Dim sum :: All Things Andy Gavin

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J Zhou Prequel

Oct22

Restaurant: J Zhou

Location: 2601 Park Ave, Tustin, CA 92782. (714) 258-8833

Date: June 17, 2021

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Amazing (if pricey) crab

Today is the third day of our epic Foodie Club June mega week, and tonight is a special La Tâche dinner deep in the OC, so we wanted to “warm up” (sans wine) with a bit of Orange County Chinese food.

J Zhou is the fanciest of the OC’s big Cantonese palaces and I’ve heard good things about it for a long time.

There were 3 of us, but we had our own private room as Fred is friends with the manager.

The daytime dim sum menu.

Seafood dumpling in egg wrapper. These were delicate and delicious!

XLB. A decent, but not amazing version of this classic.

Roast Squabs or Quail. I thought these were some of the crispiest and meatiest little roast birds I’ve had in a long time. Delicious!

We pre-ordered a huge king crab and they prepared it 3 days. This first way was just simply steamed with a bit of vermicelli underneath soaked in crab juices and soy. Incredibly fresh and sweet — hey they did bring in the live crab a few minutes before!

King crab typhoon style. Crispy and amazing.

King Crab Brûlée. Egg custard in the crab shell was also silky smooth.

We didn’t sample that many dishes because we had an epic wine dinner just a few hours later, but what I had was all excellent. The crab in particular was amazing, but it was full premium price per pound — no super steal discount at all. I would like to come back and try a full dim sum spread.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, Foodie Club, J Zhou, King Crab, Orange County, Tustin

Too Tony at Chef Tony

Apr13

Restaurant: Chef Tony

Location: 2 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91105. (626) 803-0028

Date: February 26, 2020

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Dumplings good, but portions tiny

The Lunch Quest gang is always keen to try a new Chinese spot.
So we trekked out to Pasadena once we heard that the original chef from Sea Harbor was opening up a new “fancy” dim sum spot in Pasadena.

This is in the old 800 degrees space and nicely built out… up stairs at least.

There is an attractive bar.

But our six person party was banished to the “dungeon.” The basement was claustrophobic and smelled of “potty.” Ick. It was pretty off-putting.

The Menu.

Sauces in the usual microscopic dishes.

XO sauce.

Lobster Salad. This is a “whole” order ($28.80). It was tasty, but very small.

Steamed chicken feet in brown sauce.

Shrimp dumpling with gold leaf. These are basically har gow (below) but with a black dough and gold leaf. They don’t taste too different. One of the nice things about Chef Tony is that almost all the dumplings can be ordered by the piece as well as by the order. This really helps when you have a person count that isn’t divisible by 3 or 4.

Har Gow. Very nice classic shrimp dumplings — except they are $2 each and at many places they are $2-3 an order!

Shrimp and Pork dumpling with Black Truffle. Pretty much your usual shu mai but with truffle. They were good, but I’m not sure the truffle actually improves anything.

Baked BBQ Pork Bun. Excellent version with the usual sweet interior.

Shrimp wonton with house spicy sauce. Very nice and delicate with quite a bit of salty flavor.

Shrimp, crab meat, and matsutake dumplings. Nice delicate dumplings.

Juicy Pork dumplings (XLB). Very good example of the Cantonese variant of these.

Pan-fried shrimp & pork pandan bun. Doughy, but with a very nice flavor. Quite tasty.

Deep fried pork dumpling. Just an ok version of this chewy fried type.

Deep fried tofu in Thai sauce. Nice tender tofu. Quite good.

Pan-fried radish cake with XO sauce. I really liked this dish. It had the soft/starchy daikon texture with lots of umami XO flavor.

Squid ink pasta with crab meat and gold leaf. This was a total disappointment. It was just vaguely fishy with a strong red pepper flavor. Not terribly good at all.

Stir-fried rice noodle with beef. This was much better. Like Chinese beef Pad Thai.

Deep fried crispy king prawn. Tasty and super crispy but also super fried.

BBQ Pork. Delicious and pretty much coated in syrup.

Braised eggplant with minced pork on rice noodle casserole. Not a ton of eggplant but I enjoyed the chewy “rice noodle” with the sauce.

Sliced Chinese broccoli with black truffle sauce. Now this was only $6.80, but it was embarrassingly tiny. We are talking 2 inches across!

Sautéed string beans with minced pork. Decent tasting but also about 1/3 the size of a typical version of this dish. It was hard to split 6 ways.

Coconut pudding. These were super cute, but very bland. Basically nearly flavorless coconut jelly (vaguely sweet) pressed into bunny moulds.

Overall, Chef Tony is not a phenomenal experience. The dumplings were actually pretty good, being a bit fancier and smaller and more delicate like they are in Hong Kong. But many of the other dishes were a bit limp. It’s still in soft opening and a few things on the menu (like Chow Fun) weren’t available. Service was fine. QPR isn’t great. Some dishes are laughably small. Some are way more expensive than at a larger “Cantonese Palace.” Some are both. I’d certainly rather go to a place like World Seafood, Elite, or Grand Harbor. For me, Pasadena is also further away than the SGV and more difficult to park in.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chef Tony, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dumplings, Lunch Quest, noodles, Pasadena, Truffle

China Red by Day

Mar04

Restaurant: China Red [1, 2]

Location: 855 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 445-3700

Date: January 23, 2020

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: A- dim sum

Continuing our Lunch Quest series of random lunch visits we decide to check in on the China Red dim sum.

For some reason I’ve been on a run of places on the slightly more “Eastern” half of the main SGV. Slightly more annoying drive too as it’s 10-15 minutes further.

The outside.

The interior is typical midsized Cantonese. There is some DM (deferred maintenance). This is very Chinese, but the place is only a couple years old and is showing some wear and tear.

Zoom.

Sauces.

Har Gow (shrimp dumplings) – large, but hot and good.

Chicken feet in XO sauce.

Pork ribs — ugly but tasty.

Shu Mai (pork and shrimp dumplings) — large but tasty version of the classic.

Shrimp and Leek Dumplings — quite nice. One of the better dumplings.

Sticky rice in lotus leaf — good.

Crunchy baked BBQ pork bun — slightly mushy interior.

Pork Rib Chow Fun — I didn’t realize that this was just the ribs on top of some chow fun. I would have ordered a different one had I known.

Dumplings with an interesting peanut and meat paste inside. I didn’t adore.

XLB (Xao Lao Bao) – juicy pork dumplings. Very nice version.

Shrimp paste with almonds – Basically a shrimp spring roll covered in almonds. Interesting texture.

Another dumpling type with a brown spinach mush inside — not my favorite at all.

Beef balls — ok.

Crispy fried squab — very dense and meaty. Not my favorite squab.

Spicy cabbage — I love this dish as always.

Double Shot Gelato — Hot brewed espresso gelato with house-made dark chocolate hazelnut ganache — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — this will keep you up! — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #chocolate #valrhona #espresso #coffee #hazelnut #ganache

Peppered Lemongrass Ginger Creme Brûlée Gelato — A blended milk and Thai coconut cream base steeped with lemongrass and ginger and then juiced up with yuzu and black pepper. For sugar, I used coconut palm sugar and even torched the top! — created by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #lemongrass #ginger #CremeBrûlée #BlackPepper #coconut #yuzu

China Red is a solid “made to order” dimsum place. It’s better than pretty much all the cart places, but it’s not the best ever, and the menu is pretty small and straightforward. Which place is the best in the SGV is always changing, but generally 2-3 are A+ and a whole bunch are good but not quite as good — that’s where China Red falls.

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese Food, Dim sum, dimsum, Gelato, Har Gow, Lunch Quest, SGV, Yarom

888 Not So Late

Feb14

Restaurant: 海珍大酒樓 888 seafood restaurant [1, 2]

Location: 8450 Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 573-1888

Date: December 19, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Dimsum

Rating: good cart dimsum

We had such a good banquet dinner at 888 Seafood a couple of weeks ago that we decided to return and try their dimsum during the day. It should be noted that 888 has been around for a long while — decades — and is still a cart place. I.e. everything rotates around on the steam carts.

Har Gow. Shrimp dumplings. nice.

Shrimp and Scallop Dumplings.

Vegetable Dumplings.

XLB (Xao Lao Bao). Pork soup dumplings. These were tasty, but a bit sticky and pasty.

Shrimp and Vegetable Dumplings.
Shu Mai. Not a bad version of the classic.

Pork ribs. Ugly but delicious.

Beef balls. Also ugly but tasty.

Shrimp Chow Fun. Good for this dish.

Eggplant and Shrimp Paste. Black bean sauce. A little more unusual.

Greens with Sauce. Comes on the dedicated greens cart.

Crunchy top pork buns. A bit sweet and really nice texture.

Baked pork buns.

Shrimp paste with Green Pepper with Black Bean Sauce. Pretty good, actually.

Chewy Pork Dumpling. I always like this texture.
Tofu. Very light and delicate. Nice soft texture.
Bean Curd wrapped veggies.

Cantonese Luke Warm Roast Duck. Pretty juicy, but very luke-warm, almost cool.

Pork Hock with Bok Choy. Delicious! Several people popped their pig’s feet cherry on these.

Fatty Beef Ribs. Rich sauce and thick slabs of beef that didn’t seem so Chinese.

Chicken Feet in XO sauce.

Seafood on crispy Chow Mein. Yum!

Pineapple Buns with custard and real pineapple chunks — great. Had several even though I was very full.

Macao Tart — ok, a bit mild.

Dimsum at 888 was solid, but not particularly interesting or super fresh. Definitely a notch or two down from the made to order places. Shells were a bit “sticky” which indicates they have been sitting in the steamers for a bit while they wheel around. Non dimsum dishes were more interesting. This is more like the way SGV dimsum was 10-15 years ago.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Brunch, Cantonese Chinese, Dim sum, dimsum, dumplings, hedonists, lunch, Lunch Quest, SGV

Quick Eats – Dim Sum House

Oct02

Restaurant: Dim Sum House

Location: 1822 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 441-9651

Date: August 20, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: Mediocre but theoretically fast

Dim Sum House is a newish strip mall take on dim sum.

It’s just in the mini-mall, right south of Santa Monica Blvd, on Westwood — next to the little Pharmacy and dry cleaners. I think it’s owned by the same people as Hop Woo.

The interior is very Chinese — could be in the SGV — but it’s not. Oddly, even though it was about 1pm, there wasn’t a soul in here except for the loan employee (behind the counter).

The daytime dim sum menu.

This is an interesting sort of place. By day, it’s a small (greatest hits) classic Cantonese dim sum menu. I think at night they have skewers.

Har Gow (shrimp dumplings). Probably the best item. Fairly typical, but kinda limp and chewy.

Shu Mai (pork and shrimp dumplings). These looked hideous and tasted better, but not great. A bit mealy.

XLB (soup dumplings). Pasty skins. Filling was okay.

Pan fried bun. Basically the same pork filling, but with a very heavy chewy exterior. Filling was good and I picked that out.

