry compare to the whiter colour 1 on the right.


Recently I also spot another type of vacuum sealed packing of this Cordyceps Militaris from Fook Huat Chinese Medical Shop (福华). But I am not sure how it taste and look like compare to this type that I get from the Medical Shop in Chinatown. So do give this soup a try if you managed to find this herbs. It really add extra flavour and fragrance to the soup which make it taste great.