Restaurant: Hei La Moon
Location: 88 Beach St, Boston, MA 02111. (617) 338-8813
Date: October 21, 2017
Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum
Rating: Quite good, lots of variety
Because it would be unconscionable to visit a major city without sampling its Chinese Food, during my Boston trip some of my friends brought me into Chinatown to:
Hei La Moon, their favorite local dimsum joint.
It has 2 floors and this is just part of one of them — yeah, that’s pretty typical Cantonese.
As is the red and good auspicious colors.
This is a cart place, but a good one as we shall see.
They have a bunch of stations too. Not sure what they are doing at them.
We didn’t manage to get much in the way of sauces, just the chili paste.
Then the carts came in spades.
Including interesting ones like this “drink” (with jelly, etc) cart.
Pork Shiu Mai. Pretty usual. Good though.
Kimchee shiu mai. Hadn’t had these here in the states. Like the first, but a little spicer.
Shark Fin Dumpling. Always one of my favorites (I hope it isn’t real shark fin) and missing these days in LA.
Chives dumpling.
Chinese Broccoli. Colon sweeping required.
Pan fried rice noodle (chung foon). Heavier than the usual rice noodle.
Taro cake. Never my favorite.
Sticky rice with peanuts and Chinese sausage. Good stuff.
Mussel stuffed with crab. And maybe cheese? It was odd but good.
Pan fried shrimp cake. Love this very greasy beast.
Pepper stuffed with shrimp. Hadn’t had this one.
Fish shiu mai with sausage. Some kind of what fish.
Fried shrimp cake with sweet mayo. Another new one. Basically that packed shrimp cake fried, then drizzled in mayo.
Bean curd. Stuffed with mystery meat.
Pumpkin and cork and pea dumplings. Really good, light, and very interesting.
Shrimp rice noodle (chung foon). The usual, but a nice one.
Fried sesame and rice balls stuffed with red bean. The usual dessert balls. I like them, but they don’t like me.
Baked egg custard tart. Decent but eggy versions of the classic.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised to find this an excellent dimsum place. It was cart based, so not quite as fresh as the best “cooked to order” places in Los Angeles (SGV) but still very fresh (it was crowded and huge) and the variety was tremendous. Lots of interesting and new stuff. Way way better than the place we tried in New York.
