Aaaah, one of the things I really miss in London is a good bowl of ramen. Now that we’ve got a brilliant udon-ya for keeps, the next big thing will hopefully be ramen. Unlike in the States, we only have a couple of restaurants offering old school ramen which are alright. But considering there is a ramen boom sweeping across Japan, I’m just surprised it hasn’t hit London yet. I mean, I would have expected ramen to be more popular than udon outside Japan.

So I was over the moon to find out that Tsuru Sushi is running a series of monthly ramen events in preparation to them opening Tsuru Ramen. So I went and got some tickets for the first event for me, my sis and my brother-in-law, since we were always going on about ramen and would be checking it over with critical eyes. Plus it was my birthday and who doesn’t want to eat ramen on their birthday?

Tsuru Sushi serves general Japanese food and its three branches are situated close to and within the City of London, the financial district of London. Although I haven’t had their regular menu, I’ve heard good things about their katsu curry and sushi.

And check out the giant paper cranes or tsuru that are hanging from the ceiling. Nice idea for home.

This was the first food/pop-up event we’ve been to so we were really excited about it and wondering what kind of people came to these events. We were expecting a lot more Japanese people but there were only a few. But there were a lot of trendy people who seemed serious about noodles.

For this event, called Tsuru Ramen Ichiban, I ordered shoyu. The ramen would be the classic noodle with a soy or shoyu-based broth prepared from chicken, pork, fish and vegetable stock simmered for over 15 hours. An interesting point about the ramen is that it’s free of MSG. I’m not sure whether I’ve ever had ramen without MSG before…

While we waited for our ramen, we prepared ourselves with a welcoming pint of Asahi on tap which was cold and hit the spot.

And some house-made pork gyoza.

They are one of the bestsellers in this restaurant and I’m not surprised because they were juicy, full of flavour and perfectly cooked.

They were SO good that between the three of us, we scoffed FIVE plates. Oh yes. We go all out when it comes to food. My sister and I often used to complain when we lived in Japan that we never had enough gyoza with our ramen. One plate is never enough, right?

Then the other people in the restaurant began to get their bowls and we waited in anticipation until ours arrived.

It came with the usual accompaniments of chashu pork, marinated egg (or ajitsuke tamago) which was creamy and perfect, wakame (seaweed) instead of nori, menma (bamboo) and some negi (chopped spring onion) on top.

The noodles were standard ramen noodles and tasted fine. I’m not sure whether they make their own, although it didn’t seem like it. The chashu and the tamago were lovely and complimented the noodles. However, the shoyu broth was pretty heavy on the fish flavors, which isn’t particularly my favourite, but both my sister and brother-in-law really liked it. I think we were just happy to be slurping proper ramen in London.

Tsuru Ramen will be doing other pop up events with different broths from tonkotsu to spicy Tokyo to Hokkaido-style before going to Japan on a research trip to decide how and what they want their ramen to be. I hope they get to visit Nagoya and try out my favourite, the Taiwan ramen, a super spicy ramen made with lots of chilli, garlic and minced pork in a red hot soup, which apparently you can only get there.

We all really enjoyed the event and won’t mind going to more, and we will be looking forward to what kind of ramen-ya materialises. But as long as they keep their gyoza recipe as is, I’m happy.

I was recently in my hometown of Santa Rosa (Sonoma County, CA) and a bit of a buzz has started about a gathering of food trucks on Monday afternoons in one parking lot in town. Serving fare from their adorable airstream trailer, Dim Sum Charlie’s had the longest line by far- which of course we waited in. Definitely worth it!

Photo by Erin Gleeson.

Had a chance to go see my acupuncturist in Chinatown while I was in NYC. My body is falling apart on me these days from being on my feet all day, everyday. Dr. Wu on Baxter– he’s the best!

So as is my Chinatown/Dr. Wu ritual, I went out for my XLB fix. There’s nothing like soup dumplings to keep your calm after having a dozen pins pricked into your body. Usually, I go to Shanghai Cafe, but I wanted to try Nice Green Bo, as I had heard a lot about it but never tried when I lived there.

