Oy, an hour and 40 minutes. That’s how long our wait was to be seated in Din Tai Fung. I hate waiting. Generally, I won’t do it. I can probably tolerate 20 minutes...if I have errands to run...otherwise I go elsewhere. This is not a choice today as I am dining with others and Din Tai Fung was the agreed destination. Damn it.

The hostess was killing me by giving me the standard “It’ll just be another 10 minutes.” I could have gone over to Bellevue Square if I knew I had almost 2 hours to kill. But 10 minutes limits me to the scarce stores in Lincoln Square. There’s only so much perusing one can do in the Container Store. Admittedly, I can entertain myself for an absurd amount of time playing with the selection of automatic household trash cans on display. Sadly, this is no exaggeration.

Din Tai Fung has a whack of locations in Asia, Oz, and a couple in the USA. It doesn’t feel like a typical XLB joint. The atmosphere is very TGIFridays-like. The service is eerily westernized with friendly servers, quality checks, and dessert dishes coming out at the end(!) I’m not accustomed to this. It’s a bit unnerving. We tried their two kinds of xiao long bao.

Juicy Pork Dumplings ($9.50)

These are acceptable. Both the pork and broth are well seasoned. The buns could have been juicier.(Chen's Shanghai Kitchen is the juiciest I've come across so far.) The wrappers are incredibly thin but resilient. They may have been sitting around for a bit before coming out on the floor, because they are not as hot temperature-wise as others I’ve had.

Juicy Pork and Crab Dumplings ($11.00)

Where’s the juice? As you can see (or not see) there is no broth bursting out of these. Boo! The crab filling had that distinctive seafood-y aroma when the sea critter is...not so fresh. These tasted a bit “crabby” for my liking.

Shrimp and Pork Wonton with Spicy Sauce ($8.00)

The spicy sauce is more than just spicy. It has a little sweetness to it that really makes this dish stand out compared to other spicy wontons. The wontons are plump and full of porky flavour. As far as the dumpling dishes go, the wontons are definitely the stars at the table today.

Shanghai Rice Cake with Chicken ($8.00)

Excellently executed. The Rice cakes are chewy, springy and smoky. Y’see the greens in this dish? Those are what made up the vegetable content of this entire meal. Looking at the pictures now I realize it was meat-carb party.

Matcha Smoothie with Pudding ($4.50)

Yum. No jasmine tea for me today. Slushie time! Pudding pieces are soft and smooth. Not too sweet. Very nice.

Sweet Red Bean Rice Bun ($3.50)

On the menu these are described as “rice buns” so I thought they might be interesting. "Rice buns" turned out to be ordinary red bean joongs. They’re most easily explained as sweet red bean tamales. Glutinous sticky rice wrapped around red bean paste. This is a super filling dessert due to the sticky rice. Had I known it was going to be a joong, I would have suggested sharing one serving instead of having a serving per person. The red bean is smooth and moist inside. This sweet ending is well done and well received at the table.

I can’t say the food at Din Tai Fung is worth the wait. If I’m shopping nearby and I felt like some chewy rice cakes, I may consider Din Tai Fung. But it’s not worth the trip if you’re not already in the area. The pork XLB is acceptable, but not worth going out of my way for.

Dang, I needed some birch shelf trimmers. I am now kicking myself for not taking advantage of the Container Store’s annual sale of Elfa.

Okay, I know I had set aside this blog to focus on eating found in Kamloops and the surrounding areas, however I will toss in others from time to time to keep it interesting. This, and the fact that I eat a lot of different foods in a lot of different places and it's a shame to not include those once in a while.

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