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How Good is Authentic Dim Sum In Taipei?
Dim sum is another one of those foods that I was really looking forward to having in Taiwan. I’ve always LOVED dim sum and have had it througout my life and was looking forward to see good it was in Taiwan.
I hadn’t run across any dim sum places through the first few days of my stay in Taipei but hadn’t exactly gone out of my way to find a place as I got acclimated to Taipei. I decided to stay in the Ximending district for a couple days and thought it would be a good time to have some dim sum.
Table of Contents
Hung Kan Dim Sum
Luckily, there was a pretty highly rated dim sum restaurant in the area called Hung Kan Dim Sum. I stopped by later in the morning for brunch and was definitely reminded of dim sum / Chinese restaurants back in SoCal. The restaurant was on the second level and was a massive floor with a ton of round tables with lazy susan’s on them. It was nice to be around that familiarity, even in another country.
The menu was HUGE. There were multiple pages dedicated to just dim sum items and the more pages with more lunch / dinner items. I was tempted to get some non-dim sum stuff since it looked and sounded really good but I had to go with dim sum only this go around.
There was just so much to choose from, lol, it was hard for me to narrow it down. I wanted to try new things but also wanted to try old favorites back home to see how they stack up against dim sum in Taiwan. I ended up getting creamy egg yolk buns (120 NTD, $3.76 USD), steamed glutionous rice with chicken and abalone (130 NTD, $4.07 USD), and fried dumplings with pork and shrimp (105 NTD, $3.29 USD).
That’s the big drawback with traveling solo, I’m not able to get and try as much food as I’d like!
The Food
Creamy Egg Yolk Buns
Starting with the creamy egg yolk buns.
These things were super light. The dough was incredibly light and airy and the egg filling was a little runny and surprisingly sweet. I wasn’t expecting that sweetness, but it was a pleasant surprise. The yolk was more like custard in my opinion. These were really tasty overall. Even better when they were first brought out and nice and warm. Yum!
Sticky Rice
Next up was the steamed glutionous rice with chicken and abalone which, seemed to be a long-winded name for sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf. This was pretty much like the sticky rice I have at dim sum down in Southern California. It had a rich, savory flavor to it, and was extremely sticky (of course). The bits of chicken, abalone, and mushrooms in it was tasty, and they all went really well together. It didn’t necessarily stand out from the sticky rice that I get back home but it was definitely solid.
Fried Dumplings with Pork and Shrimp
These dumplings had a super hard exterior. Trying to pick one up with chopsticks was like trying to pick up an egg, lol. Which is fitting since these were egg shaped. That was the initial impression I got of them. Once I actually picked one up and took a bite, it was pretty solid. The fried dumpling definitely had a very crunchy exterior as you’d expect since they’re fried. The inside portion was nice and gooey.
The filling was lacking in this though. It was pretty tasty, there just wasn’t very much of it inside of them. It seemed like the dough to filling, ratio was heavily tilted to dough. It was hard to taste the filling with so much dough. These would have been quite good if there was some more filling in them.
Was There Any Difference In The Dim Sum?
I really couldn’t tell too much of a difference between the dim sum in Taipei than what I have in Southern California. Although there’s way more items on the menu and a lot of different items that I hadn’t seen before in Southern California. It would have been nice to try way more of the menu and experience some of those other items that I don’t really see here in Southern California. BUT the items I did have, were really good and I enjoyed them. They just didn’t necessarily floor me.
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A&J Restaurant in Irvine, CA Offers Authentic Taiwanese Dishes in Orange County
The Background
A&J Restaurant is a popular restuarant in Irvine which offers many traditional Tawainese dishes. I hadn’t eaten here before, so I was looking forward to giving it a try!
I met up with some family at 12:30 pm on a Saturday and the restaurant was packed. The restaurant isn’t too big and fills up quickly. The wait probably took about 20 mins for a party of five.
The menu is quite expansive. There’s plenty of noodle dishes, appetizes, as well as some soup and rice dishes to choose from.
My cousin suggested the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup and Pan Fried Beef Bun, so those were must tries for me. By the sound of it the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup is one of the most popular items on the menu.
We also decided to get an order of the Pan Fried Pork Dumplings and the Chinese Beef Wrap to share.
The Experience
Beef Noodle Soup
With the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup you get a choice between a thin or thick noodle. I opted for the thin noodle.
The broth is rich and flavorful, with just the right amount of heat from the chili peppers, which melds well with the base flavor of the broth. It will definitely get your lips burning but isn’t OVERLY spicy. The noodles were perfectly cooked and tasted quite fresh.
In addition to the broth, the beef is a real standout here. It’s extremely tender and full of flavor and really soaks up that delicious broth.
The Bok Choy and scallions add some nice crunch to the soup. A nice way to balance out the textures within the tasty soup.
Pan Fried Beef Bun
One of the standouts under the Small Plates section of the menu is the Pan Friend Beef Bun.