My service experience was very weird here — and not in a good way. I was the only person. Staff person was eating themselves when I came in. Very slow to notice me. Slow to take my order. Then I waited. And waited. After quite a while 2 of the items above came out. Girl just sat behind the counter on her phone. Eventually she brought two more items. I had to get up and ask her for necessities like chopsticks and napkins. Then I waited for some more. The 5th item never came. I went up and asked. She checked in kitchen and told me it was coming. She rang up my bill. I waited. Eventually I asked again and she checked again and then told me “they were out of it.” She had to refund me the money even. Clearly not very concerned about customer service. Staff in back were probably eating and smoking too rather than steaming the dumplings — which clearly were made long in advance, or maybe just frozen.

They didn’t taste great either. Now it’s sort of like bad pizza in that it’s not THAT bad, but for dim sum it was quite lousy. I like the idea of this kind of quick smaller format — which Tim Ho Wan is doing also — but the execution was abysmal.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Cantonese Chinese, Dim sum, dimsum, Har Gow, Westwood Ca

Ring in Tang Gong

Sep30

Restaurant: Tang Gong

Location: 111 N Atlantic Blvd #350, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 888-5188

Date: August 14, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Dimsum

Rating: Great new made to order Dimsum

Our friend Derek has been the manager variously at Elite Seafood, World Seafood, and China Red.

Now he’s helping open up Monterey Park newcomer, Tang Gong.

In an era when the Cantonese Palaces are closing, it’s rare to have a new one opening up — including all the glitzy Hong Kong style trappings. These places cater (haha) to big Chinese weddings.

And a huge private room (where we were located).

Derek posing with Yarom.

The dim sum menu. Like most Cantonese places, there is banquet at night. They had just opened a few days before when we arrived.

Chicken Feet with House Sauce. Sometimes this is called XO sauce. It’s not exactly the same as regular XO sauce.

Beef Tripe with Scallion and Ginger. Sounds gross. Looks gross. Tastes great. Chewy, yes. But delicious.

Steamed Pork Ribs with Garlic. These also aren’t the best looking items in the world, and there are the little knuckle-like bones in there, but the meat taste was fantastic. Very juicy and full of pork flavor.

Har Gow. Shrimp dumpling. Classic, straightforward, and enjoyable as always.

Pork and Shrimp Shui Mai. I always order the classics when checking out a new place. These were solid, much like Elite’s.

Fried Pork Dumpling. These have that chewy fried mochi shell and delicate pork inside. Really delicious.

Sea Cucumber and Dried Scallop Dumpling. I hadn’t realized this was “in a soup” (should have looked at the pictures better). This makes it hard to share but it was scrumptious. Lots of interesting umami flavor.

Pan Fried Leek Cake. There is some shrimp or something in here too. I love these for their greasy shell texture. Pretty much a “Beijing Pie.”

XLB (Juicy Pork Bun). Soup filled lovelies. Solid renditions of these. Not the great kind you get at a specialty house where they make them constantly fresh, but still very enjoyable with the vinegar.

Baked Crispy Pork Bun. 10/10. Light slightly sweet crispy shell, airy interior, and sweet BBQ pork. Awesome.

Shredded Duck and Seat Pea Rice Roll. Interesting. The peas are either an interesting or distracting textural element alongside the chewy soft chow fun.

BBQ Pork and Corn Rice Roll. More straightforward and I think I enjoyed a bit more.

Seafood Salad Roll. Fried with a creamy “seafood salad” inside. Delicious though.

Baked BBQ Pork Pastry. The buttery pastry version with the same BBQ pork.

House special lobster. Good, typical.

Peking Duck. The meat itself was good, although maybe it could have been a touch crispier. I prefer the pancakes to the buns, but the hoisin was good.

Crispy BBQ Pork. Interesting pork pretty. Quite delicious.

BBQ Chicken. Super succulent chicken.

Traditional Beef Chow Fun. Pan fried noodles with beef.

Braised E-Fu Mein. I liked these crispy noodles even better. Tons of flavor and very addictive (viva la grease!)

Canton Style Steamed Greens. Very tasty.

Beet Greens (you can see the purple color) steamed with garlic. These were more bitter and I didn’t like them as much as the straight up greens.

White Chocolate Peanut Gelato — I hadn’t made a White Chocolate base in a while so in light of my rent “experiments” in chocolate took another pass at it — came out awesome, using all Valrhona Ivoire chocolate layered with house-made Peanut Dulcey Ganache — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peanut #WhiteChocolate #valrhona #ganache

Hpnotiq Blue Hawaiian Sorbetto — like a frozen cocktail — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Thai Coconut Milk, Pineapple, Lime, and Hpnotiq liqueur –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #Hpnotiq #BlueHawaiian #pineapple #coconut #lime

Overall, very solid new place. Service (thanks Derek) was of course perfect. We loved the big private room. Dimsum was “typical good” very much like Elite or Derek’s time at World Seafood. We didn’t have too much that was really novel, but the execution on all the typical dishes was excellent. I want to see how they settle into the rhythm of things in a couple weeks and return.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Dim sum, dimsum, Gelato, hedonists, lunch, Lunch Quest, Monterey Park, SGV, Tang Gong, Tony Lau

Tim Ho Wan – Dim Sum Pedigree

May16

Restaurant: Tim Ho Wan

Location: 2700 Alton Pkwy, Irvine, CA 92606. (262) 888-8828

Date: May 15, 2019

Cuisine: Hong Kong / Taiwanese Dim Sum

Rating: Solid, new format, but not amazing

Tim Ho Wan, the Michelin-starred dim sum restaurant from Hong Kong, opened last week in Irvine at the Diamond Jamboree Shopping Center.

It’s the first Southern California location of Tim Ho Wan, which has 47 outposts in nine countries, with U.S. restaurants in New York City, Las Vegas and Hawaii. The restaurant earned worldwide acclaim when it opened in 2009 as a 20-seat dim sum restaurant in Mong Kok, Hong Kong, earning a Michelin star a year later. The restaurant has continued to earn a star for nine consecutive years.

Tim Ho Wan is best known for its baked BBQ pork buns, made with a sweet, sticky char siu (barbecued pork) encased in a cloudlike fluffy bread with a sweet, crunchy top. In addition to the buns, there are the usual dim sum favorites, including har gow (steamed shrimp dumplings), siu mai (steamed pork dumplings with shrimp), braised chicken feet with abalone sauce, congee with pork and preserved egg, steamed egg cake and fried turnip cake.

And the restaurant is known as much for its long wait times.

Mid week, Yarom and I, dedicated Chinese eaters that we are made the full on 1 hour+ pilgrimage to the OC just to try the new “hot” dim sum place.

It’s one of those newish maxi-malls (10 years or so) — a bit nicer than a traditional strip mall but cheesy construction. There were all the usual suspects like 85 degrees, hai di lao, etc.

11:15am — 3 hour wait! Yep! The buzz is a-buzzing. We were lucky though and were only 2 people (we had a third join us mid meal), so we got seated in about 35 minutes.
Meanwhile we went next door and got some 85 degrees coffee.

Besides the regular tables there is a bar, but it’s not open yet. This will make coming in by oneself easier/faster eventually.

The main dining room is attractive, with some build out, but it’s quite casual. Even more downscale maybe than Din Tai Fung and set up for smaller 2-4 person parties (younger audience) and not the traditional giant round tables of a big Cantonese banquet house. More on this later at the end.

The menu is small, and everything (pretty much) is pictured on the placemats.

The older sheet. Today about 1/4 of the items were not available, as they haven’t come “online” yet. It’s still in soft opening.

Tea.

Steamed Rice Roll with Shrimp and Chives. As I always mention, in my family, when I was a kid, this was called “shrimp slime.” We liked it then, I love it now. This particular one had nice fluffy texture, but the taste was a bit reduced. Maybe less grease? (which is a good thing in dim sum). The sauce was a bit mild too, not as sweet as it usually is.

Braised Chicken Feet with Abalone Sauce and Peanut. Nice abalone sauce and good texture on the little chicken claws.

Foot fetish (not everyone loves a good chicken foot).

Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf. A dim sum classic.

Inside the meat and sausage bits of the rice were good, but it also tasted a bit under-seasoned. Not salty enough? Texture was pretty good though.

Braised Beef Brisket with Turnip. Just like mom’s Rosh Hashanah brisket with potatoes! Actually pretty close. Beef was excellent. Soft and full of flavor.

Braised Beef Brisket with Thin Rice Noodles in Soup. Soup was delicious. The meat was the same as with the turnips — and just as good. The noodles are a bit thin and soft, which is traditional with this soup, but I like more al dente noodles in general. The bowl size, which is hard to tell here, is single person small. It’s not the bigger bowl that most Chinese places use. More on that later too.

Pan Fried Noodles. Very simple, classic pan fried egg noodles. Nice taste and light texture though. A bit less greasy than the most traditional version. I’m thinking they use a different (or less) oil than traditional Chinese.

Steamed Pork Spare Rib with Black Bean Sauce. Bone in. The usual sketchy looking pork niblets, but great flavor. Also maybe a touch lighter than usual at most dim sum places.

Deep Fried Spring Roll with Egg White and Shrimp.

You can see inside the fluffy egg white. Very nice light roll. Good crispiness, good texture on the filling. Slightly lighter grease though so I think the flavor was a bit muted. The sauce is more a slightly sweetened soy. I kinda like the sweet sauce for this kind of fry. This may be a Taiwanese influence?

Deep Fried Bean Curd with Avocado and Shrimp and Golden Chives. It’s bean curd, but fried up like a spring roll. The inside with the avocado was interesting and flavorful, adding a bit more heft than the fluffy Spring Roll. Again a sweet sauce would have worked.

Steamed Vegetable Dumplings. Nice texture on the skin and chunky vegetables inside. Light skin too which I like. Still a touch under salty/greasy?

Steamed Dumplings with Shrimp and Chives. Great texture again for the skin, but soft on the inside and muted in flavor.

Har Gow. Steamed Shrimp Dumplings. Nice skin, big chunk of meaty shrimp. This was the best dumpling and fairly classic.

Steamed Beef Ball with Bean Curd Skin. Nice soft meat ball with a good beefy flavor.

Siu Mai. Steamed Pork Dumplings with Shrimp. Small like I like them, and very good texture, but again had that slightly muted flavor.

Steamed Rice with Minced Beef and Pan Fried Egg. Rice less sticky than typical Chinese rice (on purpose). Pretty much a flat layer of the same meat as the beef ball on the rice, with a fried egg and the sauce from the Rice Roll. The whole thing was pretty great. The beef on the rice, with the richness of the egg, and the sauce soaking into it all.

House Special Baked BBQ Pork Buns. Soft crunchy outside. A good bit of sugar.

Inside was delectable sweet pork. This was a great pork bun. As good as I’ve had. It’s of the slightly crunchy type. There are several other types like the steamed white ones, or the baked syrup glazed ones. I probably like this and the glazed ones best.

