A Dumpling May Be Taiwan’s Most Potent (and Delicious) Soft Power Weapon
The restaurant chain Din Tai Fung’s founder created a global phenomenon, one serving of “xiao long bao” at a time.
Even better than semiconductors.
Photographer: Chen Xiaomei/South China Morning Post via Getty Images
My wife and I once drove from Palo Alto, California, to Bellevue, Washington, and back just to eat at a Din Tai Fung restaurant. It remains the second-longest journey I’ve made for love. (The longest was in the pursuit of my co-passenger, but that’s another story.)
I was confident the dining experience would totally be worth the 1,700-mile roundtrip. For its legions of fans around the world, Din Tai Fung is the greatest restaurant chain on the planet. Having eaten at its restaurants in ten countries on four continents across three decades, I’ve only ever been disappointed once: In Dubai, but for a specific reason I’ll explain in a minute.