Din Tai Fung

It's been a long time since I've written. Since March New Zealand has been taken completely by storm by a raft of limited edition chocolates and I've fallen down the rabbit hole. My waking hours have become a succession of deadlines and meetings, followed by wine and chocolate. I make it sound hard. It's not that bad. I've thoroughly enjoyed eating all this novelty chocolate and the invention doesn't appear to be stopping: where Whittaker's introduce white chocolate and pear, Cadbury's counter with peanut and pretzel, Whittaker's taunt me with Jelly Tip, Cadbury with Jaffas.  It barely leaves room for real food. 

But there has been some real food. Some REAL food. Lately I've been cooking some pretty good meals at home, and a few weeks back I escaped to Sydney for a week of culinary bliss. Reaching my hotel in the early afternoon NZ time after a 3am start I was famished. Luckily I had booked my accommodation based on its proximity to good food and so it was barely a stumble to find some lunch. Ducking the rain drops I joined the throngs of people outside Din Tai Fung in World Square. Now I'd already read all about Din Tai Fung and it was top of my Sydney food list, but even if I'd never heard of it before, the lines outside would have let me known I was on to a good thing.  Thankfully at Din Tai Fung they give you a buzzer, and on a weekday at noon, a pencil and paper to peruse the menu and make your choices meaning there are mere minutes between the moment you sit at your table and the arrival of your first place of steaming deliciousness.

Dining by myself I was limited to how many dishes I could realistically try. I had to go with the standouts - the pork xiao long bao and the pork bun, both of which were pretty damn good. The pork xiao long bao were the best I'd tasted, full of flavour, juicy and moreish. I could have ordered plate after plate were there not others headed my way. The pork bun was good, the pork tender and savoury, but it was probably my least favourite of the day. My second bamboo steamer was filled with more delicacies - a crab meat and roe with pork dumpling that was sweet, rich and a nice counter to the traditional pork dumpling.  My last choice was a pork with black truffle seasonal offer that was ridiculously decadent, full-bodied and earthy. Had I not burned my tongue in my eagerness it would have been perfect.

There were so many more dishes that sparked my fancy and I so wanted to return, but with only a little over 48 hours in this wonderful city, there was so much more to eat and discover!  I'll certainly be back to Sydney, and it will definitely include a stop at Din Tai Fung.

Din TAI FUNG - WORLD SQUARE
LEVEL 1, SHOP 11.04
644 GEORGE STREET 
SYDNEY NSW 2000