The most legendary dumpling restaurant in Taiwan—and arguably, the world—is Ding Tai Fung on Yongkang Street. Every cab driver should know where this is, but if by some miracle a clueless cabbie is found, Yongkang Street is reknowned in and of itself. Once there, passerby can lead the way to DTF.

Soup dumplings & fried tiny buns

Stir-fried rice cakes, casserole & roasted eggplant

I have no doubt this Shanghai-style restaurant does many things well, but its claim to fame is soup dumplings—the deliciously thin-skinned steamed sacks of pork (or even better, pork & crab) and a touch of broth. Eating them requires a special technique—pick up gently by the slightly firmer tops and place onto soup spoon, cover with vinegar, bite top open gently so as not to squirt everywhere, then slurp up the rest.

DTF's popularity means excessively long waits. When we headed over on a Sunday the wait was over an hour. We're practical folks, and trust that there are very few truly bad restaurants in Taipei; thus we headed next door to Kao Chi.

So glad we did because we were seated immediately! Kao Chi is another Shanghai-style place, so of course we had the crab soup dumplings...and I could have cried thinking how no soup dumplings in New York even come close to this quality. A chef needs very special skills to create skins this thin that will not break while holding the soup. Even without sampling DTF, these were probably the best I've ever had.

Small-plates selection (and the toy chicken we carried as mascot)

We ordered a couple more of my favorite Shanghai dishes: rice cake stir-fried with pork and green onions and fried tiny buns. Fried tiny buns are also filled with savory pork, but have a thicker, softer dough than dumplings and a pan-fried crispy bottom. Absolutely delicious. We also tried a casserole of crab baked with cabbage, cuttlefish cake, and roasted eggplant with garlic that I chose out of a cold case of small plates. Everything was really fresh and obviously made with care.

With a beer for my brother and sweet soy milks for me and my mom, the total was a mere 985NT after tip ($30). We were stuffed and happy, and probably passed some of the same people in line at DTF on our way out.

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