The new Din Tai Fung at Glendale’s Americana mall is an elegant dining room a few steps from the red-carpet entrance to Nordstrom. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Din Tai Fung in Glendale serves beer, and its crowd is about 20 years younger here than it is in Arcadia. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Its xiao long bao are small miracles; plump, round spheres soft yet firm to the touch. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
The truffled xiao long bao, $22.50 for five, can be pretty astonishing, exploding with black truffle intensity. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
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Other Shanghai-style dishes at Din Tai Fung include lightly marinated cucumbers with garlic and chile. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Cooks prepare the popular soup dumplings by hand. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Carefully pleated packets are assembled for cooking. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Din Tai Fung’s Glendale branch is the dumpling parlor’s first step out of the San Gabriel Valley into a neighborhood not particularly Chinese. (Its second Arcadia location is practically around the corner from the first.) (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
