My first xiao long bao experience was rather meh. Xiao long bao in Taiwan of course means Din Tai Fung, the chain shop specializing in world-famous 18-fold soup dumplings. It's a stop I was told I couldn't miss out on while I was there. Well, I went, but it was really just okay and way overpriced. I know I'm not alone on this. 

I was pretty disappointed. They're one of the things Taiwan's known for, aren't they? Maybe it was all the hype surrounding them (remember what I said about the hype...?). But I have good news! On my last day, Mingni and M took me to a place with even better soup dumplings with a fraction of the wait time!

It's called Ming Yue Tang Bao 明月湯包 in the Neihu District. 

As always, we ordered a ton of food. Four sets of dimsum, the watercress veggies I really like (but they cook them in some kind of milk here), I think we got some noodles too. I didn't get photograph all of it, but I did  manage to film it. I'll upload Part II of my vlog tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.

These are the traditional pork soup dumplings. Absolutely scorching but totally changed how I felt about xiao long bao. I think it's really all about the broth encased in the paper-thin wrapping. Unlike the ones I had at Din Tai Fung, Ming Yue's aren't greasy and are a lot more flavorful. 

I've read that the chef of Ming Yue is actually a graduate of Din Tai Fung! It looks like he took the best of DTF and made it even better. Props.

These are crab soup dumplings. Equally yummy, but I preferred the pork. The very first photo is not xiao long bao -- I think they're called xiā jiǎo or hakao, steamed shrimp dimsum. We also ordered a set of fried dumplings. I can't remember what they were called and it's killing me because they were by far my favorite!!!

The rest of the day was spent shopping for souvenirs to bring home. I bought a few boxes of Taiwan's famous pineapple cake for my family and a bag of niu zha tang, which M keeps telling me is one of the Top 5 best candies in the world but I think he's totally lying cause I can't find that article anywhere online. We had our last dinner together at a little place in Tianmu and spent the night just walking around and soaking in our last night in the city.

I can't believe it's been almost three weeks since I left. I feels like ages ago I was surrounded in Chinese, or taking the MRT or waiting in line for a bowl of douha. I miss it and hopefully I'll get to go back. There's still so much I've yet to see!