My love affair with Dimsum began in 2010, on one of my trips to Malaysia. On that trip, I was staying at the Ritz-Carlton -and being the breakfast lover I am-  I was always up at 6am, and spent the next couple of hours in the dining hall, reading the news, catching up on Facebook, and slowly sipping on several cups of coffee with Kaya butter toast or pancakes.

It was on one of those relaxed mornings, that I noticed a cart of bamboo steamers; and tried my very first Dimsum. The Dimsum there was -to state the obvious- SO good, that I decided to put Dimsum on my list of favorite things in the culinary world. That’s how it all began. As a Muslim who is very conscious of eating Halal food only, and a person who absolutely loves Far-Eastern cuisines; I don’t have the liberty to indulge in places like Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam etc. So where I had my very first Dimsum, was at the Ritz-Carlton, in Kuala Lampur. Since that day, however, I haven’t quite been able to find Dimsum even close to as good, and have since been on the quest to do so.

One after another, Dimsum came and Dimsum left but nothing quite hit the spot like THAT Dimsum- my very first Dimsum!

Yesterday, a fellow blogger: Mitzie Mee, took the initiative to meet up. I invited another blogger friend (When_Judy_Ate_The_Kela), and we excitedly set off to try the newly opened Din Tai Fung in the Mall of the Emirates extension.  This Michelin star winning Taiwanese chain has been the talk of the town since it opened it’s doors a week ago and I couldn’t wait to try it out.

First of all, this was really great. It was such a delight to meet other bloggers like myself. Secondly, I couldn’t believe how reasonable the prices were. Dubai loves to inflate what should otherwise be street food, but much to my pleasant surprise, Din Tai Fung was quite reasonable. Thirdly, I finally had some Dimsum that lived up to the standard in my head.  We had to wait 40 minutes for a table and it was most certainly worth the wait. The long line of people that almost never seems to disperse reaffirms this.

We tried an assortment of soup dumplings, wontons, and appetizers; and almost everything was worthy of snow angels! I must thank Mitzie Mee for educating me on how to put together the perfect dipping sauce (equal parts soy sauce and vinegar + fresh ginger + chilli paste optional); and on how to eat the soup dumplings (make a tiny puncture in the dumpling with your teeth, drain the soup onto your spoon so that it doesn’t burn your mouth when you bite into it, dip dumpling into sauce, and then eat it with the soup). Hunger pangs are taking place as i type this. Washed it all down with several cups of Chinese tea and I was an extremely happy camper!

To add to the authenticity, the servers are from Taiwan as well. Dora, our server yesterday, was just the sweetest person ever!

I was so excited, that I didn’t get many great pictures-  but that’s ok, as I’ll definitely be going back many, many, MANY times and will update this space with pictures and details of my latest feats there 🙂

Thanks for taking out the time to do this, Mitzie Mee and When_Judy_Ate_The_Kela 🙂 Until next time!