Marcus Yam
Los Angeles TimesTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019
S
INGAPORE —There’s little Eldwin Chua won’t do to a soup dump-
ling.
At his Singaporean restaurant chain Paradise Dynasty, the call-
ing card is a multicolored basket of xiao long baoinspired by boxes of
French macarons. Each one is spiked with lavish ingredients like foie
gras, black truffle and ginseng. Limited-edition flavors have included Tai-
wanese braised pork belly (lu rou fan), typhoon shelter crab (a Hong Kong
specialty heavy on fried garlic) and brown sugar “lava.” This being Singa-
pore, he and his chefs once hatched a xiao long baostuffed with steaming
hot durian.
Yes, it’s shtick, but that’s the point.
Even as the restaurateur’s company has expanded — there are now 48
Paradise Dynasty locations in nine countries — it’s still dwarfed by Din Tai
Fung, the dominant chain in the worldwide xiao long baogame with 150 loca-
tions. That restaurant singlehandedly popularized a classic dumpling, serv-
ing as a gateway to authentic Chinese food for neophytes.
Chua marveled at its success. So when it came time to break into the U.S.
market, he chose to take aim at the king. In Asia, the 41-year-old has a pen-
chant for locating his restaurants within walking distance of his Taiwanese
rival. He’s been trying to do so in California for years, though mall operators
have snubbed him, saying they already had Din Tai Fung lined up.
Then earlier this year, Chua broke through: A customer offered
him a sublease for the former Charlie Palmer space inside Bloom-
ingdale’s in South Coast Plaza.
If all goes according to plan, the first U.S. Paradise Dynasty will
open in that Costa Mesa mall in the spring, steps away from one of
the country’s busiest Din Tai Fung locations.
“We respect Din Tai Fung because they are one of the few Chi-
nese restaurants that has really gone global and kept their food
consistent,” Chua said. “They produce a [SeeParadise,F4]THE UPSTART DUMPLING
SPOT THAT WANTS TO
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