Jiangzhe dimsum (江浙點心)

Everyone raves about the soup dumplings (小龍包) from Ding Tai Feng (鼎泰豐), and while they are excellent... thin skin, full of soup, and adequately stuffed, at 200 NT per basket, or probably higher given inflation, they're just not worth it. Did I mention the fact that there's always a line even at 11 am, waiting for tables for cheap eats just isn't my thing. Anyway, adjacent to 永康街 (Yong Kang Street), there's a smaller alley called 邐水街 (Li Shui Street) where I found this gem. There's actually a funny story about how I found it many years ago, but my sister would absolutely slaughter me if I posted it haha. In anycase, it's another small shack style restaurant that's rather unassuming. In a room no bigger than a full sized studio apartment, is housed maybe 4 tables that can seat 4 equipped with cheap metal stools that completes the effect of bootleggedness. Oh right, the studio apartment comparison... includes the kitchen which is completely open to the patrons as well as to the street side, so as you walk by, you can smell the aroma of steaming buns/pure win.

For a light lunch, my mom chose to get the 雪菜肉絲麵 (Snow green noodles with minced meat). Sounds appetizing... I'm sure (there's a lot that's lost in translation, somehow everything sounds terrible in English). As for me, I always go with old reliable... 2 full steamer baskets of piping hot soup dumplings. This place was slick, the food came within 5 minutes, and the best part... the noodles cost 70 NT ($2) and per basket... 90 NT ($3). That's $3 for 8 soup dumplings. You lose Shanghai Joe's. In terms of quality, uh... I didn't eat the noodles, since they looked so plain, but apparently it's the store's namesake dish. Whatever, that's not what I'm about anyway... for the record, the mom was pretty pleased with hers. The dumplings... the star of the show as far as I'm concerned. Like I said, a thin skin that's almost translucent after cooking, filled with steaming soup which makes a popping sound upon puncturing the skin, and a light pork and cabbage filling combined to make a dumpling that rivals most. It's true, the soup isn't as oily and savoury as the one at Ding Tai Feng, nor is it as much in volume, but something has to be said for the fact that for every 1 I could get there... I would almost be able to buy 3 here. I would recommend this place without reservation (haha, unintentional pun!), and would return time after time... oh wait, I do.


Another 'good' run today. Another 8.00 miles. Actually, I only intended to run about 5.5 today, and I probably ran further than 8 miles, but I'm rounding down because I'm too lazy to map it. Why would I run further than I intended? I have my mom to thank for that. I couldn't figure out where she was, so I ran an extra lap (not a track lap... think 1.5 miles), then I ran home only to find she hadn't returned yet, then I ran back out to find her. Summary of story, I ran around like an idiot trying to find my mom... wow that sounds lame.

distance for the day: 8.00 miles
distance biked for the day: 0.00 miles

distance on the year: 297.29 miles
distance biked on the year: 142.68 miles