Taiwan: Ji Nan Xian Tang Bao
Before hitting up the electronics megastore (Guang Hua Shang Chang), we went to Ji Nan Xian Tang Bao or literally Ji Nan (name of the street that it's on) Fresh Soup Dumplings for some...well, soup dumplings. The most famous soup dumpling chain is Taiwan is of course Ding Tai Feng, but the wait can get rather monstrous. When we looked up alternatives to Ding Tai Feng, Ji Nan Xian Tang Bao came up:
Lunchtime at Ji Nan Xian Tang Bao gets pretty busy. You can see everyone in the kitchen hard at work making soup dumplings:
We started off with the regular soup dumplings. You can see where the skin of the dumplings are bulging out because of the soup inside:
The skin is super delicate, so much so that the kitchen broke one (hence the empty spot). Our missing dumpling was later brought to us in a separate bamboo steamer. It was sort of cute seeing the tiny dumpling all by its lonesome in the steamer designed for 8.
We also ordered the crab roe soup dumplings:
According to my friend, the crab roe soup dumplings at Ding Tai Feng are better because there's more crab roe in them there. I'll take her word for it, but these were pretty darn tasty.
Because soup dumplings aren't enough by themselves, we ordered a beef roll:
And some potstickers:
The server had to cut the crispy bottom with scissors.
And some drunken chicken:
Not enough alcohol in this chicken to be truly drunken. I think my father makes better drunken chicken...
Anyway, the soup dumplings at Ji Nan Xian Tang Bao were great, but now I'm really curious about Ding Tai Feng. Maybe I'll suffer the lines one day to see what all the fuss is about.
濟南鮮湯包
台北市大安區濟南路三段20號
02-8773-7596
Lunchtime at Ji Nan Xian Tang Bao gets pretty busy. You can see everyone in the kitchen hard at work making soup dumplings:
We started off with the regular soup dumplings. You can see where the skin of the dumplings are bulging out because of the soup inside:
The skin is super delicate, so much so that the kitchen broke one (hence the empty spot). Our missing dumpling was later brought to us in a separate bamboo steamer. It was sort of cute seeing the tiny dumpling all by its lonesome in the steamer designed for 8.
We also ordered the crab roe soup dumplings:
According to my friend, the crab roe soup dumplings at Ding Tai Feng are better because there's more crab roe in them there. I'll take her word for it, but these were pretty darn tasty.
Because soup dumplings aren't enough by themselves, we ordered a beef roll:
And some potstickers:
The server had to cut the crispy bottom with scissors.
And some drunken chicken:
Not enough alcohol in this chicken to be truly drunken. I think my father makes better drunken chicken...
Anyway, the soup dumplings at Ji Nan Xian Tang Bao were great, but now I'm really curious about Ding Tai Feng. Maybe I'll suffer the lines one day to see what all the fuss is about.
濟南鮮湯包
台北市大安區濟南路三段20號
02-8773-7596
Where's that delicious fried rice that was ordered?
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