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Archive for dumplings

Dumplings at You Kitchen

Oct21

Restaurant: You Kitchen

Location: 1402 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 977-8088

Date: March 7, 2023

Cuisine: Cuisine dumplings

Rating: top notch dumplings

_

When my High School friend Mike comes to town (from Hawaii) we love to hit up new SGV Chinese places.
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This dumpling specialist doesn’t even have a liquor license, so we went dry, but the dumplings were worth it — and the carb coma.
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Short but sweet menu.
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And some specials.
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Still tasted awesome!
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Very minimal interior, classic old school SGV.
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Freezers full of frozen dumplings that can be purchased for home.

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Dried beancurd salad. Mildly spicy with great texture but not a ton of flavor.
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Spicy Wonton. These were probably the best spicy wonton I’ve ever had. The skins were thin, the filling delicious porky goodness, and the sauce a lovely blend of tangy, a touch numbing, and medium spicy.
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Spicy Beef Tendon. One of those typical spicy braised sliced meat Chinese dishes. Excellent.
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Boiled Chives, Egg, and Vermicelli Dumpling. A rare non pork classic boiled dumpling. Very nice and light.
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Steamed XLB with pork. Excellent and deliciate XLB.
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Steamed Pickled Cabbage and Pork Dumplings. These might have been my favorite because of the touch of crunch and acidity from the pickled cabbage.
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Pan-fried Pork and Celery Dumplings. Great classic dumplings and you could taste the celery.
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Moist Pan Fried Pork Buns. Slightly shrunken versions of the Shanghaiese buns with great pork filling. Still a bit doughy, but nicely cooked and better at this size.
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Beef Roll. Great version of this. Smaller than some and light with a good bit of sweetness. That beef, sweet, and cilantro combo is excellent.
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Preserved Pickled Shredded Pork Noodle Soup with hand-made Noodles. A nice bit of pickled crunch with a very mild and pleasant broth. The thick hand-cut noodles were excellent.
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Bowl ‘o’ soup.
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Pan Fried Chive Egg Pillow. Like awesome Chinese chive and egg hot pockets!
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Thousand Layer Pork Cake. Very nicely formed and cooked, although it was still pretty mild and doughy.

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Sesame Chinese Pizza. Now this was interesting, like a giant version of the bun on the “Roger Moore” sandwich. It was very fluffy and lovely but way too bready for me in my current state.
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Bready!
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Uh, oh!
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Overall, You Kitchen was really good. These were actually some of the best northern style dumplings I’ve had. Now I always like this sort of dumpling, even from a place like Northern Cafe, but these were in another league. They were smaller (which was good), light, delicate, with really tasty supposedly-no-msg fillings. Everything was perfectly cooked. This isn’t fancy food, but it is very very good. Interesting as well, for a tiny place where we saw one owner/employee, they had a very functional on the table ipad ordering and payment system!

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A lot of dumplings!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. One One Dumplings
  2. Luscious Dumplings
  3. Day of the Dumplings
  4. XLB – Soup Dumplings!
  5. Shandong Dumplings
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, dumplings, SGV, You Kitchen

DimSumQuest – Happy Harbor

Sep21

Restaurant: Happy Harbor [1, 2]

Location: 1015 Nogales St, West Covina, CA 91792. 626-965-2020

Date: February 14, 2021

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Great cantonese

_

I went here for dinner in 2021 and had a great meal — so I had high hopes for our dim sum visit.
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Happy Harbor is a medium sized Cantonese located right next to Mandarin plaza, a “far east” (Hacienda Heights ish) area we have eaten at again and again.
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The interior is classic Cantonese.

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The infinite corridor.
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Grungy tanks.
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Le menu.

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Decent set of basic sauces.
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On request, they brought us peanuts form the dinner menu.
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And smashed cucumbers which were very pleasant.
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The lot.
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Chicken Feet in Abalone Sauce. People said they were okay.
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Jumbo Shrimp Har Gow. The insides were generous and pretty good but the shells were thick and sticky and broke apart on trying to pickup the dumplings. So just middling.
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Truffle Shrimp har Gow with Squid Ink. These were better as the wrapper retained its integrity. The inside was shrimp with a hint of truffle oil. Not bad.
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Fish Roe Siu Mai. The classic Siu Mai were huge and porky with a bit of whole shrimp. They were solid — both literally and figuratively — but not awesome.
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Chiu Chow Style Steamed Dumplings. With the peanuts inside. These were pretty tasty but the wrapper was fairly heavy.
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Mushroom Shrimp Dumpling. Pretty nice and certainly plump.
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XLB. Typical for dim sum XLB — aka not particularly great.
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Bean Curd Balls with Vegetables. The wrapper was a bit chewy but these were enjoyable.
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Steamed BBQ Pork Bao. The bun was over-steamed and the inside sickly sweet and not very pleasant.
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Inside.
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Baked Abalone Sauce BBQ Pork Buns. Very sticky and sweet on the outside with a sickly sweet red pork interior. Better than the steamed but not great at all.
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Inside.
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Deep Fried Spring Rolls. Stuff with shrimp. Very nice flakey/crunchy outside and some solid shrimp. Pretty good.
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Fried Chives Shrimp Pork Patty. I always try to order these when I see them. These were good, although not the best. They did have that nice texture and the pleasant greasy quality.
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Tofu with Spicy Chicken Sauce. Not sure what’s chicken about this sauce. The Tofu was the classic fried Egg Tofu and was good, even if the overall presentation was sloppy and ugly. The sweet and slightly spicy sauce was probably jarred. But I did enjoy them as I always do.
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Spiced Fried Shisamo Fish. Little dark baitfish DEEP fried. They were very strong and the fry was out of control thick. No one went for a second fish.
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Stuffed Morel Mushroom. Stuff with shrimp paste and topped wiht a bit of crab. While the mushroom was a bit rubbery this was one of the better dishes and is fairly rare.
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Steamed Shrimp Ball with Corn. Fluffy shrimp ball, a touch underseasoned but not bad, laced with corn kernels. The corn leant it an interesting and pleasant texture.
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Steamed Rice Noodle with Spare Ribs in Black Bean Sauce. We ordered these ribs on top of the chow fun in order to get a “2 for 1”. The ribs were the usual steamed ribs, a bit porky, but soft and reasonably decent. Not sure having a bunch of rice noodle underneath was much of a plus.
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Sticky Rice Wrapper with Lotus Leaf. The rice itself was under-seasoned, almost sticky white rice, although the filling was very pleasant.
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Inside.
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Live shrimp steamed with garlic. The garlic flavor of the sauce was potent but nice. The shrimp themselves felt a bit overcooked and small and shell dominated by the time we got to eating them. Could have been much better. AND they were like $80/lb!
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Crispy Durian Cake. The lard based “buttery” pastry was solid and the durian custard very durian-flavored and reasonably nice.
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Overall, Happy Harbor was very “B”. None of the dishes stood out as great. Most of the normal dim sum was okay, but not only below the top A tier, but also below the better (but not top) A-/B+ places in the SGV proper. Still, Happy Harbor was better than the meh places, they have a huge menu with many good options, so it would be enjoyable if the location was convenient.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Happy at Happy Harbor
  2. DimSumQuest – Lunasia
  3. DimSumQuest – Chef Tony
  4. DimSumQuest – ixlb Dimsum Eats
  5. DimSumQuest – Blooming VIP
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Dim sum, DimSumQuest, dumplings, Happy Harbor, Lunch Quest, SGV, valentines day

DimSumQuest – ixlb Dimsum Eats

Aug29

Restaurant: ixlb Dimsum Eats

Location: 5900 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. (323) 848-4766

Date: January 30, 2023

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: Meh. Horrible takeout focused format

_

ixlb is a mom and pop takeout oriented dim sum spot in Hollywood. The owner is incredibly nice and dedicated to his craft. The kitchen is great and the older dim sum chefs make everything in house right there. You order at the counter and they bring everything in takeout containers. Drinks, plasticware, napkins etc are all of the disposable variety. There are only a couple tables.
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The tiny interior is even smaller than this wide angle photo makes it look.
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The menu covers most of the dim sum basics but they lean toward the fried and are missing a lot of the dim sum classics like chow fun, lotus sticky rice, etc.
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The menu.
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We had to keep ordering in batches.
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Iced Coconut Tapioca.
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Spicy Cucumbers. Okay cucumbers.
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Sauces is one of the biggest problems with ixlb. They are in these little containers. Mustard and chili paste are in packets. There doesn’t appear to be vinegar or XO sauce. They are hard to use like this and of vastly inferior quality. The mustard was bitter and awful. To me, along with the crappy plastic wares and takeout containers this lowers the whole “form factor” and “enjoyment factor” of the eating by a fairly massive margin — even though the kitchen is quite good.
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Char Siu. Very solid “hefty” version. Nothing amazing, but good.
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XLB are good for dim sum XLB but no great shakes by real XLB standards. The lack of vineyard is a big problem too.
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Har gow. These had thin wrappers and an excellent shrimp interior. The wrappers did tend to stick and fall apart — perhaps because of the transfer to the tackout containers.
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Shrimp and Chive Dumpling. Okay with that “metallic” chive taste.
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Shrimp Wonton with Chili Oil. Not really much chili oil but this was a very nice light wrappered shrimp dumpling.
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Pan Fried Dumplings. Pretty tasty.
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Not sure what these fried shrimp wontons were called but they were very crunchy and delicious. Interior was basically shrimp ball.
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Spring Rolls. Crispy with a pretty good interior. Not as good as Rays, but solid.
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Scallion Pancake. Just fine.
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Fried Crab Sticks. Just about what it says: fried crab sticks. Ok.
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Steamed Char Siu Bao. Very nice sweet pork filling and well made bao.
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Baked Char Siu Bao. Very nice sweet pork filling and nice fluffy bun.
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The interior.
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Snowcap Char Siu Bao. Very nice sweet pork filling and well made bao, quite sweet, with really nice crispy top. This was slightly better than the regular baked one mostly because of the awesome texture.
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Smiling Bun Fish. Basicaly fried fish, slaw, and sauce. Pretty darn tasty, but a lot like a fried fish sandwhich.

