65. Din Tai Fung
Price: $$
177 Caruso Ave., Glendale
(818) 551-5561
dintaifungusa.com
11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays
Full bar. Valet and validated lot parking. Credit cards accepted.
There are those, and I sometimes count myself along them, who maintain that the xiaolongbao at Din Tai Fung are perhaps overengineered, the dumpling skins perhaps too stretchy and thin, the fillings not quite pungent enough. Yet there is a reason the restaurant´s admirers wait two hours for a table on weekends, not just here but in Shanghai and the mothership in Taipei, and it is neither the mustard greens with ginger nor the steamed chicken soup. The xiaolongbao are small miracles: plump, round spheres, soft yet firm to the touch, delicately fragranced. When you pop one into your mouth, it bursts into a mouthful of broth – boiling liquid if you haven´t allowed it to cool – transforming the filling of meat and aromatics into a loose, savory purée that melts away like pork-scented air. If you happen to be in the Glendale restaurant, you may as well splash out for the truffled xiaolongbao, which are as beautifully scented as almost anything you´d find on a $120 tasting menu