The thing I miss most about Hong Kong

Like most cities, Hong Kong has it's good and bad points, it's a hugely vibrant place, you could get left behind if it's fast paced lifestyle gets on top of you. One thing I love about Hong Kong is the quality and variety of Asian food it has to offer. You've got some of the best dim sum in the world, amazing seafood and offerings from countries such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan that have yet to arrive on British shores.

One place that I have fallen in love with in Hong Kong is Din Tai Fung, a chain restaurant that was established in Taiwan. It has been awarded a Michelin Star and The New York Times ranks it as one of the world’s Top Ten Best Restaurants. To be honest I had no knowledge of Din Tai Fung before I went there, it wasn't on my hit list but I'm so glad I have experienced their amazing food.

A bit of advice for anyone looking to try the delights of DTF, get there early or be prepared to queue for anywhere from half hour to an hour. The first thing I notice at DTF is the quality of service. I worked in Hong Kong for around a year and throughout that period I would say 8 times out of 10 I was treated pretty shabbily especially compared to Western standards. To be honest I think that’s because I’ve become soft after being brought up in England, I don’t think people working in service industries in Hong Kong such as restaurants mean to be rude, it’s just that life goes a million miles per hour and they don’t have time to humour you with pleasantries. It’s a nice surprise when you are treated as well as I was in DTF.

The queue for DTF on a average Sunday night

I went with a couple of friends who were veterans of the DTF experience so I left the ordering to them. They told me one thing that you must order are the xiao long baos. For anyone who is not aware of what these are, XLB roughly translates to ‘small basket buns’. I think buns are a little misleading especially if you’re use to ‘bao’s’ being  fluffy and white, you may be a little confused when you’re first introduced to XLBs. I’m more comfortable comparing them to dumplings. Don’t feel intimidated if you’re trying them for the first time here because there’s a little instruction pamphlet on your table explaining how do tackle these ‘dumplings’. We ordered the Steamed pork one, they really are the stars of the menu. From memory I’ll try my best to explain how to eat them. Firstly pour some vinegar into your sauce dish and place some chopped ginger in there. Next you dip your XLB in the vinegar and place on your spoon, be careful not to break the light delicate skin of the dumpling as you dip it into the vinegar, inside the dumpling contains the pork with its meaty juices. Once you've dipped into the vinegar, place it onto your spoon. Now you can pierce a hole through the skin of the XLB, let the juices flow out onto your spoon, give it a blow to cool it down, proceed to stuff it in your mouth!

Xiao long baos

I’m not a massive fan of dumplings but these are truly amazing, there is a real depth of flavour from the juices whilst remaining incredibly light and delicate, you can absolutely tell that a lot of care and attention has gone into making each XLB, apparently it takes 2 years for a DTF apprentice to master the art of making them. One XLB goes through six stations before it’s finished, so you can understand the effort it takes to make these.

To only talk about XLBs would do a great disservice to this establishment because the other food they serve is also excellent. One of my favourite things on their menu is the spicy vegetable and pork wontons in black vinegar and chilli oil. These wontons are so moreish thanks to the addictive chilli oil, I honestly could keep eating these wontons over and over again. Another delicious dish is the deep fried pork chop. You’d think that the pork chop would be a little dry after being deep fried but it still retained its juices and was extremely tender. It went really well with the spicy peanut sauce noodles that we also ordered.

Wontons in chilli oil

Noodles in spicy peanut sauce

Deep fried pork chop

It seems like such a cliché thing to say that the Asian food in the UK doesn’t compare to what you can get in places like Hong Kong and it’s not a slight on Asian restaurants in the UK because there are places that serve up some really good food but restaurants like DTF are just on a different level. I'm completely baffled as to why DTF, who are trying to create a global brand still have not located themselves in the UK as they have branches in America, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. I'm hoping that it’s only a matter of time before we see them set up somewhere in London because I would love to take my friends here so they can also fall in love with this establishment like I have.