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Inside.
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Fried Shrimp Balls. Very fried but nice solid shrimp paste.
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Sticky Rice Ball with pork. Basically a wrapped ball of sticky rice. Way too carby and bland for my taste.
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Inside — all rice.
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Seafood Pearl (steamed rice ball). Filled with shrimp paste and a few veggies this was an decent “ricey” version of the normal shrimp ball.
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More rice (and shrimp paste).
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Tea Eggs. Hard boiled eggs marinated in tea. Not my thing. In China these are usually quail eggs.
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Curry chicken puff. This was stuffed with a yellow chicken and pea curry. They were awesome actually, really delicious with a nice crunchy outside and great filling.
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The delicious inside.
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Baked Sausage Bun. Basically a hot dog in some baked bread. Total meh. The owner said they were “for Americans.”
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Ick.
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Char Siu. Overcooked, but somewhat tasty. Pretty middling.
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Spicy Pork Noodles. Very dry, salty, and lacking in interesting flavors. Not particularly spicy. Not so great.
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Mixed up.
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Pineapple Bun. This was probably the best pineapple bun I have ever had. Really first rate. The outside had a wonderful crunch and the bun was sweet and pleasant but the custard was awesome, like coconut custard with just a bit of fresh pineapple mixed in.
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Awesome.
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Sesame Balls.
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Macau Egg Tart. Fair version. Pleasant enough but nothing special.

imagejpeg_0
The gang and the owner.

Overall, I didn’t actually enjoy ixlb even though the dim sum itself is homemade and actually quite good. Basically the format utterly ruins it for me. I hate plastic ware. I hate disposable containers. Dumplings stick to them. I hate high top seating. I hate counter ordering. I hate ordering and paying in batches. The sauces totally sucked. So all this conspired to make some quite excellent dim sum actually not taste very good. Dim sum needs the sauce. It needs the steamer with the little sheet of wax paper that prevents sticking. It needs to come out piping hot. It needs to come out in waves (and going up, waiting in line, and paying for each wave isn’t very fun).

Some might say it’s great for take out. Probably is. I don’t do takeout. Don’t like it. Dumplings don’t travel well.

Oh and then add to this that it’s far Hollywood location is actually harder to reach (for me) than the SGV. Well, I’ll probably never be back. Oddly, a couple of the guys really liked it. Not for me. I’ll sit down at a real table.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. DimSumQuest – Monterey Palace
  2. DimSumQuest – Blooming VIP
  3. DimSumQuest – Bistro 1968
  4. More Awesome Dimsum – King Hua
  5. Quick Eats – Bafang
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Dim sum, DimSumQuest, dumplings, Lunch Quest, take out, takeout

DimSumQuest – Monterey Palace

Aug18

Restaurant: Monterey Palace [1, 2]

Location: 1001 E Garvey Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91755. (626) 571-0888

Date: January 24, 2023

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Many good, some great items

_

The DimSumQuest continues with Monterey Park classic Monterey Palace.
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It’s right there on Garvey with that classic 90s look.
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And the classic Monterey Park dining room.
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Hanging roast meats.
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Menu.
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You have to pay for the basic sauces at $1 a plate.
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We ordered this twice and it cost $1. They were out of XO sauce! huh?
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Har Gow. Solid, but a little underseasoned. There was a real shrimp in there and the skins were just a touch thick.
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Shu Mai. Also a bit underseasoned. Not my favorite. Not bad or anything, just a bit meh.
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XLB. The standard “Elite style” pre-packaged tin foil thick XLB. Filling was underseasoned.
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Shrimp with Chives dumpling. Filling was a touch underseasoned and skin just a little thick, but certainly pretty good.
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Chao Zhou Dumpling. Peanuts inside this one. Better filling, same skin.
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Bean Curd Wrap with Oyster Sauce. A nice version of this dish, piping hot. Solid but not the best ever.
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Steamed Pork Spare Ribs with Pumpkin. Really excellent version of this dish. Little bone, very tender, and lots of flavor.
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Beef Balls with Orange Peel. The typical “dense” beef ball but quite nice.
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Sticky Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf. Solid enough, but not so much meat. Rice did taste very nice though. Not as good as the incredible 1968 version.
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The contents.
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BBQ Pork Chow Fun. Solid with the wrapper being a touch heavy but the pork was good. Sauce could have been a touch sweeter.
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Sauced.
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Flaky BBQ Pork Buns. Flaky laminated lard pastry was great but the filling was minimal and bland. Very meh.
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Baked BBQ Pork Pie (or possibly this is the flaky, hard to know). This pastry was great here and the pork pretty good, although not as red and sweet as some. The pastry was just a touch undercooked in the center but the outside and crackle was delicious.
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Pan Fried Spring Roll with Taro. The outside was nice and crispy/flaky but the blah taro interior was heavy and flavorless.
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Pork Dumpling. The usual glutinious bomb. These were actually a great example of the type with a nice thick, chewy, and slightly sweet skin. Could have used a bit more filling but what was there was delicious.
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The nearly hollow interior.
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Cantonese Roast Duck. Cold. Once a person adjusted to the temperature this juice duck — while very salted — was absolutely delicious.
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Chinese Broccoli with Salted Fish. Nice very salty green veg with lots of crunchy and umami.
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Roasted Squab. Solid, probably 7/10, but I have had better versions of this dish quite frequently.
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Live Turbot.
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Live Turbot, steamed with Garlic and Ginger. Absolutely first rate fish. This had nice flavor and that melt-in-your-mouth flesh quality that the best versions of this dish have. Almost as good as the Chang’an version — which is to say incredible.
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Bovon likes a good Turbot.
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Baked Snow Capped Bun. Inside was a coconut cream filling. The pastry was nice, but not that sweet and the filling lacked flavor to my taste.
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Yum.
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Baked Portuguese Egg Tart. These were probably the best example of this classic I’ve ever had. I think the “pastry” chef here is very good. The tart itself almost fell apart but tasted great and the filling was light, eggy, and very fluffy, not too sweet. Spectacular fresh out of the oven.
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Thai Durian Puff. Super crispy sprial pastry with durian cream inside. This was again the best durian puff I’ve ever had. That petrol taste was clean and lovely with a really great “creme pat” texture. Fabulous warm.
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Insanely good.
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Black and White Sesame Balls. Took 30 min to bake! I didn’t try but apparently they were good too.
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Overall, the dimsum was solid but generally just “good-” on the scale of SGV made to order dim sum. A couple dishes stood out. The baked pastries were excellent although the savory fillings hit or miss. The sweet baked goods some of the best Chinese sweet baked goods I’ve had anywhere. There was a general tendency to under-seasoning in the savory items. The non dimsum dishes were better, quite salted.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. DimSumQuest – Bistro 1968
  2. DimSumQuest – Blooming VIP
  3. OG Monterey Park – Dean Sin World
  4. Dinner at the Palace
  5. Capital Dim Sum
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Brunch, Cantonese Chinese, Dim sum, DimSumQuest, dumplings, lunch

DimSumQuest – Bistro 1968

Aug01

Restaurant: Bistro 1968

Location: 402 S San Gabriel Blvd Ste A, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 766-1968

Date: December 30, 2022 & January 4, 2023

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: One of the current best

_

Bistro 1968 opened with considerable fanfare (for the SGV) at the tail end of 2022. It serves up a large but focused menu of Cantonese dim sum and unusually is not two restaurants in one like most of the Cantonese places. Instead they have the same (dim sum focused) menu for both lunch and dinner.

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The underground parking lot here sucks. Upper level was full and the lower level had this mechanical gated “resident only tow zone” that was poorly labeled and easy to get trapped in.
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Escaping the parking lot involved this endless corridor.
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Brand new!
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Double-sided order sheet
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The long form menu.
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The main dining room. Several private rooms spawn off the sides.
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At first we were in this claustraphobic interior room, but then we moved.
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Into this much nicer (and larger) room. It had a window!
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Holds a good sized group.
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Jasmine Tea.
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Basic sauces. They put several on the table, plus some chili oil.

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Black and Red Vinegar.

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XO Sauce was an extra $4, but totally worth it.

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Chili oil is always better than paste.
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Bean Curd Skin Roll in Soup. Great texture but very mild in flavor.
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Shrimp Har-Gow. Fairly perfect textbook har-gow. Shrimp was delicious and skin was light.
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Golden Har-Gow. I think these had a little bit of truffle inside plus the dark (squid ink?) skin. Normally I don’t like these “amplified” classics but these were excellent.
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Pork Siu-Mai. Awesome version. Light, meaty, tasty. We had 5-6 orders.
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Abalone Tart. A “lard short crust” pastry with shredded pork and abalone. Gorgeous. The tart was very crumbly. The pork itself was sweet and very nice, the abalone was great, not at all chewy — well it was abalone but it wasn’t too chewy.
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Pumkpin Dumplings. Seasonal. Very mild and pleasant.
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Leeks and Shrimp Dumpling. I really liked these. I’m not sure the wrapper tasted different, but the interior had a nice leek and shrimp (big surprise) vibe.