Tim Ho Wan is interesting. They are clearly making a play at becoming (expanding?) a little empire of fine casual focused dim sum eatery. It’s very new generation. Very millennial. The table layout is for 2s and 4s instead of the giant round tables of the big old Cantonese palace. The decor and format are more casual. The menu is smaller, maybe 1/4 the size and focused only on the dim sum greatest hits. Also importantly there is no “second chef” and giant banquet menu. It’s all the same focused small set of dim sum.

Service, particularly for being in soft opening, was excellent. They kept checking on us. They were speedy. Some confusion but they were on it double checking and made sure everything was perfect in the end. They are clearly very dedicated to improving and doing a good job. There were some minor quirks, like they had no chili oil (only chili sauce) — but they promised to get some by next week!

Plate/order size is smaller than a tradition dim sum house. I actually like this as it allows more dishes. They don’t have any large plate items. This is more consistent with the likes of DTF (Din Tai Fung). It works better with parties of 2.

Food wise, the textures were consistently good, which is the standard thing that many dim sum places mess up. Food was pretty fresh and very hot and not soggy. Problem for me was that on many dishes the flavors felt muted or light. I think it’s under seasoning. Maybe there isn’t so much salt (MSG?). Maybe they use a lighter oil. There is this standard dim sum oil taste that I really like and it wasn’t present or at least was very much more reserved. That oil and salt thing is one of the things I love about dim sum. As I mentioned, the menu is fairly small. We ordered every dish available the day we went and all are pictured above. There were about 6 or so on the menu that weren’t online.

So in terms of actual dim sum quality, places like Elite and Grand Harbor are a notch better at current. I can hope that Tim Ho Wan tunes up a bit, but it’s also possible that they are deliberately going for a lighter less coma-inducing style. It has this new faster/more casual format too, but with a long wait, that’s offset. Eventually though, it probably will be easy to get in on a weekday — it’s always going to be a long wait on weekends. Of course, there is always 85 degrees while you wait. And for me the long drive. I hope one opens on the Westside up here!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Dim sum, dimsum, dumplings, Har Gow, Hong Kong, lunch, Lunch Quest, Orange County, pork buns, sticky rice, Tim Ho Wan, Yarom

Capital Dim Sum

Dec03

Restaurant: Capital Seafood Beverly Hills

Location: 50 N La Cienega Blvd #130, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. (310) 855-1234

Date: October 10, 2018 and August 1, 2019

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: Good for this far west

Finding great Chinese west of the SGV has long been a problem, but the “great wall” between east and west has been cracking with lots and lots of new openings closer to (my) home.

Capital is the latest SGV place to move west, occupying the Newport Seafood Beverly Hills location that failed to work out. Not that I love even the original Newport, but Capital is fairly straight up banquet / dimsum Cantonese.

The space looks pretty Chinese, even in Beverly Hills.

Coves. Gotta have the coves!

The made to order dimsum Menu.

Sauces were great. The chili sauce and XO both awesome.

Cold Spicy jellyfish (8/1/19). Nice chew and great Szechuan-style spice flavor.

Shrimp and pork shui mai. Classic, but well done versions.

Spinach Mix Veggie Dumplings. We had a vegetarian in the house.

Shrimp Har Gow. Very nice, not too sticky either and kept together.

Tofu Skin Roll with shrimp. I like these bean curd wrapped thingies. The goji berries were a different touch.

Beancurd stuffed with shrimp (8/1/19). Great spongy textural play.

XLB (steamed pork dumpling). Solid versions of this amazing dish. A touch pasty, but oh so good.

Shrimp, scallop, and peanut dumplings. Dumplings always rule.

Baked BBQ Pork Pastry. Super rich lovely pastry and sweet BBQ pork.

Baked Honey BBQ Pork Bun (8/1/19). This is my favorite of the pork bun styles with the sweet bread stuffed with delicious sweet BBQ pork.

Stuffed Shrimp and Scallop Ball (8/1/19). The inside of this fried fellow is a shrimp and scallop cake/paste. Delicious with the provided mayo.

Steamed Cilantro Rice Noodle (Chow fun). I’ve never had it with just cilantro. A little bland but the rice noodle texture was excellent.

Minced Beef Rice Noodle (8/1/19). Tastier than the cilantro version.

Taiwanese Shrimp Egg Roll. I really liked these super hot, ultra fried, mega crispy cigarette-like spring rolls.

Deep fried mushroom egg roll.

Rice Noodle with XO Sauce. I loved these chewy rice cakes smothered in spicy XO sauce. Very soothing texture and a lot of salty umami XO flavor.

Lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice (8/1/19). Classic and filling.

Dried Shrimp and Pork Dumpling. The chewy fried bomb shaped dumplings were excellent.

Shrimp and chives dumpling (pan fried). Also greasy fried flavor.

Steamed Chinese Broccoli (8/1/19). Pretty tasty.

Roasted half duck (on the house). Really succulent and moist. Delicious.

Salt and pepper eggplant. Fried and salty and very hot (temperature) but delicious.

Seafood with Pan Fried Egg noodles (8/1/19). I’ve loved this dish for over 40 years!

On my 8/1/19 visit I brought these home-made (by me) gelati:

Strawberry Margarita Sorbetto! — like a frozen cocktail — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Strawberries from Avignon, blended with fresh lime, Reposado Tequila and Cointreau –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #strawberry #Margarita #cocktail #Tequila #Cointreau

Cioccolato Fondente Torrone Gelato — I’ve been working to squeeze the most chocolate humanly possible into a dairy gelato. This is 70% cocoa Valrhona and 100% Callebaut Chocolates — a total of 22.5% cocoa by weight — extremely intense — offset slightly by Italian soft nougat (torrone) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peanut #chocolate #valrhona #Callebaut #torrone

Overall, Capital Seafood is middling level dimsum for the SGV but excellent for Beverly Hills. Almost certainly the best west of the SGV. One of the only rivals is The Palace, which is good, but still the cart format. The manager/owner was awesome. Service was very attentive, but a little weird in that a few of the girls hovered uncomfortably close. They were trying though.

On our second visit service was clean and unobtrusive. Food was fresh and tasty. Really quite good. Not the BEST dimsum in the known world but still first rate.

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Brunch, Cantonese cuisine, Capital Seafood, Dim sum, dimsum, dumplings, hedonists, lunch, XLB

Derek moved to China Red

Nov20

Restaurant: China Red

Location: 855 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 445-3700

Date: September 30, 2018

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Very good Cantonese, has some DM though

Another Sunday, another Chinese. In this case we came to China Red because our friend Derek, former manager of Elite and World Seafood has moved here.

For some reason I’ve been on a run of places on the slightly more “Eastern” half of the main SGV. Slightly more annoying drive too as it’s 10-15 minutes further.

The interior is typical midsized Cantonese. There is some DM (deferred maintenance). This is very Chinese, but the place is only a couple years old and is showing some wear and tear.

Here is Derek on the left with Yarom.

We were in the private room — which is eclectic to say the least.

Peanuts to start.

We started with a few classic bits of dimsum, even though it was evening.

Har Gow. Pretty solid shrimp dumplings.

Shu Mai. Pork and shrimp. I always love these meat bombs.

Roast Pigeon. Finger licking good.

Garlic fried fish. Or maybe it was frog, I can’t remember. It was crunchy, garlicky, salty, and pretty good.

Peking duck. Can never go wrong with that and this was a fairly juicy version.

Even if they only had the buns (I prefer the pancakes).

Roast pork. Nice crispy skin.

Mixed seafood chow mein. Carby goodness.

And the next noodle, because we needed a LOT of them. This was some sort of meat and black bean and black pepper wok fried noodle – it was delicious.

String beans with eggplant.

Pea tendrils or whichever type of colon sweeper with garlic.

Everything fried rice.

Lobster. A solid lobster. I’ve had better sauces but the meat was good.

Sweet and sour squirrel fish. Very fried, which makes it extra tasty.

More noodles, chicken noodles I think. Not quite as good as the beef pepper noodles.

Custard buns. Tasty.

I can’t even remember if I brought gelato this night. Lol.

Food was quite good at China Red and Derek really takes care of us. We have so many Cantonese feasts that it’s hard to remember which ones are the best, but this was quite solid, although not super “unique.” China Red was oddly quiet, and the place looks a touch shabby, but it’s certainly better than most (but not all) SGV Cantonese by a good bit.

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese, Cantonese cuisine, China Red, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Dim sum, hedonists, Lobster, Peking Duck, pigeon, SGV, Wine

Fake Chard at Grand Harbor

Jun25

Restaurant: Grand Harbor [1, 2]

Location: 5733 Rosemead Blvd, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 280-2998

Date: May 20, 2018

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Solid B+ dim sum and Cantonese treats

It has become traditional for the Dirty Dozen (our blind tasting group within a group) to do white wine lunches over dim sum — which is by far my preference given some alternatives because despite the timing problems with wine tasting and Chinese Food, I just always love good Chinese food. And so one year exact to the day after our last visit to Grand Harbor we return.

The wine theme today was New World Whites — ick.

Grand Harbor is a relatively new Hong Kong place in Temple City from Jackie Zhou.

The dining room is huge and opulent in that chintzy Chinese way. I would have thought from all the overzealous cove lighting that the space was built out in the 80s, but apparently it’s only a year or two old!

Real marble blends non-so-seemlessly with faux-alabaster. They have wine too like many of the new high end places. Mostly big young red wine like Bordeaux which totally fails to pair with Cantonese Chinese, but it’s the thought that counts.

XO sauce on the table to start, which is a nice touch.

This time we had a private room — much better. Today was a small crew too, only 7 of us, probably because of the lame New World White theme.

From my cellar: NV Ruinart Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 92. Light yellow-gold. Smoky citrus and orchard fruits on the deeply perfumed, mineral-tinged nose. Offers broad, toasty orange and pear skin flavors with an undercurrent of dusty minerals. Picks up floral and ginger nuances with air, along with hints of iodine and tarragon. Rich yet lively blanc de blancs with powerful back-end lift and finishing grip.

agavin: my favorite wine of the day. lol. and it wasn’t even part of the official set.

Marinated cucumbers. Very good, nice crunch and a bit of heat. These were so good we ordered them again.

From my cellar: 2011 Domaine Roulot Meursault. JG 90. All of the vineyard plots for this new villages bottling hail from the former Domaine Emmanuel, with the lion’s share having been the old Clos de la Baronne bottling. This is a very deep and classy AC bottling and a welcome new addition to the Roulot lineup, wafting from the glass in a blend of apple, tangerine, nutskin, a very pretty base of soil and just a touch of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and quite classic, with a very pretty blend of soil and pure fruit, nice framing acids and very fine length and grip on the open and classy finish. This is not a particularly minerally example of Meursault, but it has all the charm and early generosity one would like to see in a villages bottling, and this will delight right from the start, but I would be inclined to give it at least a year of bottle age to allow its secondary layers of complexity to emerge.

agavin: Jen allowed me to slip in a ringer because I hate new world whites (and barely have any) and because I had the theory that even a village Roulot would blow them away. Unfortunately, the bottle was mildly corked and therefore very short on fruit. Even so it came in #4 (middle of the pack) despite being corked. Sigh.

