Din Tai Fung, Shanghai takeaway - By Guest

This is a special post, by a Guest Correspondent in the Far East. Not sure how often he will wanna post, but here goes the first one :-)

It's strange that in my 5 years living in Shanghai, I rank a Taiwanese chain restaurant (Din Tai Fung, no doubt) as having the best xiao loong bao in Shanghai. This, in the home turf of the amazingly hawt mini pork dumplings with runny soup in it. Not even the hallowed
grounds of the suburb of Nanxiang ranks higher in the hawt-o-meter.
But this post has all to do with Din Tai Fung but nothing at all related to the little dragon bun.



To me, DTF also serves some of the best double boiled soupy noodles around. This is the double boiled beef shank noodle, side dish: simple spinach for the weekend supply of iron. Soup is clear and seems MSG free, indication that the meat has been blanched in hot water before being cooked in, what would result in the soup.
The noodles, as expected for a takeaway, has fused together, but when the soup is poured over it, is almost passable. Hey, you don't expect me to pull my own la-mien, do you? Good stuff. Best taken with a hot cup of Pu Er tea.
(Fat tub of ice cream can come later)