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Shanghai XLB. Usually at dimsum houses the XLB are heavy and just “kinda nice.” These were delicate with fabulous pork soup flavor inside, arguably better than at specialty places like DTF. Really great.
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Spicy Minced Pork Dumpling. Chewy and a bit sweet with that sweet porky filling. I’m not sure what was spicy about it but it was good. Sometimes this dumpling type, which is normally light brown, is underfilled. These were generous.

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Stuffed Morchella Elata Fungus. They spelled it Fungas. Lol. This was one of the best dishes. It was a nice shrimp paste ball with a “fungas” wrapper” and a sweet soy sauce. Delicious.
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Shrimp Noodle. The shrimp were large and succulent and the chow fun texture was excellent. The sauce could have used slightly more punch.
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Wagyu Beef Noodle. I’ve never had chow fun with wagyu. It was silky soft, a touch sweet, and did pack quite a bit of flavor.

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BBQ Pork & Mixed Fungus Noodle. Again they spelled it “Fungas.” Lol again. These were actually some great Chow Fun with nice Sweet BBQ Porky filling and a hint of mushroom.

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House Special Seafood Congee. I didn’t try because of the carb factor — hey it’s all carbs — but some of my friends complained that it wasn’t jammed with enough goodies.
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Close up.

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Sticky Rice Wrap. This is the usual lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice. It was fabulous though with all sorts of flavor goodness and perfectly sticky rice.

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Sticky Rice. These were mild, a bit sweet, and filled with Chinese sausage, ginkos, egg yolks, etc. Not nearly as good as the lotus leaf sticky rice.

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Pan-fried Turnip Cake. I didn’t try because of the carbs.
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Crabmeat Egg-Roll. I didn’t try but everyone else toasted them in two seconds.
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Seaweed and Shrimp paste cake. Nice firm shrimp cake with an interesting spongy texture and a bit of crispiness from the seaweed. The mayo complemented.
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House Special Crispy Lobster Roll. Very fluffy and crunchy texture stuffed with noodles and tiny bits of lobster. Interesting.

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Steamed BBQ Pork Bao. The bun was a bit soggy and the filling overly sweet.

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Snow Capped BBQ Pork Bun. This version was leagues better than the steamed version. Great slightly cirspy donut style bun with nice pork filling.
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Deep Fried Taro Puff. Pretty but carb on carb — plus I hate taro. Anyway there were some little bits of pork in there too.

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Supreme Beef Balls. Great spongy texture. I ate a ton of these.

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Ground Minced Pork. Not a very descriptive label but these were delicious pan-fried pork patties. Nice and greasy.

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Wonton w/ Chili Oil Sauce. This was one of the weakest dishes. The wrapper was soft and pillowy, but the chili sauce was weak, and the filling was shrimp (would have been better as pork). Mostly it just didn’t have the chili oil punch this dish deserves.

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Lobster with Ginger and Scallions. Pretty nice lobster in the “wet” style.
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Soy Sauce Chicken. A bit sweet, but very aromatic and juicy so a lovely chicken.
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Hongkong Style Roast Duck. This was probably the best Hongkong style roast duck I’ve had. It was extremely juicy with fabulous skin and lots of great flavor.

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Smaller sized portion of the same dish.

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Slightly Sweet Sauce for the duck.

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Sichuan Sauce Hen Chicken. Cold chopped Hainan Chicken style chicken with nice numbing sauce. Really good.

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Sauce for that.

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Barbecued Iberian Pork w/ Honey. Classic sweet red Chinese BBQ pork. Very sweet sauce but pretty damn tasty!
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Deep Fried Quail with Spicy Salt. Yummy, but extremly salty and mostly bones with little bits of meat on them.
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Roasted Squab. Leave it to Yarom to order every bird on the menu. These were solid, but not in the top tier.

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Crispy German Pork Knuckle. Very piggy, nice crispy skin, succulent meat. I enjoyed these.
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Oxtail Stew with Wine Sauce Clay Pot. There was the oxtail bone factor, but this did taste great. Moderate amounts of tasty meat clung to the tail bones and the whole thing was drowned in some sort of gravy.

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Poached Watercress w/ Fish Ball. Basically a nice light broth with lots of greens and fish/shrimp balls. I actually really liked this dish, particularly given the nasty rainy weather. It was very soothing and provided needed carbs.
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Creamy Egg-Yolk Bao. Tasty and the yolk inside almost exploded out. I just nibbled for dietary reasons.

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Macau Egg Tart. A classic. Nice and eggy.
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I love this flavor — Peppermint Bark Gelato — Base is pure peppermint milk (subbed the sugar with crushed peppermint candies) and it’s laced with house-made double-sided peppermint bark, Valrhona Dark Chocolate and Ivoire White! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — The Peppermint Bark recipe was developed by a famous pastry chef and author, the mum of a Naughty Dog Alum @nancy_baggett — this year I added the two layer thing which is awesome — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peppermint #bark #Valrhona #chocolate
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The wines.
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Yarom and the owner and the manager.
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The whole gang.
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They collect all the steamer trays in rolling huskee’s!

Overall, I thought Bistro 1968 is currently one of the best dim sum places in the SGV — and therefore in SoCal. Not every dish is perfect but they have a big menu, many interesting dishes, and an overall standard of execution that is just higher than most of the older places. Sure, there are a lot of good (and even great) options in the SGV but you totally can’t go wrong with this one!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. DimSumQuest – Blooming VIP
  2. Big at Bistro Na
  3. Bistro Na Birthday
  4. Fancy Feast – Bistro Na
  5. Lunasia Dim Sum
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bistro 1968, BYOG, Cantonese, Cantonese Chinese, Chinese cuisine, dimsum, DimSumQuest, dumplings, Gelato, SGV

Lunch Quest – Lotus

Apr14

Restaurant: Lotus Dim Sum Dumpling House

Location: 326 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (424) 380-5500

Date: September 9, 2022

Cuisine: Bad Dim Sum

Rating: Blech. Sad. Almost a disaster.

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I was actually excited to see that the PF Changs in Santa Monica had “rebooted” as a theoretically real Chinese restaurant, a dim sum house even.
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And why the hell is there sushi on the menu?
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As is typical for independent Chinese operators they didn’t spend much at all on remodeling, it still looks like a PF Changs. The menu is a mix of typical dim sum and random other Chinese dishes.

Oh yes, let’s not forget the SUSHI! Why is there sushi? This is an immediate sign of a terrible restaurant as no self respecting Chinese establishment can make good sushi, they make good Chinese food.
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Smashed cucumbers. Decent, but under marinated and under sauced.
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Crispy Bun with Minced Pork. Actually not a bad version of this chewy/sweet thing (often called Fried Glutinous Meat Dumplings).
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Shrimp Chow Fun. Decent version. The sauce wasn’t quite sweet enough and the shrimp had a slightly “fishy” taste but was still a 7/10.
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Har Gow. Wrapper ok and the shrimp a little “fishy.”
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Chicken Chow Fun. The soft kind of noodles. They don’t have the crispy ones. But it was pretty tasty in a cheapy Chinese sort of way.
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XLB. The filling was ok but there was no juice and the wrapper was pathetic and soggy and solid. Had to eat the meat out of the middle.
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Shu Mai. Smelled a bit odd. Pork tasted okay, wrapper a bit soggy. 3/10.
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Black Pepper and Black Bean Beef. Basically “French Style” beef. Really tender and smoothered in “flavor” (aka MSG). Pretty tasty actually.
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Szechuan Fish Filets boiled in Chili Sauce. It’s not by any means the best version of this generally awesome dish, but it was actually pretty tasty. Probably a 5/10 but with some numbing. Fish was tender. The biggest problem was that they put corn starch in the sauce so it was too thick (for this dish).

Overall, dim sum was TERRIBLE, some of the worst I have ever had. They are sort of trying, but it’s just bad. The non dim sum dishes were tolerable. Not good. Certainly not great. But okay in that way that Panda Express is sort of okay. And this is much better than Panda, if that’s a 1/10 this is like a 3/10. But it’s certainly not going to compete with the best dim sum west of the 405, the Palace, which isn’t itself even that good (maybe 5/10). But as bad as Lotus is, it’s still better than PF Changs (2/10).

It should be noted that Jeffrey actually half likes the non dim sum dishes here. He’s been a number of times. I think it’s just because it was a block or two from his house and work and that the non dim sum dishes aren’t TERRIBLE, only very very meh.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Lunch Quest – Da Long Yi
  2. Lunch Quest — Xiang La Hui
  3. Lunch Quest – Dai Ho
  4. Lunch Quest – Simpang Asia
  5. Lunch Quest – Happy Valley Village
By: agavin
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Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dumplings, Lunch Quest, Santa Monica

Quick Eats – Bafang

Mar06

Restaurant: Bafang Dumpling  [Crawl: MK BBQ, Peking, Bafang, Spicy Home, Beijing Tasty ]

Location: 1552 S Azusa Ave Suite B, City of Industry, CA 91748. (626) 778-1958

Date: July 31, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese Dumplings

Rating: Bleh!