Brian brought: 2013 Aubert Chardonnay Eastside Vineyard. VM 95+. The 2013 Chardonnay Eastside Vineyard is one of the most tightly wound wines in this range. White pepper, crushed rocks, smoke, mint and lemon peel gradually open up, but only with great reluctance. Today, it is the wine’s energy and tension that stand out above all else. A vivid, mineral-drenched finish rounds things out in style.

agavin: the winning wine (Brian again taking the title). Today turned out to be an Aubert tasting.

Scallop & shrimp dumplings with dried roe. Nice dumpling with a bit of a different vibe.

Har gow. Crystal shrimp dumplings. Nice.

Chui Chow style dumplings.

Shu Mai. Shrimp and pork dumplings. Nice version of the classic.

Shanghai style XLB. solid little bags of goodness. These are the classic soup dumplings stuffed with pork and hot broth.

Yarom with the manager.

Larry brought: 2013 Aubert Chardonnay CIX Estate Vineyard. VM 96. The 2013 Chardonnay CIX Vineyard is another reticent wine, but there is plenty of depth, volume and raciness. With time in the glass, deeper, soil-inflected notes, graphite, chamomile and honey open up, adding considerable complexity and nuance. Bright, saline notes punctuate the finish. The CIX starts off slow, but then really accelerates with air.

agavin: ranked #2

Yarom brought: 2013 Aubert Chardonnay Larry Hyde & Sons. VM 95. The 2013 Chardonnay Larry Hyde and Sons is gorgeous. Lemon curd, white flowers, white pepper and mint lift from the glass. Effortless, gracious and lifted in the glass, the 2013 impresses for its brightness and tension, but there is plenty of the trademark Aubert richness in the glass. The Hyde finishes with notable energy and subtlety.

agavin: ranked #5-6, oddly cloudy (storage in Yarom’s guest room?)

Jen slipped in: 2016 Kirkland Signature Chardonnay Signature Series Russian River Valley. Tasted like oak.

agavin: fortunately came in dead last, keeping the balance in the universe.

Crispy fried chicken cartilage. Always a favorite and really tasty.

Beef rolls. Good versions of this dish (which isn’t generally a favorite of mine). Not as heavy as some.

Pork inside a chewy fried skin. Excellent version with a good amount of meat and not too greasy.

Tofu in tangy sauce. Nice soft fried tofu with a delicious tangy, hot, sweet sauce.

Lightly fried dumping. Can’t remember the filling but they were good.

Golden batter pork buns. Spectacular with the sweet pork inside.

Shrimp rice noodle. Known in my household as “shrimp slime.”

Green onion rice noodle. I think, I can’t remember what was inside for sure.

2016 Ovid Experiment W3.6. 92 points. Light yellow. Fresh and vibrant nose. Multiple grapes, changes every year. Rhone varietals, and nicely put together. Interesting . As it warmed up the Roussanne seemed to be the emphasis.

agavin: I liked this slightly floral white.

Ron brought: 2002 Sine Qua Non Whisperin’ E. VM 94. a blend of 50% roussanne, 31% viognier and 19% chardonnay; 14. 9% alcohol. Pale-medium gold. Roasted, oaky aromas of peaty Islay scotch and smoke, with a strong mineral component. In the mouth, this offers a fascinating combination of a firm pear skin edge and lively acids on the one hand and superripe flavors of pineapple, peach nectar and honeysuckle on the other. The flavors suggest thickness but the wine’s phenolic edge keeps it brisk. Finishes very subtle, pliant and long, with excellent lift. A captivating, suave California white wine. I’d be more enthusiastic about Northern Rhone whites if they had the fruit of this one.

agavin: I don’t normally like white Rhones but I liked these two much better than the fake Chards

One of the managers really pushed these roast pigeons on us. I was skeptical, as I came for dim sum, but these were excellent birds. Juicy, with a lot of flavor and a nice crispy skin. We had two halves each and were VERY full.

Pork chops causeway style. Never had pork chops in this style, with the crispy garlic and some chilies, but it really worked.

Crispy pan fried noodles with egg and beef and cilantro. Really good, you could cut it almost like a pancake.

Pea tendrils with garlic. Excellent green.

House special fried rice. With the Chinese sausage. Yum.

“Pineapple” buns. Basically a custard inside.

I also brought a pair of Sweet Milk Gelati (that I made). Mexican Cinnamon Chocolate Gelato with optional house-made chili caramel (not shown).

and Pure Sicilian Sweet Almond Gelato with Scorza di Limone (candied lemon peel).

My bad notes.

The score card.

The lineup.

Overall, Grand Harbor had very solid dim sum, at the level just below Elite where a lot of good but not perfect places stand. I’d certainly happy to chow down on it again. They did seem to use a lot of MSG because I was HAMMERED by it about 45 minutes later. Non dim sum dishes were excellent and they have a VAST menu of them. Worth coming for an evening banquet.

This second meal we didn’t have nearly as many people and so didn’t get to try as many dishes unfortunately. What we had was very good but the previous time was epic.

Service here was fabulous. This time we had the private room and they really took care of us. They kept trying to bring us more stuff, all of which was delicious.

The smaller group was a lot of fun. More relaxed, less craziness, and it was a very enjoyable lunch. I wasn’t a big fan of the wines. Shame my Roulot was corked — as I preferred the Ruinart Champagne to all the official whites!

Overall, a super fun afternoon!

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brunch, BYOG, Chardonnay, Dim sum, dimsum, Dirty Dozen, Grand Harbor, hedonists, SGV, Wine. gelato

World Seafood is Elite

Mar16

Restaurant: World Seafood Restaurant [1, 2, 3]

Location: 1412 S Garfield Ave. Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 282-3888

Date: January 27, 2018 and February 7, 2020

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Elite Dimsum

I last went to World Seafood almost 2 years ago for dim sum but recently one of the Elite managers, Derek, came over to World Seafood and brought with him one of the Elite chefs. Because of the new kitchen and management I’ve decided to write a new from scratch review. Then about 2 years later Yarom, my brother and I hit it up again and it’s still great.

Typical big Cantonese house outside.
Inside a touch of new color encircles the giant Chinese-style banquet hall.

They have a much bigger space than Elite and gave us an elaborate private room.

The menu (1/7/20).

Sauces, including XO sauce on the right.

Spicy crunchy cold cucumbers.

Pork Shui-Mai. Great versions of the classic.

Chicken feet in house sauce. Not my thing, but some like it.

Shrimp and Chinese Chive Dumpling. What’s better than shrimp dumpling? Shrimp with Chive!

Fun guo, or Chaozhou fun guo sometimes spelled fun quor, fun gor, fen guo, Chiu Chow dumpling, Teochew dumpling, or fun kor is a variety of steamed dumpling from the Chaoshan area of coastal eastern Guangdong, a province in Southern China.

Shanghai Style Steamed Bun. We love XLB, and these particular examples were awesome. Nice and delicate and easy to slurp out of the little tins.

Har Gow (Crystal shrimp). Excellent versions of the standard.

Special dumplings with meat, shrimp, and vegetables.

Scallop and shrimp dumplings.

Sea Cucumber Roll. Lettuce leaves filled with pork, shrimp, sea cucumber and topped with masago.

Beef balls. A touch dense.

Tofu wrap. Mostly vegetables and some pork? wrapped in bean curd. Hot and soft and delicious.

Sautéed pea tendrils with garlic. A nice version because lots of garlic.

Sautéd string beans with minced pork. A touch bland, or under salted.

Special shrimp. A lot of good flavor with peanuts and a bit of spice.

Baked chicken bun. Delicious slightly sweet crunchy exterior top filled with chopped seasoned chicken meat.

BBQ Pork Bun. Like a jelly donut, just filled instead with porky goodness!

Fried Meat Dumpling. This was the chewy fried rice coating with sweet ground meat paste inside. I’ve had better versions of these, the filling here was a bit boring.

Crab cream roll. Some bits of crab and maybe cream-cheese deep fried. Much like a crab rangoon. Mayo sauce. Pretty tasty if very fried.

Flakey baked pork bun. The buttery flakey batter around sweet BBQ pork. Really delicious.

Peking duck! We asked and he had — even at lunch! Very nice duck too.

Pan fried shrimp and scallion cake. I had these in Fuijian province. Really delicious and very greasy (in a good way).

Preserved meat crepe. Chewy and bland.

Green onion rice noodle. Bland.

Fried shrimp rice noodle. Excellent.

Sticky rice with chicken in lotus leaf. Pretty good.

White boy shrimp (aka walnut shrimp). Nice version.

Macau pork. Pan fried roast pork. Tasty!

Macau Style Roast Pork Belly (2/7/20). Delicious. Different than it was a few years ago.

Fried Chicken Cartilage with Garlic. Crunchy and the garlic was great. Chewy insides.

Roast Duck. Nice and juicy. Served with sweet sauce.

House special fried rice. Nice kitchen sink rice.

Seafood Chow Mein. Those crispy little noodles I love soaked in a seafood sauce. Great noodle dish.

Coconut buns. Delicious!

Milk buns with custard. Also good. They have a lot of interesting Chinese desserts here but we were full.
Plus I had brought my own homemade dessert: PeaNutella & Jelly Frenzy Gelato – Peanut Butter base layered with everyone’s mob crazy spread and strawberry jelly. Plus bonus peanut butter cookies!

Overall, World Seafood has now leapt into the top SGV dimsum houses. It’s very much like Elite (wonder why) and super yummy. Big menu of with all sorts of Cantonese treats. Their banquet is great too.

As of 2/7/20 I still thought World Seafood was very good, in the “A level” of SGV dimsum. Big menu, interesting stuff, fresh, piping hot, and all that goodness.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dimsum, Gelato, hedonists, Lunch Quest, SGV, World Seafood, World Seafood Restaurant

Eating Adelaide – Ding Hao

Feb22

Restaurant: Ding Hao

Location: 26 Gouger St, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia. +61 8 8211 7036

Date: December 25, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Not bad

Christmas Day in Adelaide and what do you do, even when on the other side of the world? Eat Chinese Food!

Adelaide’s chinatown was just around the corner from our hotel so I picked the busiest looking dim sum parlor.

Inside it doesn’t look much — if any — different than it might in the states.

Chili sauce.

Sadly, since the rest of my party doesn’t like Chinese food I was ordering just for myself and so couldn’t get that much. Had to try the classics though.

Shu Mai. Fine version. Not too gigantic (I don’t like them huge).

Steamed pork bun. I would rather have had the baked type with the sweet glaze but the filling was very good.

Scallop and shrimp dumplings. Nice. Very fresh too.
I was full but I saw XLB (xao lao bao) pork soup dumplings on the menu and had to order some up. Took 20 minutes to steam too but totally worth it.

Not bad at all from the couple dishes I had. Considerably better than the place I ate at in New York’s Chinatown last summer.

