Hot and Sour Soup at Din Tai Fung

[Ciao Bob]

Had a lovely lunch at the new DTF, whose line is now (well at least today) as long as the mothership.

I wouldn't usually order Hot & Sour Soup at DTF but my friend wanted it. Since I was already (over) ordering everything else for our group who was I to say no.
It came last, and we were all very stuffed, but nobody could stop eating it. Perfect balance of flavors, tofu, pork, egg, mushrooms, etc. I was quite happily surprised.

[groover808]

Hmm, must try it there. I admit though I do love the hot and sour soup at *gasp* none other than Pick Up Stix. It has a nice vinegary bite which I like.

[fdb]

I like my soup trully HOT & SOUR, so I always spike it up with extra WHITE pepper and WHITE vinegar (black pepper or black vinegar will kill the taste). Btw, if you dine in China or Taiwan, soup always comes last.

[Ciao Bob]

That is true for many soups but at Din Tai Fung in Shanghai/Taipei/LA the chicken (sometimes black chicken) soup is usually served first.

[snooze button]

I concur. It's a well balanced soup and it's light enough to leave room for other things.

[foodhuntress]

I always order the hot and sour soup every time. It's perfectly seasoned, with a nice balance of textures from the soft tofu, mushrooms, scallions. Mmm, now I'm hungry...

[rameniac]

is it a peppery h&s soup, with the tidbits chopped up finely? if so, i'm there!

[Ciao Bob]

More chunky and rough-hewn, I would say. And not especially peppery. In general, I like super-hot food...this was not that at all. The balance of (mild) hot to (mild) sour just worked for me. But it doesn't sound at all like what you are craving...where can I find that? Kudo's on the times piece, rameniac, it is always nice to get a visual and back-story on another 'hound whose field-work and website I have admired.

[rameniac]

thanks bob! hmm... my quest for the next oriental pearl-esque hot and sour soup continues lol, but i'll give it a try. 101 noodle express's is fairly decent in the interim.

by the way, did they really open a second din tai fung right near the first one? i'm guessing it's to handle the overload?

[Ciao Bob]

They sure did, and it now has its own overload...at least it did 1/1/08 but not two weeks before that on my first visit.

The two restarants have separate kitchens/dumpling-prep-areas but the back doors of the kitchens are just a few yards apart (with folks shuttling things back and forth). The fronts are facing different parking lots...like siamese twins (almost) joined at the arse...it is funny. Others have detected differences in the two, but I haven't.

Thanks for the heads-up on 101's H&S soup...never had it and don't recall seeing it on the menu...is it called Hot & Sour?

[rameniac]

it's a little different... they call it hot & sweet, or sweet & sour, or something (sweet & sour sounds gross tho, so it probably wasn't that)

but in chinese it's still "shuen la tang" so it's the same dish

[mstinawu]

We got take out from Ding Tai Fung today and got the hot & sour soup as well! It really is quite good, though some would argue their xiao long baos are overrated and overpriced.

[Ciao Bob]

Lord knows I specifically AVIODED ANY discussion of their XLB in comparison to others, that's been way overdone hereabouts. Like pizza and sex, it's personal andf, or me, even average XLB is better than no XLB.