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For stop 3 of our I’ll fated July far SGV crawl we (more or less me) inserted this dumpling place into the roster.
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I’ve been wanting to try this for months as the website and online reviews made it look great. But as a dumpling only specialist I was never going to make a specific trip 40+ miles east just for this.
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But boy was I in for some confusion. I hadn’t expected this “fast food” (or slightly “fast casual”) counter order format. Or the incredibly limited menu.

What I didn’t realize about Bafang was that it’s a super simple dumpling place reframed as a fast food chain.1A4A2479
Weird messages about their quality that don’t match the experience.
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The menu is microscopic. It’s basically two shapes of dumplings, with 3-4 fillings, and a couple of simple noodles. Then a few extras.
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The sauces, so important for dumplings, were just wretched. There was just plain soy sauce, vinegar, some gross packaged chili sauce. No proper dumpling sauce which is a mix of soy, vinegar, sugar etc. This completely ruined the taste for me (later).
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They do a have a dumpling making room.
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Signature pork dumpling, “potsticker” style. Pretty decent, interesting long shape, but a bit under seasoned.
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Kimchi and Pork, boiled. Not too bad, but nothing stunning. A little spicy.
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Corn and chicken potsticker. I liked the texture, but it didn’t have a massive amount of flavor.
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Just in case you didn’t know.
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These had a hint of mala, but looked kind of sad and tasted like the sauce was a mala tomato sauce. Very odd. Super overcooked noodles too.

Very mediocre. Almost any mom and pop dumpling place is better. If one of these was in a very convenient location and I needed a 15 minute solo meal I might consider going again — otherwise no — and certainly not an hour away. The dumplings themselves might be passable on a real plate. It didn’t taste BAD — I mean they are dumplings — but still.

I hate eating at crappy tables. I hate eating out of takeout containers and with plastic wares. I hate dumplings with no good sauce. Yuck. Just nothing to recommend. It wasn’t even that fast.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Quick Eats – MK BBQ
  2. Quick Eats – Peking Restaurant
  3. Quick Eats – Big Boi
  4. Quick Eats – Popcorn Chicken
  5. Quick Eats — Bill’s Burgers
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bafang, Chinese cuisine, crawl, dumplings, Fast food, SGV

Paradise Dynasty Costa Mesa

Sep30

Restaurant: Paradise Dynasty

Location: 3333 Bristol Street, BLM, 1 Bloomingdale’s, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. (714) 617-4630

Date: February 17, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese XLB

Rating: Way better than DTF

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I went twice to branches of Paradise Dynasty in Shanghai and really enjoyed it. This chain is like a much more interesting Din Tai Fung. Frankly, I don’t exactly get why DTF is so popular except perhaps that it’s a “gateway drug” to more modern Chinese food and is just “easy” for Americans.

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Somewhat annoyingly Paradise Dynasty’s first US branch is in Costa Mesa. Well it could be worse, at least it’s in driving distance but I don’t go down there that often. In fact, it’s in the South Coast Plaza mall. I hate malls.
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Build out is nice but it’s spoiled by that whole mall atmosphere.
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The menu is epic with quite a bit of variety.

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Spinach and Vermicelli tossed with Vinaigrette. A “salad” of sorts. Pleasant.
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Specialty Dynasty Xiao Long Bao. These are why one comes to PD: the 8 flavored XLB.

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Here is the “key” to the flavors.

White is “signature” (classic pork). Delicate and excellent. The skins on all of these are very thin and lovely.

Red is Szechuan Hot Pot and it actually tastes like hot pot broth!

Grey is Garlic pork, and it’s pretty garlicky.

Yellow is Cheese. Interesting.

Green is Luffa Gourd with Chinese Wine (and pork of course). Mellow.

Orange is Crab Roe (and pork). Lovely briney flavor.

Tan is Foie Gras (and pork). Tastes like foie.

Black is Black Truffle (and pork). Probably my least favorite actually, but not truffle oil.
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Ginger for the XLB. One adds soy sauce and vinegar to the dish for dipping.
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Hot and Sour Soup with Shrimp. Top notch.
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Radish Pastry. Lovely flakey (probably from lard) texture.
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Prawn and Kurobuta Pork Wonton in Chili Vinaigrette. Classic, light, and delicious.
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Noodle with Prawn and Kurobuta Pork Wonton in Signature Pork Bone Soup.
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A single portion. The broth was basically like Chinese Tonkotsu.
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Stir-fried Shredded Pork in Black Bean Sauce served with Chinese Crepe.
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This is the “Crepe” (Spring Pancake). This was an excellent version of this very salty/savory dish.
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Ma Po Tofu with Pork. First rate version actually. Not super numbing, but very good.
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Scrambled Egg White with Fish and Dried Scallop.
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Breaking the egg. I really liked the soft texture and mild but very savory flavor of this dish.
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Stir-fried French Bean with Minced Pork and Preserved Olive Vegetable. Nice version of this classic too.
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Kung Pao Chicken.

Overall, Paradise Dynasty is very good. I wouldn’t really consider it a dinner restaurant where one would go to get hearty wok classics. Yeah, they have a few, but that’s not their strong point. However, the flavored XLB are unique and absolutely first rate and the noodles and other dimsum like dishes are really good. Only downside is having to walk in a mall. Blech. I haven’t walked inside a mall in years (probably over a decade) to actually shop.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Shanghai – Paradise Dynasty
  2. Revenge of the Han Dynasty
  3. Return of the Han Dynasty
  4. January in Paradise Cove
  5. J&J – Crab XLB
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese Food, dumplings, OC, Orange County, Paradise Dynasty, Shanghai Cuisine, XLB

Luscious Dumplings

Sep22

Restaurant: Luscious Dumplings

Location: 919 W Duarte Rd, Monrovia, CA 91016. (626) 821-0518

Date: January 14, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese Dumplings

Rating: Fabulous Homestyle Dumplings

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This is the second AFF (Asian Food Friday) in a row where we set off — Omicron be damned — for some homestyle dumplings.1A4A1376
This time I picked Luscious Dumplings, which I had heard were very good.1A4A1377
The menu is pretty simple, but has nice pictures.
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The decor is even simpler!
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This is the full menu.
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Sliced Pig Knuckle. Sounds scary but was delicious!
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Marinated Wood Ear Mushrooms. I love me some cloud fungus.
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Seaweed Salad with Chili Garlic Sauce.
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Shredded Sichuan Pickle and Pork Noodle Soup. This was an interestingly different noodle soup.
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Pan Fried Flakey Fish Dumplings.
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Pan Fried Chive Pockets. A bit bigger in form factor, but one of our favorites.
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Boiled Chive, Egg, Pork, and Shrimp Dumplings. Awesome classic.
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Pan Fried Pork Dumplings. The super classic.
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Steamed Pork and Blue Crab Soup Dumplings.
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Steamed Pork Soup Dumplings. No one complains about XLB.
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Bank breaker.

This was a great place for both boiled and pan fried Jao Zo dumplings. Some of the best I’ve had actually. Unfortunately I forgot to order the unusual “Pan Fried Beef Dumplings with Onions and Cheese” — darn, I’ll just have to go back.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

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Related posts:

  1. One One Dumplings
  2. Shandong Dumplings
  3. XLB – Soup Dumplings!
  4. Dumplings the size of Grapefruits!
  5. Day of the Dumplings
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: AFF, dumplings, Friday Lunch, Luscious Dumplings, pork

One One Dumplings

Sep08

Restaurant: One One Dumplings

Location: 704 W Las Tunas Dr #4, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 282-8695

Date: December 17, 2021

Cuisine: Northern Chinese

Rating: Solid boiled and fried dumplings

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AFF and another Friday trip to the SGV to check out some Asian goodness. We actually intended to go to Hui Tou Xiang next door but they were only open for takeout — and since daddy don’t do takeout, we hit up one one.
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Small interior.
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Very casual sauce containers.
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The menu is smaller than the interior and doubles as an order form. And a third of it is crossed out.
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Flavors stewed bean curd. Tastes pretty normal actually. Flavors is mostly soy sauce (and maybe some sugar) and a couple of spices like star anise.
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Fried pork dumplings. Great crispy bottom.
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Stewed pork noodle in soup.
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Flavors stewed beef. Presumably this meat is braised in the same liquid as the tofu.
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Cabbage, pork, and shrimp. Straight up delicious boiled dumplings.
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Pork with soup, steamed. What they mean here is soup dumplings, ie. that frozen or solidified broth was included in the filling before steaming. Delicious of course.
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Chive, pork, egg, and shrimp boiled dumplings.
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Fried chive, pork, egg dumplings. These had the most perfect pan fried bottom!
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The mess.

One one is a simple place, but if you crave straight up boiled and fried jiaozi dumplings, it’s certainly got ’em.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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This is where we intended to go. When they reopen for sit down, I’ll try again.

Related posts:

  1. Shandong Dumplings
  2. Day of the Dumplings
  3. XLB – Soup Dumplings!
  4. Dumplings the size of Grapefruits!
  5. Dirty Dumplings
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: AFF, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, dumplings, Friday, lunch, noodles, One One Dumplings, SGV

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

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The Lunch Quest gang is always keen to try a new Chinese spot.7U1A8984
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.
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This is in the old 800 degrees space and nicely built out… up stairs at least.
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There is an attractive bar.
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But our six person party was banished to the “dungeon.” The basement was claustrophobic and smelled of “potty.” Ick. It was pretty off-putting.