For more Australia dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Australia, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dimsum, Ding Hao, eating-australia

Eating Boston – Hei La Moon

Nov27

Restaurant: Hei La Moon

Location: 88 Beach St, Boston, MA 02111. (617) 338-8813

Date: October 21, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Quite good, lots of variety

Because it would be unconscionable to visit a major city without sampling its Chinese Food, during my Boston trip some of my friends brought me into Chinatown to:

Hei La Moon, their favorite local dimsum joint.

It has 2 floors and this is just part of one of them — yeah, that’s pretty typical Cantonese.

As is the red and good auspicious colors.

This is a cart place, but a good one as we shall see.

They have a bunch of stations too. Not sure what they are doing at them.

We didn’t manage to get much in the way of sauces, just the chili paste.

Then the carts came in spades.

Including interesting ones like this “drink” (with jelly, etc) cart.

Pork Shiu Mai. Pretty usual. Good though.

Kimchee shiu mai. Hadn’t had these here in the states. Like the first, but a little spicer.

Shark Fin Dumpling. Always one of my favorites (I hope it isn’t real shark fin) and missing these days in LA.

Chives dumpling.

Chinese Broccoli. Colon sweeping required.

Pan fried rice noodle (chung foon). Heavier than the usual rice noodle.

Taro cake. Never my favorite.

Sticky rice with peanuts and Chinese sausage. Good stuff.

Mussel stuffed with crab. And maybe cheese? It was odd but good.

Pan fried shrimp cake. Love this very greasy beast.

Pepper stuffed with shrimp. Hadn’t had this one.

Fish shiu mai with sausage. Some kind of what fish.

Fried shrimp cake with sweet mayo. Another new one. Basically that packed shrimp cake fried, then drizzled in mayo.

Bean curd. Stuffed with mystery meat.

Pumpkin and cork and pea dumplings. Really good, light, and very interesting.

Shrimp rice noodle (chung foon). The usual, but a nice one.

Fried sesame and rice balls stuffed with red bean. The usual dessert balls. I like them, but they don’t like me.
Baked egg custard tart. Decent but eggy versions of the classic.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised to find this an excellent dimsum place. It was cart based, so not quite as fresh as the best “cooked to order” places in Los Angeles (SGV) but still very fresh (it was crowded and huge) and the variety was tremendous. Lots of interesting and new stuff. Way way better than the place we tried in New York.

For more Boston dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Boston, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dimsum, eating-boston, Hei La Moon

Dirty Dumplings

Nov13

Restaurant: Elite Restaurant [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 700 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 282-9998

Date: October 8, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Elite!

Elite is well known as one of great LA’s top dimsum places and so the Dirty Dozen is heading there on this lovely (hot) Sunday afternoon for a blind tasting of “great French white wines that are not champagne or Burgundy.”

We have the private room, of course.

We even had a satellite (non drinking) table.

2011 Michel Gonet Champagne Grand Cru Le Mesnil sur Oger Blanc de blancs. 90 points. huge mousse with lots of persistent fine bubbles. sweet nose of sweet rolls and perfume flowers. youthful, fresh, acidic palate. flavors of pistachio, lime, and mineral. long finish. needs to rest a couple of years but should be good as it puts on weight.

Jennifer brought: NV Ruinart Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 92. Pale yellow. Complex, high-pitched aromas of orange zest, lemon pith, iodine, smoky minerals, anise and jasmine. Sappy and tactile on the palate, offering impressive volume to its ripe citrus and orchard fruit flavors accented by smoke and minerals. Finishes tangy and long, with lingering smokiness and an echo of anise.

XO sauce. Umami goodness.

Flight 1:

Warren brought: 2005 Didier Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Buisson Renard. 92 points. Un nez évolué, complexe, avec des nuances de sucre d’orge. Viennent ensuite les arômes de fruit de la passion, avec du poivre blanc. Un vin d’une superbe complexité aromatique, qui m’évoquait un cru chablisien avec de l’âge.

Arnie brought: 2014 Didier Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumé Silex. 94 points. Think I killed a baby here.
Decanted the wine for a small hour, but the acidity was still very high and harsh. Not what I remember from a Silex. Think it is better to wait a few years before tasting this wine. Next appointment with this wine in 2020 😉

Albert brought: 2001 Château de Fieuzal Blanc. 90 points. Light straw gold colour. Nose is warm straw and a bit of cow poo then fresh peach and white apricot. Palate is thick, oily and unctuous without being at all cloying…..peach stone, confit peach, fresh almonds, fresh honeycomb.Heady, resonant and reverberant.

Pork Shui-Mai. Also great versions of the classic.

Tofu wrap. Mostly vegetables wrapped in bean curd. Hot and soft and delicious.

Chicken feet in house sauce. Not my thing, but some like it.

Spicy jellyfish. I like this stuff, but not everyone at the table is a fan.

Har Gow (Crystal shrimp). Excellent versions of the standard.

Flight 2:

Yarom brought: 1997 Château Laville Haut-Brion Blanc. VM 89. Complex, expressive aromas of lemon, honey, ginger, quinine, butterscotch and fresh herbs, plus a waxy suggestion of semillon. Supple and ripe, with moderate depth of flavor and good citric cut. Seems a bit stunted by the August ’98 bottling. Finishes with good but not outstanding length.

Ron brought: 2002 Lur-Saluces “Y”. 92 points. Positive surprise. Thought it would have been way past maturity, but this was quite a beautiful bottle. Nicely developed tertiary aromas, soft acidity. A little bit too warm on the finish dominated by the alcohol (14,5%). But a nice and very interesting bottle.

From my cellar: 2009 Château Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc. Parker 98. Smith-Haut-Lafitte hit a home run with their red Pessac-Leognan and came very close to perfection with their dry white Graves. Possibly the best dry white the estate has produced since the proprietors, the Cathiards, acquired the property in 1990, this wine exhibits a sensational fragrance of buttered citrus, honeyed melons and a touch of grapefruit, lemon zest and orange rind. It also displays grapefruit on the attack and mid-palate as well as real opulence, terrific acidity and length. Drink it over the next 15-20 years. Astonishing!

Elite BBQ Pork Bun. Like a jelly donut, just filled instead with porky goodness!

Shanghai Style Steamed Bun. We love XLB, and these particular examples were awesome. 4 tins disappeared in like 4 minutes.

Dumpling. This one had peanuts and some other seafood bits inside.

Golden Corn BBQ Pork Rice Noodle. Historically in our family we called these “slime.” This was some excellent slime.

Scallop Dumpling. This was one of the best scallop dumplings I’ve had. There are all sorts of trefy goodies in there.

Flight 3:

Larry brought: 2011 E. Guigal Condrieu La Doriane. VM 93. Pale gold. Nectarine, pear and lemon curd on the nose, with complicating vanilla and mineral qualities gaining strength with air. Broad and fleshy but impressively focused, offering juicy orchard fruit flavors and a bitter note of citrus pith. Precise, dry and nervy on the strikingly long, penetrating finish, with its sexy honeysuckle and ginger notes.

Brian brought: 2012 E. Guigal Condrieu La Doriane. VM 93. Bright yellow. Assertive aromas of nectarine, violet and smoky minerals, with a gingery nuance adding lift. Broad and silky on the palate, offering densely packed orchard and pit fruit flavors that become spicier with air. The mineral note comes back strong on the finish, which lingers with excellent tenacity and building smokiness.

Fried Meat Stuff Dumpling. With a title like that, I had to order. This was the chewy fried rice coating with sweet ground meat paste inside. Kinda delicious except it was fairly hollow (not enough filling).

Layered beancurd. Only my second time having this flaky beancurd layer cake. All texture but it was really great.

Dumpling. Mystery inside with meat and peanuts.

Baked BBQ pork dumpling. Little flakey. pastry triangles stuffed with the usual red BBQ pork.

Pea tendrils and garlic. Colon sweeper.

Baked chicken bun. Delicious slightly sweet crunchy exterior top filled with chopped seasoned chicken meat.

Fried shrimp ball with almond. This is the usual shrimp cake but coated in almond. It really added a nice texture. Quite fun.

Flight 4:

Avi brought: 2003 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc De L’Orée. VM 93. Exotic aromas of candied peach, menthol, tea and spices. Supersweet, ripe and complex, with suggestions of lemon verbena and garrigue At once exotic and powerful, with firm structure and little obvious heat showing today. Finishes extremely long and shapely, with exotic suggestions of oriental spices. Serve this with spicy Asian dishes, Mazoyer suggests, adding that this wine should be drunk soon or laid down for 15 years.

David P brought: 2012 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Cuvée Roussanne Vieilles Vignes. VM 94. Vivid yellow. An explosively perfumed bouquet evokes ripe melon, nectarine and mango, and powerful mineral and floral elements add vivacity and lift. Broad, sappy and deeply concentrated, offering intense orchard fruit and pit fruit flavors that stain the palate while showing surprising vivacity. Strikes a deft balance between richness and finesse, picking up ginger and honey flourishes on the back half. Clings with outstanding energy and persistence on the finish, leaving sappy pear nectar and floral notes behind.

Arnie brought: 2005 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. 90 points. This was terrific. Floral on opening, then loads of stone fruit with a hint of spice and pineapple, great depth and a long finish. Best bottle of three I purchased; showing signs of age and depth.

Elite fried rice. A bit of everything.

House Roasted Duck. The duck does not suck. In fact, it was great. There was that usual authentic Chinese bone factor, but the taste was first rate.

Seafood chow mein. Excellent, always one of my favorites.

Lobster noodles. The lobster itself was good in one of those light white Chinese sauces, but the noodles are soggy.

Too full for dessert but we had dessert wine.

Ron bonus: 2001 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain. VM 93. Bright deep yellow. Smoky camphor, peach and a hint of honeyed pineapple on the showy nose. Enters the mouth fresh, lively and precise, then turns slightly austere, showing noteworthy tannic bite to its orchard fruit and sweet spice flavors. A touch of marmaladey botrytis adds complexity on the lingering, ripe, rich finish. In 2001, high-quality botrytis targeted the Pinot Gris, so that a Sélection de Grains Nobles was produced with the grapes from the vines nearest to the river Thur; it was the grapes from Zind-Humbrecht’s other wines in the Clos that were used to produce the bottling I describe here. Check out these numbers: only 13.6% alcohol, 30 g/l residual sugar, and 6.1 g/l total acidity. Utterly irresistible right now; in fact, I don’t think there is much to gain by holding onto it any longer. I remember first tasting this wine when it was released, and it struck me then as uncharacteristically ready to drink from the outset, but the wine’s iodiney minerality is starting to take center stage from the fruit elements. In 2001, a cold and rainy September had many producers anxious, but the warmest October on record to that point ensured a clean, glitch-free harvest. “This was a rare year in which we were out harvesting in tee shirts, thanks to 28°C days in October,” Olivier Humbrecht reminisced. And at 36 hectoliters per hectare, 2001 was also a very generous year for production by the standards of the Clos.

The cheat sheet.

My notes.

The votes.

Another awesome Chinese feast. Jennifer did all the wine organization (thanks Jenn!). I ordered the food and too much of it, so much that we didn’t have room for a dessert course.