Until recently, the place was called NEW Green Bo. Now it’s NICE Green Bo. See how they covered the sign? Hilarious.

Lots of accolades.

The place was PACKED! I was alone so was seated right away– I love sitting next to random strangers at the big round tables, it’s so New York. I shared a pot of tea with the couple next to me, it was nice. I have to say that I love going out and eating solo in NYC– at the risk of sounding cliche, it’s “liberating”.

I didn’t even give the server a chance to give me the menu and ordered the pork and crab XLB right away. It’s the only way to go!

The skin was thick and held everything together without breaking apart. It’s heartbreaking when the soup just collapses on you– which is the result of dumpling skin that is not thick enough, and bad chopstick skills.

Surprisingly, the soup was dark and more soy based, so it was more salty than what I was used to. But the crab was still moist (it has the tendency to dry out). No pork stinkiness, which is always appreciated at Chinatown joints.

Overall, they were delicious, as far as XLB goes. I hear the scallion pancakes are awesome too, but I wanted to go get Great NY Noodletown after this so I didn’t order anything else. Exercising restraint!

Also, Dr. Wu always tells me, “Stay hungry.” Yessir.

Happy Year of the TIGRRRRR!

NICE GREEN BO
66 Bayard Street
NYC
T: 212.625.2359

Trailing on the coattails of Yoko’s earlier Umamiventure post to the SAME EXACT RESTAURANT in Tokyo, I am finally ready to unveil the greatness that was Din Tai Fung (DTF) in LA. The only outpost in the U.S. of this legendary Taiwanese restaurant!! As you’ll see, the dumplings look suspiciously similar to the ones they had in Tokyo… there must be some sort of International DTF Dumpling University. Sign me up!

It was on a stickysweaty hot September morning in LA that 15 of us came together from all over the city to share the magic of soup dumplings (aka xiao long bao aka XLB) at the famed DTF in The Valley. Most of us had been stuck on the Highway 10, the 110, the 405, or a combination thereof, for up to an hour as the infamous bumper-to-bumper traffic erupted–before noon, WTF?!–simultaneously with our hunger. Grrrr.

But we all made it, albeit starving, for the love of the XLB. What does this tell you? Soup dumplings bring strangers and lovers together, as do Umamiventures. Hell Yes! Thanks to everyone for making it out- per usual, this post is interspersed with comments by those who attended. Mucho love!

SARA S.
DTF was well worth the drive to Arcadia and the stop and go traffic on the 10. I was pretty amazed at how quickly they were able to seat a party of 15 considering how packed the entire restaurant was.

KAYOKO
The crab+pork XLB were tiny jewels of perfection. Look at how there is no soup on the spoon- instead, it oozes out into your mouth, all in one bite. Like oysters, they were velveteen morsels of luxury. They were like fluffy cotton pillows of goodness!

Crab+pork juicy pork dumplings.

SARAH F.
I had so much fun. It was nice to spend time with other people who have a penchant for XLB like I do. This Shanghai specialty is hard to come by and DTF has some of the best. The pork stuffing is soft and juicy. No gristle or hard bits.

SARA S.
Eater beware: if you bite into the soup dumplings too soon, you may suffer first degree burns in your mouth and throat.

GABE
Dumplings were quite delicious – the crab+pork were quite tasty, but the juicy pork dumplings were simply the best. Veggie dumplings the only bland ones.

Steamed pork and green vegetable dumpling.

Vegetable dumplings.

KAYOKO
A UM reader who couldn’t make it suggested to me to get the fish dumplings. They were also moist and had a bit of crunch from some sort of green. Note the colors- so pristine how clear the fish is, it’s as though it’s a bit raw still, although they were perfectly cooked.

Fish dumplings.

KAYOKO
Like the ones in Tokyo, the shrimp+pork shiaomai were these darling little frou-frou creations. So original and cute!!!

Shrimp+pork shiaomai.

TOMO
The bell of the XLB ball was the shrimp and pork dumplings, moist meat, perfect dough overall a yummy dumpling! Perfect hangover food.

Shrimp+pork shiaomai.