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The Menu.
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Sauces in the usual microscopic dishes.
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XO sauce.
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Lobster Salad. This is a “whole” order ($28.80). It was tasty, but very small.
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Steamed chicken feet in brown sauce.
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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.
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Har Gow. Very nice classic shrimp dumplings — except they are $2 each and at many places they are $2-3 an order!
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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.
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Baked BBQ Pork Bun. Excellent version with the usual sweet interior.
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Shrimp wonton with house spicy sauce. Very nice and delicate with quite a bit of salty flavor.
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Shrimp, crab meat, and matsutake dumplings. Nice delicate dumplings.
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Juicy Pork dumplings (XLB). Very good example of the Cantonese variant of these.
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Pan-fried shrimp & pork pandan bun. Doughy, but with a very nice flavor. Quite tasty.
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Deep fried pork dumpling. Just an ok version of this chewy fried type.
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Deep fried tofu in Thai sauce. Nice tender tofu. Quite good.
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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.
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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.
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Stir-fried rice noodle with beef. This was much better. Like Chinese beef Pad Thai.
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Deep fried crispy king prawn. Tasty and super crispy but also super fried.
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BBQ Pork. Delicious and pretty much coated in syrup.
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Braised eggplant with minced pork on rice noodle casserole. Not a ton of eggplant but I enjoyed the chewy “rice noodle” with the sauce.
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Sliced Chinese broccoli with black truffle sauce. Now this was only $6.80, but it was embarrassingly tiny. We are talking 2 inches across!
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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.
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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.

Related posts:

  1. Lunasia Dim Sum
  2. Shandong Dumplings
  3. Chef Yu Bo & LQ Foodings
  4. World Seafood is Elite
  5. Westwood Chinese – Northern Cafe
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chef Tony, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dumplings, Lunch Quest, noodles, Pasadena, Truffle

NC Peking Duck – Double Duck part 2

Apr01

Restaurant: NC Peking Duck 老北方烤鸭店

Location: 17515 Colima Rd A, City of Industry, CA 91748. (626) 839-0000

Date: February 16, 2020 & May 2, 2021 and April 24 & October 27, 2022 & January 14, 2024

Cuisine: Northern / Beijing Chinese

Rating: Awesome duck and great flavors

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Tonight is “Double Duck” night and while we had a “Peking Duck Appetizer” at Happy Duck, afterward the main event was at:
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NC Peking Duck — which is a Northern and Beijing style place that is quite new and seemed a bit closer in style to real Beijing offerings.
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In case you wondered if they have duck.
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The Menu 4/24/22 (reduced from how it was before the pandemic).
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Cold plater with Pig Ears, Cloud Ear Mushroom, Peanuts, and Seaweed. Mostly nice and spicy with good crunch, mala, and heat.
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Smashed Garlic Cucumber (older & 10/27/22). Nice version of the garlic cucumber. Extra good with the spicy sauce from the other dishes.
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Tofu with Century Egg. Awesome dish. Nice firm silky tofu with the incredible umami and jelly-like texture of the Century Egg. All doused in spicy sauce. Totally to die for.

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Century Egg with Chilis (4/24/22 & 10/27/22). Fabulous savory egg with very strong pickled Hunan style chilis.
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Szechuan Glass Noodles (2020 and 4/24/22 and 10/27/22). Actually a kind of mung bean noodle, here with a spicy sauce, peanuts, and a super umami mushroom paste or sauce. Nice, but I prefer them in the tangy/spicy sauce.

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Cold Spicy Chicken. Awesome tender chicken in this fabulous hot, spicy, and a touch sweet sauce. Tons of flavor.
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Child Chili Chicken (4/24/22). Great bang bang sauce with a bit of peanut butter in it.


Garlic Pork. Fatty delicious.

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Fried fish with seaweed (5/2/21). Pretty much a Shanghai dish, but still good here.

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Chili Fish with Glass Noodles. Now these were actual glass noodles. Nice tender fish too and lots of flavor.


Turbot, simple prep. Solid. Lots of meat (and bones).


Spicy Garlic Shrimp. A bit mushy.
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Peking Duck with pancakes (everytime). This is just one duck (we ordered 2 for 8 people). This meat had the skin more integrated and was very juicy and full of flavor. It was some of the best Peking Duck I’ve had in LA.
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Close up on the duck meat.

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Duck presentation on 5/2/21.
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Duck presentation (4/24/22).
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Duck presentation (10/27/22).
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The typical duck toppings, scallions, cucumber, and really really good thick hoisin.
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Ultimate Condiment Box. Tons of interesting things to put in the duck pancake, including sweet and spicy sauces, sugar, candied fruits, melon, etc. They haven’t had this since the first time I went in 2020.
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Pancake all done up.

The full DuQuest duck analysis (based on 10/27/22) is:

NC skin was ultra-thin and crispy, and gets an extra point for some of the pieces having some meat/fat on them = 9 for fatty pieces and 7 for regular ones.
Meat was juicy and flavorful with skin on = 8
Pancake was thin and resilient = 9
Hoisin was tasty but “goopy”, extra thick, and with a bit too much medicinal tone = 5
Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual = 7
The “burrito” together was a 6/10, dinged mostly by the hoisin.

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Duck Bones. Pretty juicy.

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Stir fried duck bones (5/2/21 and looked similar 4/24/22 and 10/27/22). Very nice version of “duck #2.”


Cumin fried duck bones. Good, although not nearly as good as the Duck House variant.
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Duck Soup (4/24/22). Very mild.

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Crispy chicken (5/2/21). Great version.
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Fragrant Spiced Lamb. Not their best dish. Sauce/soup was very watery and tasted mostly of mala. Not bad or anything, just the weakest dish out of a lot of great dishes.

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Delicious “bacon” (aka preserved pork) with garlic and leeks (5/2/21 and 4/24/22).

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Beijing Style Pork (5/2/21). With the fermented bean sauce, slightly sweet.

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Big Pot Cauliflower (2020 and 4/24/22). With a bit of pork. Nice and crunchy.


Garlic Shoots and Smoked Pork — awesome!

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Smashed garlic eggplant (5/2/21 and 4/24/21).
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Bok choy (5/2/21). Simple but delicious.
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Jiggly Pork Elbow (4/24/22). Certainly not a lean cut!
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Seasoned Rack of Lamb (4/24/22). Nice lamby flavor and good “hot fat” factor. Serious fat later. Seasoned western style with cumin.
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Sauces for the lamb.


Scallion Pancake. Nice and flakey.

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XLB (5/2/21). Always a favorite.
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Pork and Chive Dumplings. Tons of chive, delicious with vinegar.
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House Tianjin Pork Baos. Awesome. Really nice thick skins with a huge lump of very flavorful pork.


Lo-mein. I didn’t order this, one of the people who weren’t expecting interesting food did. Annoying as it filled people up with empty carbs.
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Chinese Sweet Bean Roll with peanut dust.


Chinese pounded Rice dessert.
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My wife’s Valentine’s Day pick: Dulcey Chocolate Cloud – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache and the rotating ingredient is house-made Vanilla Dulce de Leche — made 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 #Valrhona #chocolate #creamcheese #ganache #icing #DulceDeLeche #caramel


Last gelato of the year! — Eggnog Gelato — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — pure traditional eggnog made as a gelato with a real rum/sugar/egg zabaglione core — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #eggnog #rum #nutmeg #cinnamon #egg #zabaglione

Overall, I really liked NC Peking Duck. First of all, the duck was some of the best I’ve had in the states, and even beyond that, they had a really interesting menu with lots of standout dishes. Almost everything we had tonight was great, particularly the tofu with century egg, cold chicken, fish, and the pork baos.

Returning here on 5/2/21 the food was still very good but the restaurant was suffering from immediate post pandemic operational changes. They had clearly been doing takeout for the previous year (good for them and I even had it once and it was very good), but hadn’t yet switched back over to normal service. I think we were the only dine in party and the menu had been pared back substantially. Hopefully soon they’ll be back to 100%.

Returning again on 4/24/22 the food was pretty much back up to the level of 2020 although the menu was still a bit reduced and they were missing some “fancier” items like the 9 condiment container.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

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Related posts:

  1. Happy Duck – Double Duck part 1
  2. Peking Duck at A-1 Chinese BBQ
  3. Dragged out for Duck
  4. Double Eagle is Pretty Standard
  5. Forget the Duck Soup, More Meat!
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: beijing Cuisine, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, dumplings, Duquest, Gelato, hedonists, Peking Duck, SGV, spicy, Wine

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.

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Har Gow. Shrimp dumplings. nice.
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Shrimp and Scallop Dumplings.
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Vegetable Dumplings.
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XLB (Xao Lao Bao). Pork soup dumplings. These were tasty, but a bit sticky and pasty.
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Shrimp and Vegetable Dumplings.
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Pork ribs. Ugly but delicious.
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Beef balls. Also ugly but tasty.
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Shrimp Chow Fun. Good for this dish.
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Eggplant and Shrimp Paste. Black bean sauce. A little more unusual.

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Greens with Sauce. Comes on the dedicated greens cart.
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Crunchy top pork buns. A bit sweet and really nice texture.
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Baked pork buns.