This whole thing was <= $50 including paying for the winner AND a huge tip. Food was very fresh and on point. A large percentage of my fiends who go to dimsum think it’s the best in the SGV. I personally agree, with next best being King Hua. Certainly Elite, King Hua, and Lunasia are also at the top, but slightly below and there is a tier even slightly below that including Sea Harbor, World Seafood, Grand Harbor. Wines were pretty good. I liked the Viognier and some of the other areas besides the Rhone better. Not a fan of those heavy Rhone whites.

One of the best Dirty Dozen meals I’ve been too — I like these Chinese lunch ones best — because I love Chinese food.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

Other Hedonist festivities.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, colon sweeper, Dim sum, dimsum, Dirty Dozen, Elite, Elite Restaurant, French wine, hedonists, Wine

Eating NY – Joy Luck Palace

Aug18

Restaurant: Joy Luck Palace

Location: 98 Mott St, New York, NY 10013. (212) 219-2828

Date: July 3, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Not nearly as good as the best in the SGV

Of course I had to try some Chinese in New York, and since I didn’t have time to go out to Flushing I figured I’d play it safe by looking up a top dimsum place. Eater raved about this one in Chinatown.

It’s in the center of the crowded old school Chinatown streets.

Inside it’s pretty typical of these big one room Cantonese joints. Crazy cove lights. On the “low decor side.” Not nearly as glitzy as something like Grand Harbor. There were no white people — I took this as an encouraging sign.

They still use the cart system. That went out 5+ years ago in the better LA (i.e. SGV) places. I hate the cart system. It’s fast, but the food has been sitting, and it’s hard to get them to come by at the pace you want.

Har gow. These crystal shrimp dumplings were fine. Nothing special. As usual it took some work to get water and sauces.

Sui Mai. Pretty typical as well.

Peanut and more dumpling. Stickier skin, pretty good.

Bean curd with pork and shrimp. Just fine.

Fish balls. Slightly different, but also nothing special.

Pigs inside pigs. Chinese sausage wrapped in bao dough. Cute at least.

Shrimp rice crepe. Not the greatest version of this dish.

Vegetarian fried rice crepe. Slightly different and actually pretty good.

Sticky rice steamed in lotus leaf. Fine but not amazing.

Pig shaped custard buns. Cute again.

Besides the cute pig shaped dimsum this place was fine but utterly mediocre. It was about on par with the Palace in Brentwood, which I consider just passable. The cart system made it hard to get anything interesting and we even ended up repeating. The service was worse than Chinese typical. The atmosphere pretty much unappetizing. If this is Manhattan’s best (and I have no other datapoints to judge by) than it has a LONG LONG way to go to even get in the same league as the 5+ best SGV dimsum houses.

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dimsum, eating_new_york, Joy Luck Palace, New York

Grand times at Grand Harbor

Jun21

Restaurant: Grand Harbor

Location: 5733 Rosemead Blvd, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 280-2998

Date: May 20, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Solid B+ dim sum and Cantonese treats

Grand Harbor is a relatively new Hong Kong place in Temple City from Jackie Zhou.

XO sauce on the table to start, which is a nice touch.

2007 Delamotte Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Le Mesnil. 91 points. Good, low nose, crisp and good structure, some yeastiness, med+ length. Good, not great.

The theme today was White Burgundy served blind in flights, but this Champagne was a started (not blind).

Cold Appetizers

Seaweed salad.

Chicken feet. How do feetless chicken cross the road?

Wood ear fungus. Pretty nice.

Peanuts.

Starch sticks. Probably taro. Needed salt as they had next to no flavor.

Marinated cucumbers. Very good, nice crunch and a bit of heat.

Macau style pork belly. Great stuff. Nice balance of fat and flavor.

Flight 1:

2014 Kirkland Signature Chablis 1er Cru. 91 points. shiny pale green hints; chalky, rocky, clean, lemony, high acid, good classic chablis character; stainless steel feel to it. Very good and opened up nicely! Killer deal if you can find it.

This was a ringer that Albert sent in with someone else. It did surprisingly well (finishing 2nd or third).

NOTE: tasting notes are mostly by Peter (one of our gang).

2006 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. BH 93. A gentle touch of wood highlights airy yet slightly riper high-toned and admirably pure aromas of white flower, pear and quinine that gives way to supple, sweet, mouth coating and impressively concentrated flavors that exude a marvelous intensity on the long, powerful and driving finish supported by a solid acid spine. Definitely worth a look if you can find it but unlike most ’06s, be prepared to have at least some patience as this is unusually firm for the vintage.

Shu Mai. Shrimp and pork dumplings. Nice version of the classic.

Shanghai style XLB. solid little bags of goodness. These are the classic soup dumplings stuffed with pork and hot broth. The garnish reminded me of gefilte fish.

Scallop dumplings.

Har gow. Crystal shrimp dumplings. Nice.

Pork rice noodle. Known in my household as “pork slime.” I usually love this dish but this particular version was heavy and short on flavor.

Flight 2:

2014 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. Peter 90. This had bright crisp minerality with good concentration on the palate, but a very soft entry. Decent, but kind of straight forward at this point. I suspect very closed, young, and needs a year or 2 to express itself a little more.

2007 Dauvissat-Camus Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. Peter 94. Golden color; rich, powerful nose, golden apple, bags of rocky minerals, some delightful reduction going on, super long, this has it all. My WOTN and #1 wine overall. Killer.

2006 Dauvissat-Camus Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. 91 points. Medium yellow. As was the case a few years ago, this had a lot of sulfur to accompany ripe yellow fruit and just a bit of seashell. Lush texture but inadequate acidity and shortened by the sulfur. Hardly recognizable as Chablis at this point, and a totally disjointed wine that is going nowhere. A major disappointment as I had hoped that somehow this would be spared from the flabbiness of the vintage, but there is no escaping it, even if you tried to mitigate that characteristic with excessive manipulation.

Roast pork bun. Nice rendition of the classic baked sugary bun. Very soft breading.

Sticky rice with seafood. I had hoped for more depth of flavor as the white sauce soaked into the rice.

Fried “crab salad” roll. These have a crab and creamcheese? filling and a nice crunchy exterior. They were delicious, I ate about 8.

Tofu in tangy sauce. Nice soft fried tofu with a delicious tangy, hot, sweet sauce.

Flight 3:

2014 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. BH 93-95. This is presently sufficiently reduced that it is impossible to fairly assess. The rich, powerful and beautifully delineated big-bodied flavors exhibit almost painful intensity as there is a plenitude of mouth coating extract that buffers the very firm acid spine that allows all of this size and weight to remain exquisitely well-balanced on the chiseled and moderately austere finish. This is not quite as complex or persistent as the Montrachet but it’s not far off and note well that this too is going to require extended cellaring.

2012 Louis Latour Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Peter 90. Kind of a disappointment, this was golden color (a bit too much gold for a 4.5 year old), had red apple, a bit loose knit but still quite powerful, medium acid, long, with what seemed like slightly elevated alcohol. Slightly disjointed. Still a good wine, but I expect a lot more from this.

2012 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Peter 91. This initially had a hint of caramel, apple skin, a little earthy, seemed just a little older than it was; tasted 1 hour later and it really showed nicely, with some of the funk blowing off–more red apple, floral, good concentration and with long finish.

2014 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Chevalier-Montrachet. Peter 93. Precise, with a touch of pineapple, pear, green and yellow apple, a hint of reduction, rocky chalky minerality, tight with plenty of zip, super long tangy finish. Killer. Girardin is making great some wines these days.

One of the managers really pushed these roast pigeons on us. I was skeptical, as I came for dim sum, but these were excellent birds. Juicy, with a lot of flavor and a nice crispy skin.

Fried fish. He pushed this too. It looks awful but it was actually delicious.

Dumplings with dried roe. Good stuff continues. All these regular steamed dumplings were quite good.

Pastry with BBQ pork. Good too. Can’t beat buttery pastry with sweet BBQ pork in it!

Flight 4:

Marcassin Chardonnay. Fake chard!

From my cellar: 2002 Louis Jadot Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. Peter 92+. gold amber color; this was somewhat earthy with a slight nuttiness, showing the most age of the group (more than the ’02 Marcassin) which gave it complexity; good lift, quite long.

2004 Jean Noel Gagnard Bâtard-Montrachet. Flawed. Our bottle was corked.

Bean curd with vegetables and pork. Yummy.

Seafood with crispy chow mein. I love this Southern Chinese dish. This was an okay version but not nearly as good as some (like Elite).

House special fried rice. With the Chinese sausage. Yum.

“Shark fin” (I hope not) dumpling or similar. Delicious. These were really good.

Floral jelly. Yeah, had to try it based on that name. Had the nice jelly texture. Tasted like… chrysanthemum tea or something!

Mango pudding. Okay, not as intense as I like.

Milk bun. Sweet and milk. Very nice though.

Macau egg custard. Solid if not exceptional.

Walnut bun. Very nice. Nutty. A touch dry.

The line up. Wines weren’t the most impressive, but were enjoyable.

My bad notes.

Yarom and the manager.

Overall, Grand Harbor had very solid dim sum, at the level just below Elite where a lot of good but not perfect places stand. I’d certainly happy chow down on it again. They did seem to use a lot of MSG because I was HAMMERED by it about 45 minutes later. Non dim sum dishes were excellent and they have a VAST menu of them. Worth coming for an evening banquet.

Service here was fabulous. We should have requested a private room as we really needed it, but we didn’t. Still, they really took care of us. They kept trying to bring us more stuff, which is how it should be in good “Chinese” service. We controlled the flights by filling out 4 different dim sum cards and handing them in one at a time. Worked well.

Wines showed decently. Most bottles were in good shape. Amusing that the Kirkland did so well blind. This group has only 1-2 other Burgundy collectors and so people have to buy and there are a lot of bottle short cuts: too young, lame producers like Latour, Chablis (which is nice but cheap). No pile of good vintage Ramonet here. Still, dim sum makes everything great.

Overall, a super fun afternoon!

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dimsum, Dirty Dozen, Grand Harbor, hedonists, White Burgundy

Dim Sum – World Seafood

Dec05

Restaurant: World Seafood Restaurant [1, 2]

Location: 1412 S Garfield Ave. Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 282-3888

Date: November 26, 2016

Cuisine: Cantonese Dimsum

Rating: Fun dishes, good, but not the absolute best

My quest to try all the great dimsum houses in the LA area (mostly the San Gabriel Valley) continues. Last year’s newcommer Shi Hai has rebooted into World Seafood Restaurant.

It looks pretty much the same on the outside — and clearly isn’t a place all geared up to serve the English-speaking population!

Inside it got a touch of new color but remains a giant Chinese-style banquet hall.

The lengthy menu — all in Chinese with just a touch of English.

Pan-fried chives pancake. Not very pancake like, but extremely tasty. Some kind of mystery meat in here too — probably pork.

Shrimp and pork Shiu Mai. Good version of the classic.

Har Gow shrimp dumpling. Solid also.

Scallop and shrimp dumpling. The scallops were a touch fishy, so this wasn’t my favorite.