SARA S.
It was a little hard to differentiate the taste of the ginger/vinegar combo from the actual broth of the dumplings, but it was still fun to use all the sauce amenities.

Juicy steamed pork bun with vinegar and ginger sauce.

GABE
The hot sauce/mix should not be overlooked – it was instrumental in the process.

TOMO
I thought allllll the noodles were fantastic, especially the sesame noodle and beef noodle bowls, but then again, I am a noodle monster.

Sesame noodles.

House beef noodle soup.

SARA S.
The noodles were great too, but a bit challenging to share.

GABE
The noodles were good, but not great.

KAYOKO
I loved the noodles, Gabe!!! The beef noodles and the soup actually came out separately, and they poured the broth over the silky noodles at the table. Nice touch! The noodles with minced meat were totally bomb- look at the edamame! Simply gorgeous. I know my brother would agree with me on this last point- we still talk about it when we talk to this day.

Noodles with minced meat and tofu.

SARA S.
My fave dishes were the pork soup dumplings and the sautéed green beans.

GABE
The green beans are not to be missed. The rice cakes (mochi?) were also fantastic.

Shanghai rice cake with chicken.

KAYOKO
Yah, the rice cakes were a delight- very different from say, lo mein or chow fun since they were more dense. As Gabe said, like mochi.

SARA S.
At the end of the meal, I accidentally ordered the steamed pork buns, when I meant to get more soup dumplings, but they were also delicious.

KAYOKO
Here’s our well-oiled check– we were all seriously foodcomaing by meal’s end. Man, we ate like kings. But it came out to only $20/head!!! AMAZING!!!

SARA
I also loved that they had directions written on the chopsticks on how to eat a dumpling. Great touch.

SARAH F.
Everything is so easy to order, even when the line is out the door you don’t have to wait too long, and they are on top of it there. It’s not a traditional dim sum restaurant so don’t expect that environment (but it’s close). I mean to try different places out in the San Gabriel Valley but always end up back at DTF. One day when I go to Tokyo I will for sure go to that one.

GABE
Service was impeccable. Felt a bit like a factory, but the price is tough to beat. If you want a more homey feel, go to Mei Long Village.

KAYOKO
I have to agree- the service was unlike I have ever had at a dimsum/Chinese joint. Plus the quality of all the food was exceptionally note-worthy. Here are the folks making dumplings in the open kitchen. Pretty neat slash creepy with the protected window.

KAYOKO
LA Umamiventure #18 LOVERS!!! Thank you so much to everyone for coming out!!

PS- There are two locations of DTF now, one around the corner from the other. I have a hunch the kitchens may be connected. We went to the snazzy, newer one.

DIN TAI FUNG
1108 or 1088 South Baldwin Avenue
Arcadia, CA
T: 626.574.7068

*Umamiventues are organized monthly, traveling far and wide to find good, cheap grub off the beaten path.

**Become a Facebook Fan of UM to stay updated on all future trips!!!

Past Umamiventures include:
1.) Ocean Jewel Restaurant – Flushing, NYC; June 2007
2.) Red Hook Ball Fields - NYC; June 2007
3.) Taste of Jackson Heights – NYC; October, 2007
4.) Sripraphai Restaurant – Woodside, NYC; November 2007
5.) WINTERMARKET – South St. Seaport; December 2007
6.) Jackson Diner- Jackson Heights, NYC; January 2008
7.) Pacificana – Sunset Park, NYC; February 2008
8.) Puerto Alegre – The Mission, SF; March 2008
9.) Dinosaur BBQ – Harlem, NYC; April 2008
10.) Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden – Astoria, NYC; May 2008
11.) Brooklyn Banh Mi Crawl – Sunset Park, NYC; August 2008
12.) Sheapshead Bay Lobster Crawl – NYC; September 2008
13.) Flushing Food Circuit – NYC; October 2008
14.) Strong Beer Month – SF; March 2009
15.) Loisaida Throwback Crawl – NYC; April 2009
16.) Harley Farms Goat Dairy – Pescadero, CA; June 2009
17.) Tomales Bay Oyster Farm – Marshall, CA; August 2009

Founded in 1969, Din Tai Fung is known world-wide for its xiao long bao (soup dumplings). The Japanese go crazy for it, just like they do for keitai straps and bad quiz shows.