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

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Chewy Pork Dumpling. I always like this texture.
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Bean Curd wrapped veggies.
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Cantonese Luke Warm Roast Duck. Pretty juicy, but very luke-warm, almost cool.
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Pork Hock with Bok Choy. Delicious! Several people popped their pig’s feet cherry on these.
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Fatty Beef Ribs. Rich sauce and thick slabs of beef that didn’t seem so Chinese.
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Chicken Feet in XO sauce.
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Seafood on crispy Chow Mein. Yum!
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Pineapple Buns with custard and real pineapple chunks — great. Had several even though I was very full.
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Macao Tart — ok, a bit mild.
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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.

Related posts:

  1. Capital Dim Sum
  2. World Seafood is Elite
  3. Late Night Longo
  4. Ring in Tang Gong
  5. Tim Ho Wan – Dim Sum Pedigree
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Brunch, Cantonese Chinese, Dim sum, dimsum, dumplings, hedonists, lunch, Lunch Quest, SGV

Shandong Dumplings

Nov18

Restaurant: Shandong Dumplings

Location: 80 N Fair Oaks Ave, Pasadena, CA 91103. (626) 578-9777

Date: October 8, 2019

Cuisine: Shandong Chinese

Rating: Great home-style dumplings

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Another of these small lunch outings with Yarom and I, this time also joined by Tony L.
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There aren’t a ton of Shandong specific places in LA.
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And this one is in the heart of old town Pasadena.
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The homey interior.
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They make them here.
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The menu.
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Peanuts, celery, cucumbers, shredded potato. Cold appetizers.
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Hot and sour soup. I love this old school classic.
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Lamb with fennel dumplings. I adore this boiled kind and the lamb ones have a lot of flavor.
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Dry shrimp with egg and leek dumplings. Yeah, they look the same, but they don’t taste the same.
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Chicken and celery. Nice celery flavor.
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Ginger and spiced cabbage juicy steamed dumplings. These were among my favorites, with very delicate skins.
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Pan fried pork bun. Yum!
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Pan fried pork dumplings. Pretty much the Shanghai style kind. A bit bready, but the crispy bottom is fun.
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Fried chicken bones. Not to the American taste, but full of flavor.
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Pork. Boney, but there was lots of meat here.

Overall, this is a tasty place. The dumplings were way better than the couple meat dishes we had, and were great for casual homestyle dumplings. I really do love all dumplings, particularly the boiled and “juicy” soup dumpling kinds.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Day of the Dumplings
  2. XLB – Soup Dumplings!
  3. Dumplings the size of Grapefruits!
  4. Dirty Dumplings
  5. Westwood Chinese – Northern Cafe
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: dumplings, lunch, Lunch Quest, Pasadena, Shandong Dumplings

Bubbe’s Kitchen – Traktir

Sep11

Restaurant: Traktir

Location: 8151 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90046. (323) 654-3030

Date: July 25, 2019

Cuisine: Russian Cuisine

Rating: Delicious!

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Erick’s Russian friends told him that Taktir was the best Russian place in town and so we had to try it.
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This is the West Hollywood location, there is also one over in the valley, in Tarzana. I have no idea if one is better than the other.
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They have a big outside patio.
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Seen from the other side.
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And the interior (we sat to the left there).

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The menu.
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From my cellar: NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 94. The NV Brut Rosé is brilliant and finely-sculpted in the glass, with floral aromatics, pulsating minerality and chiseled fruit. Less austere than it can be, the Rosé impresses for its combination of tension and textured, phenolic weight. There is so much to like. The blend is 59% Pinot Noir, 33% Chardonnay and 8% Pinot Meunier. Disgorged Spring 2013.
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Pickled Vegetable Combination. Tomato, Cucumber, Cabbage. Just like at the Jewish deli!
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Homemade Cured Salmon. Really nice cured salmon actually. Not too salty but great flavor.
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Larry brought: 2013 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Les Forêts. VM 89. Pale, bright yellow. Stone fruits and oyster shell on the nose. Supple, sweet and fruity, showing a bit more grip than the village wine but still in an essentially soft style. Drinkable now for its ripe stone fruit flavors.
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Olivier Salad. Russian potato salad. Lots of dill!
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Herring «Moskovsky». Herring on Dark Toast with Butter & Onions. This very north eastern dish was spectacular. Super fresh tasting marinated herring with onion and in perfect balance with the toast.
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Darnitsky Salad. Tomato, Cucumber, Onion, Feta, Cilantro, Parsley, Dill, House Vinaigrette. Not a bad salad at all, lots of vinegar.
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Fake chard.
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Salo. Cured Pork Fat Garnished with Garlic. I was a touch wary of these sheets of solid lard, but they turned out to be great with the incredibly strong mustard.
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The mustard was so good we had to ask to see the jar.
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Red Caviar. 4 oz served with Blinis and Garnish. The cheap caviar, but still pretty good on the little pancakes and with the sour cream.
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Pougs brought: 2005 Domaine Francois Lamarche Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots. 92 points. Medium+ colour. Some animaux, beautifully perfumed red fruit and then caramel. Wonderfully intense and nuanced red fruit palate, it is absolutely perfect today. The suave fruit and tertiary notes are fully forward. No need to be afraid of tannin in this 2005 – this is beautiful.

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Kharcho. Spicy Tomato Based Lamb Soup with Rice. Nice soup, basically goulash.
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Golubtsy. Stuffed Cabbage with Ground Meat and Rice. This is such a traditional Kosher Jewish dish and this particular version of it was so good. Tender and delicious.

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Yarom brought: 2004 Tua Rita Redigaffi Toscana IGT. VM 93. The inky-colored 2004 Redigaffi, 100% Merlot aged for 16 months in new oak, offers expressive, nuanced aromatics along with sensations of richly-textured blue and black jammy fruit, minerals, mint, chocolate, spices and sweet toasted oak on big, powerful frame with notable underlying structure and a warm, resonating finish. Although it has enough structure and acidity to drink well for another decade or so, I enjoy Redigaffi most in its youth.
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Vareniki Combination. Potato Vareniki. Russian style Dumpling with Potato Filling. Sauerkraut Vareniki. Russian Style Dumpling with Sauerkraut filling. Not bad at all, but not as good as below.
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Pelmeni. Meat Filled Tortellini served with Sour Cream. Wow these were spectacular. Tender little pasta pockets (heavily boiled) but with a nice meaty flavor and in perfect combo with the sour cream.
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2006 M. Chapoutier Ermitage l’Ermite. VM 94. Full ruby. A roomfilling bouquet of fresh red and dark berry scents, along with smoked meat, violet, incense and minerals. Wonderfully fresh in the mouth, with vibrant raspberry and black cherry flavors. Gentle tannins rein in the expansive fruit without standing in its way. The finish is all about fruit, with late-arriving notes of black olive and smoky minerals. Extremely sexy now but balanced to age.

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Lula Kebab. Ground Meat with Spices.
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Super grill plate with:

Chicken Shashlik. Marinated Chicken in House Spices.

Pork Shashlik. Marinated Pork in Special House Sauce.

Lamb Shashlik. Lamb Marinated in Herbs & Spices.

Beef Tenderloin Shashlik. Beef Tenderloin Marinated in Herbs & Spices.

Lula Kebab. Ground Meat with Spices.

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Potatoes and slaw.
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2003 Colgin IX Estate. VM 93. Ruby-red. Explosive aromas of black raspberry, minerals, graphite and flowers. Wonderfully sweet and dense, with a superripe suggestion of maple syrup and a note of hot rocks. Finishes with huge, chewy but well-buffered tannins and a lingering note of caramel. Perhaps the least lively today of these 2003s, but winemaker Aubert notes that the 2003 vintage in general here brought higher-than-average acidity.
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Grilled 16 oz French Cut Pork Chop. Served on a Sizzling Skillet with Mushroom & Onions.

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Beef Stroganoff. Sliced Beef in Sour Cream Sauce. Very soft, but the meat itself was quite tasty.
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Chicken Tabaka. Pan Seared Pressed Cornish Hen in a Garlic Wine Sauce.

Lamb Chops. Marinated in Our Special Sauce & Flame Grilled.

Kotleti. Ground Meat Patties served with mashed potatoes.