Chu Zhou Fun Gou. Peanuts, pork, and who knows what make a lovely dumpling. Fun guo, or Chaozhou fun guo sometimes spelled fun quor, fun gor, fen guo, Chiu Chow dumpling, Teochew dumpling, or fun kor is a variety of steamed dumpling from the Chaoshan area of coastal eastern Guangdong, a province in Southern China. They are typically filled with chopped peanuts, ground pork, garlic chives, dried shrimp, dried radish and shiitake mushrooms. Other filling ingredients may include coriander, cilantro, jicama, or dried daikon.

Seafood salad roll. I ordered because I had no idea what it was. This light and crispy but very deep friend fellow contained some kind of seafood/cream cheese mix with a slight sweetness. There was a mayo-like dipping sauce. Despite the oddness of all this, it was delicious.

BBQ pork rice noodle. Solid.

XLB steamed pork dumplings. The shell was a touch thick, and while I’ve had better, these were still delicious.

Pork bean curd roll. Delicious. Stuffed with pork? and vegetables.

House special roast duck. Delicious, meaty, and only $5.99!!!!

Plain soy sauce noodles for my son. Pretty yummy actually.

Pan fried noodle with seafood. This was the thick rice noodle and I would have prefered it over the thin egg noodles.

Steamed honey brown sugar cake. World Seafood has a lot of “dessert” dim sum and this one was new to me so I tried it. Look at the cool coral-like texture. It tasted like mildly sweet honey cake but did have a very nice fluffly organic quality.

Pumpkin pastry with salted egg yolk. Delcious. Mochi-like texture, pumpkin taste, and a gooey hot salty egg-yolk filling. Awesome. We ordered an extra order.

Steamed sweet bun. Who can resist desserts that look like pigs? This vegetarian light fluffy buns contained a paste of purple taro.

Steamed walnut bun. How cute, shapped like walnuts! Inside was a nut paste we actually thought was chesnut. It was good though.

Overall, World Seafood was quite good. I’d put it in the second tier of SGV dimsum underneath Elite, King Hua, and Sea Harbor, but in line with Lunasia and Shanghai #1 Seafood. It absolutely blows away what Downtown and Westside places I’ve tried, and is certainly a worthy destination. World Seafood also has an interesting menu, with lots of weird dessert pastries, and I’d like to go back and try another round or two of dishes.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dimsum, san Gabriel valley, World Seafood Restaurant

Elite Champagne Brunch

Oct12

Restaurant: Elite Restaurant [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 700 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 282-9998

Date: October 9, 2016

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Elite!

Elite is well known as one of great LA’s top dimsum places and so the Dirty Dozen is heading there on this lovely (hot) Sunday afternoon for a blind Champagne tasting.

We have the private room, of course.

2014 St. Romain Les Jarrons. Just a little chard to get started.

The bucket of Champs.

Flight 1:

This flight of 3 (ignore the rightmost) was first, but remember the whole lunch was blind.

2004 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Millésimé. Peter says 93 points. Nice BdB bready-yeasty notes, fine, straw, with exceptional elegance, lemon, bosc pear, minerals, chalk, complex, super long, powerful but pretty. Loved this, guessed Comtes BdB ’04.

1995 Charles Heidsieck Champagne Blanc des Millénaires. AG 95. The 1995 Brut Blanc des Millenaires shows just how compelling this often overlooked vintage can be. Layers of lemon, pastry spices, crushed rocks and savory herbs literally jump from the glass in this exquisite, perfumed, beautifully delineated Champagne. The 1995 shows lovely flavor complexity and nuance from its extended time in bottle, yet it also retains plenty of freshness, verve and acidity. This is a great showing from Charles Heidsieck. The 1995 was made before the tenure of the house’s current team, headed by CEO Cécile Bonnefond. It will be very interesting to see what develops at this historic property over the coming years.

Peter, anther attendee says 93 points: Medium burnished yellow/gold; rich, powerful, a touch nutty, berries showing through tertiary notes, very long, complex and great balance. Blind at Dirty Dozen tasting. Guessed ’96 Dom. Would not have guessed a BdB. Curious to know disgorgement date since they have the new bottles/embossed clear labels.

1988 Salon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 97. After the lackluster 1990, things get back on track quickly with the 1988 Salon, a wine that is absolutely peaking today. From one of the all-time great vintages in Champagne the 1988 Salon exudes power and explosive intensity, with superb balance and pulsating acidity that gives the wine its drive. A host of candied lemon peel, hazelnut, smoke, licorice and anise overtones meld into the super-expressive finish. Disgorged à la volée, with no dosage.

agavin: our bottle was a bit oxed. According to Peter, another of our guests: Quite dark gold color; this seemed very old with a quite strong oxidative nose, nutty aspect, light caramel bits, a touch of a sour tangy finish. Still, very intriguing and enjoyed the burnished aspect of an older Champagne. Drink up now for sure, although this most likely was prematurely oxidized as it shouldn’t have been this developed. Guessed ’90 Krug. Blind at Dirty Dozen tasting.

Pork Shui-Mai. Also great versions of the classic.

Shanghai Style Steamed Bun. We love XLB, and these particular examples were awesome. My brother and I snarfed a tin each on at least 2 trips.

Har Gow (Crystal shrimp). Excellent versions of the standard.

Peanut Dumpling. This one had peanuts and some other protein bits inside.

Elite BBQ Pork Bun. Like a jelly donut, just filled instead with porky goodness!

Baked BBQ pork dumpling. Little flakey. pastry triangles stuffed with the usual red BBQ pork.

Hot sauces.

XLB sauce.

Macau style pork belly. What it looks like (pork belly). Today was really on point.

Layered beancurd. Never had this before. All texture but it was really great.

Halloween version! (actually dipped in its sauce)

Flight 2:

More goodies — vintage.

2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. VM 94. The 2002 Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart comes across as rich, powerful and opulent. This latest release of the 2002 was disgorged in July 2015 and finished with a Chardonnay-based liqueur whereas the previous release, disgorged in May 2014, was finished with a Pinot Noir-based liqueur. This is a distinctly vinous, almost shockingly raw, visceral Champagne from Billecart-Salmon. There is no shortage of volume or intensity, that is for sure. Stylistically, this year’s release inhabits a whole other world relative to last year’s release. Dosage is 4 grams per liter.

Peter says 91 points: Distinct but subtle berry notes on the nose, slight pinot character with very slight oxidative character; somewhat rougher bubbles after the Heidsieck Millenaires, Billecart BdB and Salon. At first it seemed less fine in the mouth, but coming back to it it seemed very foamy small bubbles. 91-92. I usually like this much more than I did today. Guessed ’02 Blend. Blind at Dirty Dozen tasting.

From my cellar: 2000 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. BH 96. A wonderfully layered and nuanced nose features an intense yeasty character to the maturing fruit that displays interesting phenolic characters, in particular petrol, along with aromas of apple, pear and soft citrus hints. In contrast to the nascent maturity expressed by the nose the flavor profile is still tight and backward with a genuinely gorgeous texture, all wrapped in a strikingly persistent and highly complex finish. For my taste the 2000 Brut is at an inflection point as the nose does offer enough maturity so that it’s really quite pretty whereas the palate impression is substantially younger. As such it really just depends on how you prefer your Champagne because I suspect that the nose will be very mature by the time the still very youthful flavors attain their majority. For my taste preferences it would be no vinous crime to begin enjoying this now but be aware that this will age for a very long time. The best approach is probably to buy 6, or even 12, bottles and enjoy them over a longer period of time.

Peter says 93 points: This had great vinous character, clear aged notes, apple skin, baked bread, earthy minerals; fine foamy mouth, elegant but powerful and intense, with excellent acidity and very long in the finish. 2nd day drank kinda like a great older Burgundy. Guessed ’96 blend. Blind at Dirty Dozen tasting.

1999 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut. VM 92+. Light gold. Vibrant, tangy aromas of apple, pear, white peach and minerals. Wound tight right now, only reluctantly offering up flavors of fresh orchard fruits, herbs and pepper. Finishes zesty and long. Seems less deep than the 1997 bottling; is this just in a sullen, youthful stage?

Peter says 94 points: This was a killer–gorgeous complex character, fruit, minerals, yeast, all in perfect balance, savory notes shining through with power and elegance. Guessed ’90 BdB. Blind at Dirty Dozen tasting. My WOTN (with very strong contenders).

1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. BH 97. A distinctly reticent but elegant nose with a purity of expression that is truly impressive to experience as it’s relatively high-toned and while the yeast comes up with air, it’s relatively muted at presence, combining with intense, precise and superbly detailed and complex flavors that culminate in an explosive and wonderfully long finish. This may very well rival the sublime ’90 in time even if it’s not quite as concentrated. This is still a baby so there is absolutely no rush whatsoever.

agavin: our bottle was sadly corked.

Chicken feet in house sauce. Not my thing, but some like it.

Pheasant lettuce cups. Really nice crunchy texture. Put in the lettuce cups below and add hoisin.

Lettuce cups.

Scallop Dumpling. This was one of the best scallop dumplings I’ve had. There are all sorts of trefy goodies in there.

Singapore noodles. Great version of this classic dish with its yellow curry flavor.

Flight 3:

The NV wines.

NV Kirkland Signature Champagne Brut. CW 79-81. Light golden yellow color with steady stream of small bubbles; tart peach, baked pear nose; ripe pear, apple, honeyed palate; medium-plus finish.

Peter says 88 points: This had a prosecco-like aromatic floral nose (Not a champagne nose), it was light yellow (contrasting with the darker more intense colors of the other prestige cuvees), and more rustic effervescence and quick finish. Guessed Prosecco or low level young brut. This was fun because it ranked very high when put up against a slew of prestige cuvees. I think maybe because of the nice floral aromatics and bright freshness which may have been refreshing after a lot of older vinous wines? Blind at Dirty Dozen tasting.

2005 Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. Always great!

1990 Perrier-Jouët Champagne Cuvée Fleur de Champagne. VM 92. Complex, nutty, vibrant aromas of orange peel, lemon oil, and biscuit. Very concentrated and intensely flavored; thick with extract in the style of the best ’90s, but without any heaviness. Lemon and apple flavors really cling to the palate. Finishes very long and thoroughly ripe.

Peter says 91 points: This was just as dark as the ’88 Salon (maybe a bit darker even); Oxidative, nutty, pecan, slight caramelized notes, old tired bubbles, but this really grew on me like a comfortable worn out old leather chair. It seemed a bit older than it was, but fun to drink. 91-92. Blind at Dirty Dozen tasting.

Beef chow mein. Excellent, although I liked the seafood a bit better.

House Roasted Duck. The duck does not suck. In fact, it was great. There was that usual authentic Chinese bone factor, but the taste was first rate.

Elite fried rice. A bit of everything.
TT

Macau Egg Tart. Nice custard pies. Pretty awesome.

Coconut cakes. Wow are these good!

Durian bun. One of the best Durian buns I’ve had. With a really creamy mushy (banana texture) interior with that weird but yummy Durian flavor (rotten bananas with pineapple and petrol?)

