Din Tai Fung and frozen dumplings

Din Tai Fung
1088 S Baldwin Ave
Arcadia, CA 921007
626-574-7068
www.dintaifungusa.com

Din Tai Fung
1108 S Baldwin Ave
Arcadia, CA 921007
626-574-7068

Boyfriend and I have been to Din Tai Fung several times since my posts found here and here.  However, since we always get the same thing, I stopped documenting our visits.  I decided to document this last visit because we tried something new and also we got the frozen dumplings.

I recently found out that you can get frozen dumplings from Din Tai Fung.  I don’t really like getting the xiao long bao (pork soup dumplings) to go because the dumplings lose their soup.  However, by getting frozen ones, I can steam them when I want and enjoy delicious dumplings any time I want! And the frozen ones made at home really do taste almost as good as the fresh made ones at the restaurant.

I don’t know how long Din Tai Fung has offered their frozen dumpling option, but I just found out about it recently.  In order to get frozen dumplings, you need to place the order 6 to 8 hours ahead of time.  I was super impressed with the quality control Din Tai Fung takes with the frozen dumplings they sell.

When I placed my order on the phone, I was informed that I needed to bring a cooler.  Once there, they asked me to bring my cooler inside and that they would pack everything for me.  I watched as they carefully placed bags of dumplings (each order has 10), and packed it with ice (which they provided).  Almost the entire cooler was filled with ice.  Then I was provided with dipping sauce and sheets of steaming paper.  And I was provided with instructions.  Someone also explained to me how to steam the dumplings and gave me the paper with instructions.  I was told to never let the dumplings defrost and to steam them from their frozen state.  I was so impressed by all the stuff they provided me with that I almost half expected them to whip out a phone number for someone I could contact to steam my dumplings for me!

I only got the frozen pork soup dumplings, but you can get other frozen dumplings, wontons and desserts too. I did order an eight treasure rice to go.  The treasure rice tastes about the same as others, but I love all the pretty colors. I’ve never seen green on a treasure rice. To make it taste better, I heated it up by steaming it.

We originally had planned to only get frozen dumplings to go.  But being it was Chinese New Year’s eve, and the other dumpling places we had planned on visiting were closed, we decided to eat here.  It was super busy as usual, but I noticed this time that the newer location has a lot more room, including an upstairs.  So the wait at the newer location was only 20 minutes.  (The two locations are next to each other, form an L shape, so one is around the corner from the other.)

We started off with a couple of orders of pork soup dumplings:

I usually always order the pork chop fried rice, but last time Boyfriend complained that he didn’t really care for the pork chop, and only liked the fried rice.  So this time, we tried the shrimp fried rice, which costs the same.

The fried rice was just like the pork chop fried rice, except it has shrimp instead.  I still prefer the pork chop fried rice, but Boyfriend and Baby Bro liked the shrimp one better.

We also were still hungry, so we ordered the pork chop fried rice:

Baby Bro doesn’t like the sweet sauce the pork is pan fried in.  I love that the pork chop is all lean meat (rather than full of fatty chunks) and is tender and flavorful.  The sauce is salty and a little bit sweet.  I believe it is soy sauce and sugar and I’m not sure what else.