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House-made flavored vodkas!
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Raspberry vodka. Sweet and not too harsh.
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NV Buller Calliope Rare Tokay. VM 95. Deep amber. Spiced nuts, Cuban coffee, toffee, melted butter and brown sugar aromas are broad and explosive. This completely coats the glass. Thick and viscous, with powerful flavors of vanilla bean, honey, Bananas Foster and toffeed apple. This almost overwhelms the palate. Clings on the back end, showing almost oily concentration and unreal length. Remarkable stuff.
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A chocolate and cream parfait.
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Italian Lemon Cookie Meringue Pie — Limoncello Zabaione base with lemon cookie flavor mixed with Italian Lemon Creme Cookies and Sicilian Candied Lemon and topped with house-made toasted Meringue — made 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 #lemon #LemonCookie #cookie #Sicily #Sorento #Limoncello #Meringue #LemonMeringuePie

Radical new flavor: Gianduja Extra Virgin Olive Oil — a tricky high fat EVOO base made with 2014 Giuseppe Quintarelli Olive Oil and layered with house-made Piedmontese Hazelnut and Valrhona Chocolate Ganache — made 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 #evoo #OiliveOil #Quintarelli #SavorySweet #ganache #valrhona #chocolate #hazelnut
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In the bowl.
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Overall, this was a very fun evening and Traktir over delivered in terms of food quality and tastiness. It’s not the most updated interior, or slickest service, but the food just tasted really good — at least most of the dishes. Many of these dishes are similar to classic Jewish food (like my mom sometimes cooks) and are among the best versions I’ve had. Certainly the best stuffed derma (stuffed cabbage). This isn’t a Jewish place per se — it does have cured pork fat on the menu — but eastern Jewish food is so influenced by Russian. Not every dish was perfect, but enough were really good, like the herring, stuffed cabbage, meat dumplings, that I was fairly impressed.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Phoenicia – Hookah Time
  2. Chili Crab Craze – Starry Kitchen
  3. Thai Tour – Spicy BBQ
  4. Tasting Kitchen
  5. Shanghailander Arcadia
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, Caviar, dumplings, Gelato, hedonists, Hollywood, Russian Cuisine, Salmon, Sour Cream, Traktir, vodka, Wine

Shanghailander Arcadia

Jun14

Restaurant: Shanghailander Palace [1, 2]

Location: 1440 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 348-8866

Date: May 19, 2019 and January 18, 2020

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Excellent – best Shanghai food I’ve had in the US

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Hedonist trips to the SGV and its requisite Chinese adventures are among my favorite dinners. Shanghailander specializes in Shanghai style cuisine (obviously). We’ve been out many times to their Hacienda Heights location, and last time the owner invited us to try their newer spot in Arcadia — which is closer so no complaints there.

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Chinese frontage built into what may have been some kind of family restaurant in the 50s or 60s.
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The dining room.
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But the Arcadia one has several awesome private rooms!

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Cold appetizer plate (5/19/19 & 1/18/20) to start.
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Greens in a mustardy sauce to the left. Sweet meat and tofu to the lower left. Hainan chicken on the bottom.
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Mushrooms to the right.
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Perhaps an eggplant to the right.
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Crunchy marinated sweet turnip in the upper right and pork jelly at the top.
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Jellyfish in the upper left.

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Cold Shanghai style duck (5/19/19). Excellent and very juicy.

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Sautéed shrimp (1/18/20). Simple but tasty. I’ve had this dish dozens of times at many Shanghai restaurants and this was for sure one of the best versions I’ve had in the US.
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Sea cucumber with shrimp roe (1/18/20). Sea cucumber, the white stuff was roe, shrimp and fish. Weird soft textures but very pleasant. Not exactly a looker, but quite tasty.
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Sea cucumber (1/18/20) — nice texture, odd mild garlic and grain sauce.

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Shrimp with pineapple in mustard sauce (5/19/19). Close to walnut shrimp, but with a distinctly different flavor.
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Shanghai style crab with rice cakes (5/19/19). Really nice garlic and ginger sauce (delicious with the cakes).
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Seasonal special: Crab with sticky rice (1/18/20) — really nice. sticky rice has mild but good flavor with sweet Chinese sausage.
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Peking/Shanghai duck (1/18/20). Sometimes peking duck isn’t so hot at non Beijing places, but this one was excellent with a rich thick hoisin sauce and pancakes (way better than buns).
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The whole assembly.
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Duck soup (1/18/20). This was actually a tasty duck soup! It was rich, not overwhelmingly salty, and tasted of actual duck. There were also big chunks of juicy meat. Usually I hate duck soup, but this was quite enjoyable.

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Shanghai style eel in pot (5/19/19 & 1/18/20). This was delicious. Soft and rich in a savory slightly sweet sauce.
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Shaking Beef or French Style beef (5/19/19). Excellent juicy beef with lots of beefy flavor.
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Fried fish with herbs (5/19/19 & 1/18/20). Lovely fried fish. We always order this.
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Shanghai style braised pork in brown sauce (5/19/19). A huge hock of pig that falls off the bone. This is about as good as roast pork gets.
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Cut up a bit. It’s a lean meat.

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Meatballs stuffed with egg (5/19/19). Very unusual dish (here, typical in Shanghai). A kind of fried meat ball with a gooey duck egg yolk INSIDE!
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Soy sauce or 3 cup chicken with chestnuts (5/19/19). Not always my favorite dish but this example was really good.
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Jellyfish with cucumbers (5/19/19). We loved this dish so much we ordered another (larger) one. Awesomely tangy with a textural contrast between the crunchy cucumbers and chewy jellyfish.
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Braised eggplant with salty fish flavor (1/18/20) — sweet sticky sauce and distinct bonito flake flavor. Almost Japanese in style like miso eggplant.
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Grandmother’s special pork (1/18/20) — super tender, fatty, delicous with that thick sticky sauce

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Pea tendrils with garlic (5/19/19). At first it was a little short on the garlic and we mentioned it and they remade it with even more garlic — awesome.
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Shanghailander pan fried buns (5/19/19 & 1/18/20). A fried version of same. So hot they were hard to eat, but oh so tasty.
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Shanghai steamed dumplings (XLB) (5/19/19 & 1/18/20). Always one of my favorites. The dough was great, the meat needed a hair more flavor, but I still ate about 6.
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Nocciola Espresso Caramello Gelato (5/19/19) — A classic nocciola base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste and then layered with a house-made Espresso Caramel Ganache then topped with fresh roasted hazelnuts — made 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 #Valrhona #hazelnut #ganache #dulcy #ChocolateTruffle #nocciola #caramel #caramello

Sicilian Tiramisu Gelato (5/19/19) –attempting to reinvent Tiramisu with Sicilian flavors: Pure DOGC “Bronte” pistachio paste gelato base with lady fingers soaked in house-made orange syrup and layered with house-made “cannoli filling” (sweetened fresh ricotta with cinnamon and mini dark chocolate chips) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — this one will be a test of concept: too much? –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #pistachio #sicily #ricotta #chocolate #orange #ladyfingers #tiramisu

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Mud Pie Gelato (1/18/20) — Hot brewed espresso gelato with house-made milk chocolate coffee ganache and crushed Oreos — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — the gluttonous classic made even more gluttonus! — #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 #oreo #MudPie
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Peppered Lemongrass Ginger Creme Brûlée Gelato (1/18/20) — 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

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Our 5/19/19 visit to Arcadia was insanely good. Almost every dish was on point and many were unusual. Food was really really good. Service was great too but this was certainly the best Shanghai style food I’ve had outside of China — and this is just a couple months after my most recent visit to Shanghai and incredible means like Shanghai Tang. The private rooms are better here, but we forgot to preorder some dishes, like roast duck, plus they had lots of other interesting things. So next time we will have to really up the ante for a major banquet. They are super nice and I’m sure will knock it out of the park.

Our 1/18/20 visit was just as good — if not better — with a great menu (picked by Bonnie W and I) and a more focused set of wines. Still the best Shanghai place I know of in the US.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!
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Wines from 1/18/20:
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Related posts:

  1. Hedonists at Shanghailander
  2. SGV Nights – Seafood Palace
  3. So Many Palaces, So Few Sundays
  4. Szechuan Impression Tustin
  5. Day of the Dumplings
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Arcadia, BYOG, dumplings, Gelato, hedonists, pork, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine, Shanghailander, Wine, XLB

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

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.7U1A1002
Meanwhile we went next door and got some 85 degrees coffee.

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

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

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

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Foot fetish (not everyone loves a good chicken foot).
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Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf. A dim sum classic.
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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.
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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.
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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.

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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.
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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.
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Deep Fried Spring Roll with Egg White and Shrimp.
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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?
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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.
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Steamed Vegetable Dumplings. Nice texture on the skin and chunky vegetables inside. Light skin too which I like. Still a touch under salty/greasy?
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Steamed Dumplings with Shrimp and Chives. Great texture again for the skin, but soft on the inside and muted in flavor.
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Har Gow. Steamed Shrimp Dumplings. Nice skin, big chunk of meaty shrimp. This was the best dumpling and fairly classic.
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Steamed Beef Ball with Bean Curd Skin. Nice soft meat ball with a good beefy flavor.
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Siu Mai. Steamed Pork Dumplings with Shrimp. Small like I like them, and very good texture, but again had that slightly muted flavor.
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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.
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House Special Baked BBQ Pork Buns. Soft crunchy outside. A good bit of sugar.
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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.

Related posts:

  1. Capital Dim Sum
  2. Lunasia Dim Sum
  3. Christmas is for Dim Sum
  4. More Modern Dim Sum
  5. Dim Sum is Shanghai #1
By: agavin
Comments (1)
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

Crawling with an Old Friend

Feb27

The SGV (or San Gabriel Valley) of Los Angeles is not only a Chinese Food mecca (best in America) but lends itself to the peculiar but extremely fun tradition of the “food crawl” or as we sometimes call it the “SGV Parlay.” This involves heading out there and visiting multiple locations in the same day. Everything is so close together and the density is very high.

My oldest friend, Brent, and I have been eating Chinese food together for about 40 years so on this particular Sunday night (January 27, 2019) when he was in town we went out at about 4pm for the crawl.
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First stop the Hunan Chili King and late Lucky Noodle King mini mall. This is a classic old school SGV mall, probably from the 70s.
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Here’s HCK, the best Hunan joint I’ve been to in the state.
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They were decorated for Chinese New Year.
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And here’s Brent.
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Hunan style cold cucumber salad with marinated cucumber, Cilantro, and chilies (everything has chilies). This was really tasty, and one of the least spicy dishes. The marinate lent it a slight cool quality. Very salty though.
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Snails with preserved vegetables. This dish was amazing! Sure it’s an “advanced” dish, and incredibly spicy. Hottest dish we had that night by far. Super deep potent heap. The combo of the chewy snails and the unusual pickled green beans (with their crunch) was stunning.
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This might have been our most expensive stop too. Lol.