Join me for the first Umamiventure held in Tokyo at the Din Tai Fung in Shinjuku (12 Floor of Takashimaya) for lunch. I will reserve seats on September 23, based on the number of attendees who email me or indicate that they are attending on the Facebook event page.

Din Tai Fung
Takashimaya Times Square 12F
2 minute walk from Shinjuku Station South JR

photo credit: maveric2003 (Flickr)

With all the talk about xiao long bao aka XLB aka soup dumplings on here these days, no one should be surprised that it won the poll (up there on the top right corner) for where we would go for the next Umamiventure. XLB it is!!! So we’re taking a trip to Din Tai Fung restaurant in Arcadia, LA.

Founded in Taipei in 1969, Din Tai Fung is world-renowned for their soup dumplings. With locations all over Asia, the LA outpost is the ONLY one in the U.S.

Yes, it’s in the Valley. Yes, it will be worth the drive! (It friggin’ better be). While we’re out there, we may hit up another legendary eatery or two- let me know if you have any recommendations!

This will be the very first Umamiventure in LA- it’s a historic event!! Pencil it in! Please accurately RSVP on the FB Fan Page or comment below so I have an idea of how many people to expect.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

*Umamiventures are organized monthly, traveling far and wide to find good, cheap grub off the beaten path. Check out all the past Umamiventures here.

**Become a Facebook Fan of UM to stay updated on all future trips!!!

PS: Here’s a video I found on LA Eater with commentary by the son of the founder of DTF, now the General Manager of the LA restaurant.

After spending two weeks in Europe, eating pasta and paella everyday, my Asian part of the body started screaming “WHERE IS MY RICE?!” Also being away from the kitchen for two weeks made me want to cook continuously this past weekend.

Yes, Italy was great, food awesome, drank grappa like it was water, partied like I am still young (check out the wedding photos, pretty unusual, but very cool).

After seeing Kayoko and UM’s posting on soup dumplings (if you are friends with both Kayoko and UM on FB, it’s quite annoying since they simultaneously post the same shit), I was getting very hungry for soup dumplings. I could have gone to Grand Sichuan on 24th street, which is only 5 blocks away, but I decided to make my own.

Am I an idiot for making XLB from scratch? Yes, totally, but the satisfaction level was quite high.

Here is the recipe for the gelatin soup:
2 lb. chicken bones (Western Beef luckily sells chicken craps for very cheap)
1/5 lb. pork fat and skin
Scallion, ginger, garlic
2 quarts water

Put everything in a large pot, boil it, and simmer for about two hours. I cheated a little by adding Chinese soup stock after an hour. Once it boils, be sure to get rid of all the crap floating around.
When it’s done, discard all the solids, and take four cups of the soup, put back on stove. Once it boils, take it out of the stove, and add two packages of unflavored gelatin. Mix, then chill until it sets. To be sure, I made this part on day one.

For the meat:
1 lb. ground pork (I went to Chinatown and got pretty fatty ground)
3 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. Chinese rice wine
4 stalks of scallions chopped
about 1 inch of ginger, minced
Salt, pepper
Mix together until sticky.

Now take the gelatin out of the fridge. Cut them into small cube, then add to the pork mixture. It’s ok if they don’t mix too well. You can pick gelatin when you stuff them into the skin. By the way, I only used half of the gelatin, but I could have used all of them.

Here comes the recipe for the skin:
400 grams flour
3/4 cup of boiling hot water
1/4 cup of cold water
1tbs oil

Add hot water gradually into the flour, and vigorously stir with chopsticks. Add cold water and oil, vigorously stir. This gets the gluten going, and make the dough smooth. Dump everything onto the kitchen counter, and start kneading for about 10 minutes.

End product should look like a smooth ball. Elastic and smooth. Rest the dough for about 30 minutes in plastic wrap.

Cut the dough into fourths, and roll each piece out to a long rope, then cut it into eighths (original recipe said 10, but I thought it was too small). Roll it out into very thin rounda, then put a drop of the pork mixture, plus enough gelatin and then nicely wrap them and be sure there’s no hole for the juice to escape.

