Xmas foodie adventures (Day 1)

We are off to Portland and Seattle for a week of eating and relaxation!! Woo-hoo :). I used to live in Portland in my wee years - my twin brothers were born there and then we moved to Daly City shortly after. I haven't been back to Portland since, so I'm pretty excited to visit and check out my old house, as well as the awesome food scene that I keep reading so much about.

I'm going to try to blog as we go this time round, so please check back this week for updates on my foodie conquests in the PNW! Portland food carts, Nostrana and Veritable Quandary are on my list of culinary adventures so far. I haven't quite planned out Seattle but I have a list of old haunts to hit up in Pike's Place fo'sho.

Quick culinary school update - This past week was pretty stressful. I finished my 2 day big big end-of-the-program culinary final in school! It was really crazy, but I survived. After vacation, I go back to school for 2 more days of fun and then the program is officially over. I cannot believe how quickly 6 months of school has flown by - I almost wish I could do it all over again, just a little slower :). But I'm ready to move on at the same time. Now it's externship time and I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be working at Google in the near future - wish me luck!

As a precursor to our Portland/Seattle foodfest, we celebrated Christmas in SoCal with my side of the family. It was really fun actually and we ate at two places that I've been wanting to try for a while now. I'll post about DTF first and then the other some other time.

DTF (otherwise known as Ding Tai Fung). This place is legendary in Taiwan for it's pork soup dumplings or "xiao long tang bao" (here on out abbreviated as "XLB"). My Grandma promised to take us there so we drove 45 minutes and waited for another 45 minutes to finally sit down and consume these famous dumplings. Only to find out that they don't serve the tang bao on weekdays...Grrrrrrrr......no matter. We had their regular "xiao long bao" minus the "tang" (which means "soup" btw).

Pictures!

My attempt at being artistic....


The dumplings - pretty tasty and very cute...


On the back of the chopstick wrapper, there are instructions on how to properly consume a XLB:

1) Pour the vinegar into the saucer on top of the thinly sliced ginger. Must be black vinegar.


2) Gently lift a XLB and place onto your spoon, being very careful not to puncture the skin with your chopsticks, else all the porky, soupy goodness drips out.


3) Very very gently, nibble a small hole in the skin of the XLB to release some of the steam. Be careful - hot soup tends to dribble down one's chin during this step :). Can be a painful experience depending on how hot the XLB is.


4) Drizzle as much vinegar and ginger on the XLB as you like - best is to drizzle it into the XLB cavity via the hole you just nibbled.


5) Now pop the entire thing into your mouth and enjoy!


These were sticky rice and mushroom dumplings - these were OK. Not a lot of flavor. But my Grandma loves them.


Taiwanese beef noodle soup - not the best I've ever had but pretty good.


DTF, how long this place has eluded me. Now that I've finally eaten here, I have to say I'm not that impressed. The skin of the XLB is definitely a marvel - so thin and chewy and all the dishes are actually really light and non-greasy which is a feat for Chinese food. But not the best XLB I've ever eaten. Would I go to all the trouble again? Nah :P.

Okay, almost time to board the plane...So long for now!