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Next over to King Kho Bo for some dried snacks like dried seasoned mushrooms and whacky New Year’s coconut strips.
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Then into this weird low rent mall. Like a cheap mall in China as there are all sorts of “stores” tucked away inside this vast drop ceiling hall. Pretty ugly! And classic SGV charm (actually is fairly charming).
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Speaking of charm, this guy in the parking lot drives a manga rice rocket!
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Next we moved over to another (newer) minimall on Valley. I’ve eaten here at Mian, Mei Long Village, J &J, and Tasty Dining! This is in the heart of Alahambra and very dense.

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Mian, where we decided to get some Szechuan on, gets a serious line. About 30 min at 7pm on Sunday for 2!
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This place is much newer (2 years) and popular with the young Chinese couples on cel phones — wait, that’s all young Chinese (and other) couples.
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Weird cold tea.
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Slightly fermented spicy cabbage adorn the table — like Szechuan kimchee.
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The awesome cold smoked plum juice — so good (too much sugar when you guzzle it though).
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Egg custard with ground pork. One of those delicate fluffy egg custards covered in savory ground pork. Yum! I really enjoy the texture (and taste) of this kind of custard and with the pork was fabulous.
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Beef in chili sauce. Quite spicy, dry, and nice.
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Szechuan Cold Noodles.
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You mix up the above cold noodles and eat. These were superlative. Nice noodle texture, good weight, and this scrumptious tangy chili sauce. Loved them. I adore when the acid balance is right and these really had it down. A bit of nuttiness, but not nearly as nutty or heavy as a dan dan — different, but great.
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Then we went across the mini mall to the Foot Soak for a 1 hour Foot Massage ($20!).
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This particular FM “spa” is one of my favorites because the guys on staff are strong and do a good job. There is NO GLAMOUR here. In fact, it has the oddest (not for the SGV but to the uninitiated) ambiance. The chairs are packed together almost touching and period Chinese dramas (in Chinese, of course) play on the TV. Plus, quite a number of people just hang out or sleep. The massage is good though and the price right ($20 is for a full 60 min).
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Now on to our third minimall, well actually welcome to the Maxi-Mall. The California Mini-Mall’s GIANT SGV cousin.

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You could spend all day in this mall, there are so many restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, and massage places. But since we’d done two spicy spots, we figured we’d finish up with some awesome carbs. Juicy Dumpling is upstairs.
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They have a glassed in dumpling workshop!
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Brent pounds the hard stuff — tea!
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XLB (xao lao bao) “sweet”. Also known as Juicy Pork Dumpling. Really nice version of the classic. Soft skin. Juicy. Good filling. Maybe not as good as a Din Tai Fun, but great still. They have two types here — savory and sweet. We ordered the sweet because it’s more unusual. I kinda like it, although maybe not as much as the savory.
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Pork and Shrimp Dumpling. Great version of the pork and shrimp, with delicate but pronounced flavors. Like the savory pork only version but with a shrimp inside!
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Giant Crabmeat Juicy Dumpling. You eat this with a straw! People said this was a gimmick, but the slurry of crab and pork inside this thing was to die for. And after you burn your tongue slurping it out you can cut it up and eat the shell like pasta.
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Here with the straw — so good, just watch you don’t burn your tongue.

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As our final (7th!) stop we wanted some boba tea. There were options to choose from, like Boba Ave but we went instead to:
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Whacky name.
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Typical young clientele.
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Slick modern (industrial) decor.
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They double as internet cafe and offer unusual savory treats. Brent joked that “real men” would polish off the evening with an egg and prosciutto waffle — couldn’t manage it.
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Instead just got a milk boba tea (small for me).

Overall, a total blast of a night. It’s really hard to convey how fun these crawls are — which is the purpose of this post. It feels kinda like teleporting to a section of a some slightly (American) Chinese city for an evening. Everything is so close together and if you like Chinese food the density of places is off the chart. We walked by a good 15-20 other places that looked delicious, some of which I have been to, many not.

This whole adventure was probably about $120 for the both of us too, including the Foot Massage and tip. Food was probably $80. With 4 people it would be even cheaper (each) and one could try more dishes. Hard to crawl with more than about 4-6.

Related posts:

  1. Day of the Dumplings
  2. For the Bun of It
  3. J&J – Crab XLB
  4. Westwood Chinese – Northern Cafe
  5. Noodling About – Mian
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, crawl, dumplings, Hunan, parlay, SGV, Shanghai Cuisine, Sichuan, Szechuan, XLB

Georgian Bakery and Cafe

Jan07

Restaurant: Georgian Bakery and Cafe

Location: 11749 Bustleton Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19116. (215) 969-9900

Date: November 21, 2018

Cuisine: Georgian

Rating: Like bland Afghan

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It’s tradition on the day before ThanksGavin, for us Gavins to go somewhere ethnic.

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For the last 2-3 years we’ve been going to an Uzbek place but this year it was slightly shifted to a nearby Georgian place — oddly located next to the home depot.
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Here’s the restaurant itself in what was clearly intended as a big box store space.
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Inside is oddly sterile too. But we have a huge table to ourselves. There was one other large party but otherwise empty.
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Some Prosecco to start.
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Salad. Like a Greek salad.
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Slightly different salad — with more garlic.
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Eggplant paste toast — excellent.
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Eggplant salad. Roasted.
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Bread.
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Boring “spicy” sauce. Wasn’t really spicy.
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From my cellar: 1995 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. Great bottle, fully mature.
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Weird sweet pomegranate juice or something. Very sweet and bland.
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Fried chicken. Pressed flat.
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Egg bread. Fried egg inside what is pretty much a pizza bread. Pretty good, if very mild.
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Cheese bread. Sort of like a cheese pizza with no sauce. Bland but tasty.
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2014 Domaine Dujac Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Les Chaffots. 92 points. Bit of reduction. Pure, clean red fruit.

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Georgian dumplings. Giant with thick skins. The meat inside was pretty good and these are clearly related to Chinese boiled dumplings. So heavy though! And badly badly need soy sauce, vinegar, and chili paste.
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From my cellar: 1977 Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva. Mature, earthy, a touch sour.
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Kabobs of the pork, veal, beef, and chicken variety.
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Sturgeon. Ick. Reeked and tasted like seared heavy fish oil. I needed tongue therapy after this.
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Peanut crunchy cake. This was dry but pretty good.
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We had a fun night and service was diligent — although there was an odd very long (45 min?) gap between the dumplings and kabobs.

But the food, while well prepared, was quite bland. The Uzbek place we have gone to several times was tastier and a bit more varied — and Afghan food, which is very similar, has about 10X the flavor. Georgian seems to be like carbs, cheese, and fairly bland meat and mixed up with no seasonings.

For more Philly dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Westwood Chinese – Northern Cafe
  2. Eating San Francisco – Zuni Cafe
  3. Eating Hoi An – Brothers Cafe
  4. Quick Eats – Pho Cafe
  5. Little Sheep Hot Pot
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bakery, Dessert, dumplings, Georgian, kebab, Philadelphia, ThanksGavin, ThanksGavin 2018, Wine

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

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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.
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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.
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The space looks pretty Chinese, even in Beverly Hills.
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Coves. Gotta have the coves!
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The made to order dimsum Menu.
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Sauces were great. The chili sauce and XO both awesome.
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Cold Spicy jellyfish (8/1/19). Nice chew and great Szechuan-style spice flavor.

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Shrimp and pork shui mai. Classic, but well done versions.
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Spinach Mix Veggie Dumplings. We had a vegetarian in the house.
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Shrimp Har Gow. Very nice, not too sticky either and kept together.
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Tofu Skin Roll with shrimp. I like these bean curd wrapped thingies. The goji berries were a different touch.

 

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

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XLB (steamed pork dumpling). Solid versions of this amazing dish. A touch pasty, but oh so good.
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Shrimp, scallop, and peanut dumplings. Dumplings always rule.
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Baked BBQ Pork Pastry. Super rich lovely pastry and sweet BBQ pork.
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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.

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

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Minced Beef Rice Noodle (8/1/19). Tastier than the cilantro version.
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Taiwanese Shrimp Egg Roll. I really liked these super hot, ultra fried, mega crispy cigarette-like spring rolls.
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Deep fried mushroom egg roll.
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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.

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Lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice (8/1/19). Classic and filling.
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Dried Shrimp and Pork Dumpling. The chewy fried bomb shaped dumplings were excellent.
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Shrimp and chives dumpling (pan fried). Also greasy fried flavor.

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Steamed Chinese Broccoli (8/1/19). Pretty tasty.
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Roasted half duck (on the house). Really succulent and moist. Delicious.
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Salt and pepper eggplant. Fried and salty and very hot (temperature) but delicious.

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

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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.

Related posts:

  1. World Seafood is Elite
  2. Dim Sum is Shanghai #1
  3. Derek moved to China Red
  4. Lunasia Dim Sum
  5. Dim Sum – World Seafood
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Brunch, Cantonese cuisine, Capital Seafood, Dim sum, dimsum, dumplings, hedonists, lunch, XLB
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