The pan fry gives the top and bottom of the bun a nice fried, crunchy, exterior, while the inside is nice and doughy.
The bun encases some seriously juiced up ground beef. After taking a bite the juice comes flowing out. It’s delicious!
The scallions inside the bun provide a nice crunch as well. It’s a good combination of subtle crunch from the exterior of the bun, then the dougy interior, juicy, flavorful beef, and added crunch from the scallions.
Dipping in chili oil and soy sauce, of course, is always a must for any type of bun and made this even more delicious.
Pan Fried Pork Dumpling
This is very much like the Pan Friend Beef Bun, just in a different shape and stuffed with flavorful, seasoned pork instead of beef. These don’t have the juiciness of the beef bun but the outside of the dumpling is nice and crispy while the inside is dougy. There’s a good amount of pork filling in these as well!
Chinese Beef Wrap
The Chinese Beef Wrap is a unique item on the menu. The outside of the wrap is crispy and flaky and inside is doughy with tender strips of marineted beef, scallion, and cilantro inside. This is somewhat similar to the beef bun and pork dumpling except the beef wrap is a lot flakier and has thinly sliced cuts of marineted beef. I liked the addition of the cilantro. It really complements the beef well.
The Verdict
I really enjoyed the food at A&J Restaurant. The standout for me was the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup. The soup broth, fresh noodles, and tender chunks of beef are really outstanding.
Since the beef bun, pork dumpling, and beef wrap are all somewhat similar I’d go with whatever you’re in the mood for on that particular day. You probably don’t need all three unless you’re with a large party to share.
However, if I had to choose only one of the three it would be the beef bun. What specifically stood out for me was the immense flavor from all the juice contained within it.
There’s so much more here I want to try too.
This is certainly a Taiwanese spot that warrants a stop when you’re in the Irvine area!
A&J Restaurant
14805 Jeffrey Rd, Irvine, CA 92618
http://website.uniquemobileapps.com/free/rios12345/west-coast
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SPICY PORK DUMPLINGS at Shinsegae Department Store Food Court in Busan
The Shinsegae Department store in Busan is a massive shopping center. I hungrily stumbled upon one of the food courts while cruising through the center near it’s closing time. It’s a shame that I found it when the department store was near closing.
The food court is HUGE. By the time I found it though most of the stalls were closed or cleaning up and closing for the night so it was slim pickings.
Fortunately, I was able to find a stall that had some dumplings. I purchased a few pork dumplings and some spicy pork dumplings.
The pork dumplings weren’t too bad but the meat filling to dough ratio was kind of lacking. It didn’t seem like there was enough filling in these. It didnt help that it was closing time and the dumplings had probably been sitting there for a decent amount of time so the fresheness factor wasn’t there either.
The filling itself had decent flavor but it was tinged with some sweetness. Not entirely sure where that was deriving from but I wasn’t a big fan of that kick. Overall the pork dumplings were decent but didn’t really stand out in any way.
The spicy pork dumpling was the same but was wrapped in a different dumpling wrapper. The spice was a pleasant surprise and had some kimchi in it which added a satisfying crunch to each bite.
Outside of that, the flavor was largely the same as the regular pork dumpling with that same small hint of sweetness. I enjoyed the spicy dumpling more than the regular one due to the spice and the crunch the kimchi added. It had a much better ratio of dumpling to filling as well.
I’d love to go back to the food court on the next visit to Busan just because there are so many options and it would be interesting to see the place bustling with hungry shopppers.
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Insadong Dumplings That Are Worth The Wait In Seoul
While exploring Insadong on a rainy Sunday morning, I stumbled upon Bukchon Sonmandu, a local Insadong dumpling restaurant and couldn’t resist stopping by and trying the gullim and steamed pork and kimchi dumplings.
I haven’t had gullim before so wanted to give it a try. It’s essentially a meatball of the meat filling of a dumpling consisting of (I think) ground pork, onion, green onions, garlic. These were tasty. Nice, juicy, freshly made, these were easy to put down.
I also got the steamed pork and kimchi dumplings. Both were very good. Dumpling skin was perfect with great texture. The pork dumpling filling was very similar to the gullim, perhaps with a slight twist, with a little more green onion.
The kimchi dumpling was my favorite of the bunch. The kimchi added a little spice, crunch, and flavor to the ground pork mix. It provided a burst of flavor to the mix and was very delicious. I only wish I had more hot sauce and soy sauce to dip all these wonderful gullim and dumplings in!
Overall, this was a very satisfying experience. I loved the number of different options that were available. Many of which I hadn’t tried before. The dumplings were all quite different from one another with varying flavors and textures from their fillings. With very affordable prices, everything varied from about $3.50 – $5.50 USD, Bukchon Sonmandu is certainly worth a stop for some Insadong dumplings.
Related Links
More eating adventures in Seoul, South Korea!
I detail my delicious food experiences in Gyeongju and Busan, South Korea
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