Mango pudding. Love this stuff.

Another awesome Chinese feast. This whole thing was $45 including paying for the winner AND a huge tip. Food was very fresh and on point. A large percentage of my fiends who go to dimsum think it’s the best in the SGV. I personally agree, with next best being King Hua. Certainly Elite, King Hua, and Lunasia are also at the top, but slightly below and there is a tier even slightly below that including Sea Harbor and maybe Shi Hai.

Wines were pretty good. Sadly the Salon and a couple others were over the hill or off (the Dom 96 too which should have been great), and a couple were showing oddly. But still great fun.

One of the best Dirty Dozen meals I’ve been too — particularly because they tend to be at restaurants I don’t like, such as Taylor’s Steakhouse, Del Frisco’s Grille, Locanda Veneta, or Wilshire. They are selected for being accommodating (which they are), but the food at that lot tends to be dated and/or sloppy which isn’t my thing. The next event, however, will be at BOA SM, which while still a steakhouse (I’m not a steak guy unless it’s Yakiniku), is a pretty good place.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

Other Hedonist festivities.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Champagne, Dim sum, dimsum, Dirty Dozen, Elite Restaurant, hedonists, Wine, XLB

Ocean Star isn’t such a star

Nov16

Restaurant: Ocean Star Restaurant

Location: 145 N Atlantic Blvd #201-203, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 308-2128

Date: October 6, 2015

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Mediocre cart dim sum

I go out to the San Gabriel Valley all the time, and I figured that I ought to give one of the old school cart dim sum places another try.

Ocean Star has been around forever. In fact, I think I ate there sometime in the 90s.

The place was mobbed, and it wasn’t the youngest demographic in the world. The lobby too had that over-the-top SGV 90s decor. Look at that chandelier, the marble, the cove lighting.

Same thing goes int he enormous and chaotic hall.

Chicken soup with scallop wonton. Ok, basically one giant wonton.

Shrimp rice noodle. One of the better dishes. The usual sweet sauce.

Shu mai. Not the best shu mai by any means, but certainly edible.

Har gow. Just so so. Not bad, but a little “stale.”

Lotus wrapped sticky rice.

Mushy and not very good tasty.

BBQ pork. This was pretty tasty. Sweet and fatty.

They had those crazy crispy cruller rice noodle things on the cart. Didn’t try them though.

The food was lackluster. They had a large variety — if you managed to hail the right cart — but almost everything I tasted was a bit flat. Almost freezer burned. Really, for being out in the SGV, this is no better than The Palace in Brentwood. More options perhaps. The food quality might even have been a bit worse.

Service was kind of typical. They were nice, but I couldn’t manage to get either mustard or ice water. I did get tea and the check. It also took a while for the carts to come to me and when they did, I kept getting the lame carts, like the congee one, or the vegetables, or the tripe. It took a real while before I got the actual good stuff.

Prices are cheap. So if you like to pay less for worse, and join the crazy crowd of seniors, Ocean Star is your place. I’ll go to Elite or King Hua.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: California, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, Monterey Park, Ocean Star, san Gabriel valley

Sea Harbor Dim Sum

Jun29

Restaurant: Sea Harbor Seafood Restaurant

Location: 3939 Rosemead Blvd. Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 288-3939

Date: June 11, 2014 & January 2, 2015 & May 17, 2021

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: In the top 5 SGV Dim Sum

This is a compilation of both a birthday trip my brother and I made to Sea Harbor Dim Sum, the latest in our crusade to visit all the best Dim Sum joints in the San Gabriel Valley, and a in force 20 person assault on the place later with my hedonist group.

I think Sea Harbor has been around for a long time and is one of the mainstays.

The interior is pretty typical.

On 5/17/21, not long after the lockdowns, they were also serving outside on the patio.

One of these nice color photo menus. The paper “checklist” you order with is only in Chinese, but we just use the numbers. This is made to order dim sum, which is much fresher than the cart style.

The sauce plate (like everything else, on request).

Paul Bara Champagne Grand Cru Brut Grand Rosé. AG 92. The Brut Rosé Grand Cru is bold, richly textured wine that literally bursts from the glass with impressive concentration. This shows gorgeous inner perfume yet remains a decidedly extroverted, singular wine. The weight of the Pinot comes through in spades. Readers who want to understand why the Grand Cru vineyards of Bouzy are so famous for Pinot and Rosé should start here.

Cucumber with garlic and spicy sauce.

Jellyfish with GongCai. Apparently the green stuff is “tribute vegetable.” I thought it was bits of asparagus or something. Jellyfish was good.

2013 Liquid Farm Chardonnay White Hill. 93 points. No real sign of oak although it is fermented in mostly neutral oak with a bit of stainless steal. Wonderfully balanced, I want oysters with my next bottle! Great alternative to so many oaky Cali chards out there.

Chicken feet with Angelica in Meat Broth.

Spareribs in black bean sauce. Hideous, but they taste great.

From my cellar: 2012 Tenute Sella Coste della Sesia Majoli. 90 points. Deep red in the glass. This is a rosé with some weight, quite different from some of the nimble, mineral driven rosés from France. Dominant cherry tones, with a touch of Luden’s cherry drop. Clean finish. Potentially this could stand up to a more medium bodied dish, outside of the typical realm for other rosés. This is an unusual bottle, not often encountered – I’ve never seen Tenute Sella rosé for sale, anywhere.

Har Gow. A top version of the classic.

Siu Mai. Pork and shrimp dumpling. Also classic. These are the “normal” (non jumbo size) and tasted great.

Siu Mai with Truffle. I think the truffle is actually a negative.

196x August E. Anheuser Riesling Spätlese Kreuznacher. 78 points. Fallen in cork. A color light like muddy oily rainwater, but surprisingly still sweet and vaguely drinkable.

Bean curd skin roll with seafood. These always look ugly, and they have a funny texture, but I tend to like them.

Ginger chicken & pork bun. These are stuffed with a meat ball that has a very pronounced ginger flavor. Interesting and quite good.

1979 Morandell Grüner Veltliner Trockenbeerenauslese Ruster. 98 points. Not totally sure of the year, certainly from the 70s, but this amber bit of syrup knocked our socks off. Spectacular nectar.

Fish roe with scallop dumpling. A very elegant seafood dumpling.

Steamed shrimp paste with corn and pea dumpling. The two of us were split on this fellow. I liked them, as they had a dense texture and a nice corn/pea taste. My brother wasn’t a fan.

2002 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Kabinett. 89 points. Delicate scents of fresh strawberry, lemon, honey and vanilla. Bright and tingling in the mouth, with the sensation of fresh strawberries right down to their tiny whiskers. Quite refreshing yet adamantly slatey in the finish.

Pork, peanut & celery dumpling. Interesting. A little mild, with steamed peanuts.

Juicy pork bun (XLB). A nice version of this most awesome food.

2011 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. IWC 90. Elegant aromas of cherry, acacia blossom and pine nut. Succulent and creamy on the palate, tinged with nuances of herbs, nuts and vanilla. With fine balance, this spatlese finishes with an underlying sense of slate.

France style baked BBQ pork bun. I have no idea what is “France style” about these, but they had a delightful, light, and crispy outside (slightly sweet) and were filled with a yummy sweet BBQ pork mix flavored with cilantro. Very unusual and very good.

Thai Style Tofu with Chicken Broth. Awesome soft fried tofu with a sweet and tangy sauce.

2009 A.J. Adam Hofberg Riesling Kabinett. IWC 90. Delicate aromas of peach, candied lemon and nut oil. Glossy and quite full-bodied but elegant, this riesling tastes crisp and pure. The clean finish features lime and discreet slate. A textbook kabinett and one of the finest of the vintage.

Beef ball in superior soup. These reconstituted beef balls had a spongey texture that I liked, and a very nice beefy flavor.

Deep fried pork dumpling. Tasty, but as usual for this type, too little filling.

2012 Domaine Bruno Clavelier Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Brulees Vieilles Vignes. Burghound 91-93. A strikingly complex nose features notes of Vosne spice, black cherry, plum and sandalwood. There is first-rate intensity and verve to the beautifully well-detailed medium weight flavors that display plenty of minerality and dry extract on the firm and austere finish that delivers marvelous length. This is also an exercise in harmony allied with finesse.

Ginger Chicken & Pork Bun.

Classic steamed pork bun.

Pan grilled spinach pork bun.

Never seen this one before, but it was pleasant.

Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce.

2008 Rhys Pinot Noir Family Farm Vineyard. Burghound 92. An attractively layered and fresh ripe red berry fruit and overtly floral nose offers excellent complexity that continues onto the rich but elegantly rendered medium-bodied flavors that possess a seductive texture and perfect balance on the lingering finish. This should age extremely well as everything is in perfect proportion.

Sautéed sichuan runner beans with minced pork. A decent version of this classic. The beans were crunchy and the pork tasty, but it was hard to get on the chopsticks!

Steamed rice noodle with BBQ pork (aka “pork slime”). Almost certainly the best pork slime I’ve had — and I’ve had a lot.

Steamed rice noodle with shrimp.

2006 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Precious Mountain. Burghound 90. The nose possesses very impressive aromatic complexity with a lovely mix of both red and blue berry fruit notes, spice hints and a gentle touch of wood toast that does not continue onto the supple, round and vibrant flavors that display good mid-palate density on the slightly dry and tangy finish that does not really detract significantly from the overall sense of balance. We’ll see how this turns out but it appears to have the dry extract to round out the finish in time.

Crystal noodle with fresh shrimp. The shrimp were tasty. This dish was fine, although not outstanding. The noodles had this worm-like slippery quality.

Sticky rice wrapped with lotus leaf. An okay (but not spectacular) version of this. The rice additives could have used more flavor.

Sticky rice with preserved meats. Awesome salty and complex flavor.

Fried rice with dry scallop and egg white. A nice salty rice.

2013 Opolo Vineyards Zinfandel Mountain Zinfandel.

Assorted seafood fried crispy noodle. I love this dish, and this version didn’t disappoint. It was probably a 8 to Elite’s 9, but still great.

Deep fried durian puff. Not for everyone, but interesting all the same. Inside, lots of durian with the texture of rotten banana and the flavor of… petrol? Seriously long and complex finish. Weird!

Steamed Preserved Salty Egg Yolk Bun.

A house specialty. Eggy goodness inside. More sweet and sticky than salty. Mostly. Very tasty.

Overall, Sea Harbor was very satisfying, but perhaps a tiny notch below some of the others we have been trying recently like Elite or King Hua. Except for a couple stellar dishes like the pork slime or france style bun are so good, it makes you wonder. Certainly this place is great and you can’t lose.

An update from May of 2021 shows that Sea Harbor, even post pandemic, still has a top notch dim sum kitchen. The interior is in a bit of disarray, and they were out of a few things, but the food quality was still excellent.

They also might have laid on the MSG because I got an outsized dim sum coma that lasted for hours. Granted, dim sum always gives me a head buzz, but this was a little more than usual.

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