Eat in the Corner

Xiaolongbao Turned into Macarons In 2010, a small incident was said to have happened in the world of xiaolongbao. A bamboo steamer opened.What should have been white was not white. Red, green, black, yellow.Candy colors mixed into the st...

Rebuilding soup, fat, and structure without pork Xiaolongbao is already everywhere.In London, in Los Angeles, in Singapore, steam still rises from stacked baskets. But the wider it spreads, the more one problem remains.Halal. In Kuala Lu...

Chimei, the factory brand that made the xiaolongbao ordinary Taiwan’s xiaolongbao became global through Din Tai Fung.The sign is easy to recognize.The bamboo steamers are stacked the same way in Los Angeles, London, and Singapore. But th...

A record of an oil shop, a tenant dim sum maker, and the first steam The story of Din Tai Fung is often told in a clean line.An oil shop failed.The founder invented xiaolongbao as a last move.The city responded.The world followed. That l...

The New York Times, 1993 On January 17, 1993, The New York Times ran a feature titled Top-Notch Tables. The list looked strange by the standards of the time. A three-star room in Paris.A polished dining room in London.A hotel Chinese res...

A Daily Bowl That Holds the City Together In Taiwan, a sweet and salty smell is often already in the air.It comes before the bright signs of the night market.It reaches you through steam, before you see the stall. Lu rou fan is not a spe...

Old brine, braised snacks, and the smell that settles into the island When I land at a Taiwanese airport, or step into a night market, there is a smell that comes before anything else.Sweet, heavy, and slightly medicinal. It feels like s...

Japanese breeding, colonial waterworks, and the texture called Q When Japanese visitors eat lurou fan in Taiwan, some notice the same detail.The rice holds together. In Southeast Asia at similar latitudes, long-grain indica rice is commo...

A valley-built brand, carried by bentos and the texture called Q When I ask Taiwanese friends where the best rice comes from, the answer often arrives before the question finishes.Chishang. Even in Taipei supermarkets, a bag with the Chi...

A record of how one restaurant set the standard I sometimes see articles about how to eat xiao long bao, the soup dumplings known locally as xiaolongbao. Some people read them before a trip.Others scroll through them while standing in a ...