Xiao long bao (小籠包) (steamed soup pork dumplings) are going down a storm in London following the long-awaited arrival of iconic Taiwanese restaurant Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) in the British capital, with an opening ceremony held early this month.
The brand’s first foray into Europe — which has been mooted since 2016 — is spearheaded by Singapore-based BreadTalk Group Ltd’s (麵包物語集團) wholly owned subsidiary Taster Food UK Ltd, which has entered into a franchise agreement to operate Din Tai Fung restaurants in the UK.
In 2003, BreadTalk won the franchise rights to operate the Din Tai Fung brand of restaurants in Singapore.
Photo: CNA
“We chose London as our first stop in Europe because it has become a fantastic and excitingly complex market, home to some of the best chefs and restaurants globally,” BreadTalk Group chief executive Henry Chu (朱興輝) said in an interview ahead of the opening ceremony on Dec. 5.
“Also, Londoners travel a lot, so they understand and embrace uncompromised flavors like ours. Not forgetting that many of our loyal fans in this city have been asking us to come for many years,” Chu said.
The new restaurant, which seats nearly 250 on two levels, is located in central London’s trendy Covent Garden.
Its design departs from the classic Oriental style found in Din Tai Fung outlets across Asia, featuring instead an “East meets West”-style wooden interior, as well as a large open kitchen.
The look is the brainchild of Taiwanese designer Song Yih (宋毅) of Song Yih Design Studio (宋毅設計事務所), the principal designer behind Din Tai Fung’s most iconic sites in Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
Another innovative feature at the London venue is the first-ever Din Tai Fung cocktail bar, which serves Taiwan-inspired concoctions.
“London is the perfect platform [for a cocktail bar] because the bar industry here is leading cocktail trends around the world, exploring lower-alcohol drinks, sustainable serves and, most importantly, food pairings,” Chu said.
Pearl milk tea is also available, as well as more traditional teas: Dong Ding oolong tea, grown in Nantou County, and Rainforest jasmine tea, sourced exclusively from Rainforest Alliance-certified Taiwanese tea farms.
Din Tai Fung UK director Bai Xuefeng (白雪峰) said the menu is not a “compromised version for the local market.”
“We believe that London being a foodie capital of the world wouldn’t accept any less than that,” Bai said.
So far, the latest addition to the burgeoning Taiwanese eating scene in the British capital is proving to be a hit, with diners lining up around the block for their fix of xiao long bao, along with other Din Tai Fung staples such as shaomai (燒賣) (a type of dumpling), noodle soups and steamed buns.
Din Tai Fung was founded by Yang Bing-yi (楊秉彝) in Taipei in 1958 as a wholesale cooking oil shop, but eventually business took a turn for the worse due to the increasing availability and popularity of tinned cooking oil.
On the advice of a friend, Yang and his wife responded by transforming half of the shop into an outlet specializing in soup dumplings and noodles in 1972.
However, he did not know how to make the dumplings, so he hired a cook, who later passed on his expertise to Yang’s son, current owner and chairman Yang Chi-hua (楊紀華).
The restaurant is now a global brand, with 153 outlets in Taiwan, Singapore, the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, China and Thailand.
A second London restaurant is expected to open early next year.
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) said it has come up with a new pathway to shorten its gap with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), potentially achieving a breakthrough in making advanced semiconductors without cutting-edge equipment. Right now there is about a five-year gap between what TSMC is capable of and what Huawei, together with its manufacturing partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), can produce. Huawei is to start making 1.4-nanometer chips by 2031 with its own “LogicFolding” technology, Huawei semiconductor chief He Tingbo (何庭波) said in a rare public appearance during a chip conference yesterday, while TSMC has
RSS