Din Tai Fung Singapore (Marina Bay Sands)

We had just gotten off the plane and it was only 11AM. Bryan had wanted to maximize his time in Singapore after having spent a week in Malaysia, so he booked the earliest flight he though we could tolerate. Check-in took awhile, since our early arrival meant it was harder for them to find a room for us. By the time everything was all set, it was closed to lunchtime.

"Where shall we go?"

Just for fun, I did a search for Din Tai Fung, one of my favorite dumpling chains, and did a double take.

There's one less than 500 feet away!

Could it be? It turns out we were staying in a massive hotel complex called Marina Bay Sands that was connected to a fancy mall. Din Tai Fung was connected to our hotel right inside that fancy mall.
We immediately started walking.

The Marina Bay Sands is worth mentioning. We stayed here because Bryan's conference was in the building, and thus all conference goers were staying here. The building itself is pretty impressive. Developed by Las Vegas Sands, it is the most expensive building in the world, clocking in at $4.7 billion USD! Las Vegas Sands won the bid to build it in 2006. The entire complex finally opened in 2010.

One of the most famous features is its "Infinity Pool", a long pool that spans the entire rooftop where the water appears to just drop off the edge of the building.

The view of the city from the pool are stunning.

One of the best things about Marina Bay Sands is that it's connected to a mall via an escalator. You don't even have to get sweaty from Singapore's very humid outdoor weather.

So after walking a mere 500 feet, we came upon this!

I was famished, so we ordered a few appetizers to tie us over. This simple little cold dish of bean curd, mung bean thread, and bean sprouts was refreshing, healthy, and tasty.

Bryan wanted to get these spring rolls, which were pretty tasty.

One unique bun that they had was the Chili Crab Bun, a nod to Singapore's famous local dish, Chili Crab. It was fine, but nothing compared to the real thing (which we would enjoy several days later).

All in all the food was excellent and I very much enjoyed my convenient lunch. We ordered a lot of the standard dumplings we always get, including the pork and vegetable dumpling (which is like 90% vegetable); the black truffle xialongbao (soup dumpling), which could very well be my favorite soup dumpling in the world; and my favorite dessert dumpling, the whipped taro dumpling (I could eat a whole order by myself, which I usually do since Bryan doesn't really like that one!).

I am definitely jealous of all the people in Singapore who have access to multiple Din Tai Fungs all over the city.