Steam on top of a piece of napa cabbage for about 12 minutes, and it’s done.

Is this umamiporn or what?!

They are hot as hell, as you know, and I totally burned my tongue. But it was worth it.

Thinking what could have been done better…

I still have half the gelatin left so I can make it again. I need to figure out a better way to make the dough, though. It was ok, but I wanted it to be a bit thinner than what I did.

Final comment. This is too labor intensive, and I think I will go to a restaurant next time I crave XLB.

*Yamahomo enjoys cooking and baking. He prefers staying in kitchen all weekend long rather than being outside.

I have a new obsession- they come in these little bite-size sacks, filled with pork, crab and a touch of soup. Xiao long bao, aka XLB, soup dumplings!!! In NYC, I loved the dumplings at Shanghai Cafe, and have finally found a place that are just as good. Actually, they are BETTER.

I haven’t been to Taiwan or Shanghai to try these in their homebase, but I just know that these little guys at Shanghai Dumpling in Saratoga are the real deal. I am drooling right now just thinking about them- I crave them all the time!!!

Each order comes with six dumplings- get an entire order to yourself, trust me, you don’t want to share these. I’ve mastered the art of eating the soup dumpling, let me tell you about it.

1) Pick up one dumpling with your chopsticks, and lay it on your spoon. Drizzle a bit of the soy/vinegar/ginger medley over the dumpling.

2) When you poke the dumpling, hot steam spurts out and the sweet scent of meat and onions fill the air. Mmmm… But don’t poke it too much, or the soup will spill all over the place, which is so not cool. The soup is too delicious to waste.

Put your lips up to the spoon and begin to sip the soup slowly. Watch out, it’s HOT!

Look at all the real crab in here!!!

I tried all these places in NYC for soup dumplings, and found that more often than not, the crab got all dried up which really fucked everything up!!! Here, the crab is so moist, which makes the entire dumpling eating experience sensational. I hate to say this but… *swoon*.

This cute girl with braids makes the dumplings in plain view in the corner of the restaurant.

I’ve been to Shanghai Dumpling a few times now, and every time, the food has always been excellent. Here are some other stellar dishes that I always make sure to order.

Shanghai style stir-fried noodles:

Shanghai sauteed shrimp. These are simply incredible- I think they par-boil the shrimp, then stir fry them for a bit with some corn starch or something. Whatever they do it’s just amazing. They are just these transluscent, light pink jewels dotted with scallions. Oh, the colors, oh the flavor!

Glutinous rice with pork in bamboo:

What could this be?? Long strips of bamboo shoots! GENIUS! The crunch is awesome!!!

The braised pork belly- umami porn shot! Look at all the nasty dots of grease! Love it.

Pea shoots with garlic.

Interior shot:

SHANGHAI DUMPLING
12172 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road
Saratoga, CA
T: 408.253.2232

Last weekend I moved to a new apartment with my boyfriend. To properly celebrate our cohabitation I invited fellow Umamimarter June to our home last night. After picking June up at the nearest train station, we stopped by 7-11 to stock up on the night’s booze and munchies. After selecting our spirits, we were tempted by the munchies aisle and scanned the entire section for the best pick. And there it was staring at us like a bag of munchies would at a 7-11: Yokohama Shumai Cheetos!!!

The Cheetos didn’t taste like shumai. It kind of tasted like if you dusted nude Cheetos with the powdered soup packet that comes with Maruchan instant ramen (which is what most all Japanese packaged foods taste like). But that is not to say that this purchase was totally not worth it. Quite the contrary, just look at the rocking packaging design (above).

Not only are these shumai flavored, they narrow it down to regional shumai from Yokohama city! Cheetos is really exercising their authenticity muscle. I think the target market here are 15 year-old boys who live in Tokyo who take their dates to the romantic port city of Yokohama – “Remember, when we shared that one shumai like those two dogs in that Disney movie?” … or 15 year-old boys who live in Tokyo who have a fetish for Chinese and American junk fusion cuisine. I think June and I fit closer into the latter category.