51 replies to this topic

[jschyun]

Lars,

great pics - the names of some of the dishes were peculiar though - is that what New Concept calls them? The 'shrimp rolls' should be 'cheong fun (rice noodles) with shrimp', the 'pork rolls' are just regular xiu mai (sometimes transliterated as shiu mai), the 'bird's nests' are taro cakes with minced pork. That last one was the most confusing, since I thought it was a dish with actual bird's nest, which is usually served in a dessert soup since it is slightly sweet.

I agree with others there is no good dim sum on the westside. Empress is OK, but really, SGV is the way to go (unfortunately, as traffic is a bitch).

Mongo - what wormhole to the 10 do you mean? I'll try anything that gets me to the SGV quicker. 40 minutes from MDR is *extremely* optimistic!

Oh yeah, the titles that he gave the dishes aren't the the usual translations, though I thought they were pretty good for a newbie. Anyway, the English translations on their menu were really terrible.

Here is a more commonly seen translation of Kevin's pics:

rice noodle roll w/ shrimp
Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce on the side
shark fin dumplings
siu mai (what's the translation? cook and sell dumplings)
taro puffs
steamed taro cake (not pan fried, it was just steamed)
egg custard tarts (dan tat)
baked pork buns
abalone soup dumpling
beef noodle clay pot (this was good)
green tea balls with black sesame filling
uh, in the menu it was called pumpkin sponge cake, but it was sticky rice wrapper with...I forget the filling. red bean?
chicken and rice clay pot

[vidia]

siu mai (what's the translation? cook and sell dumplings)

Hmmm - think it is 'little meatballs'
- the 'mai' is pronounced, in Mandarin, using the 2nd tone rather than 4th (which is the tone for sell)

[mongo_jones]

lunch at 888 seafood today. we got there at 1.15. they were still busy, but winding down, and so there wasn't a huge selection (not a problem since we'd got there from brunch down the street). nonetheless, everything we got was freshly made. highlights: the chicken feet, which were so delicately flavoured; a steamed bao, which seemed to contain something other than the usual slightly cloying bbq pork; the sliced pork and preserved egg porridge; those little rice ball shrimp cakes with a little bit of chinese sausage sticking out that they do (the ones that look like pinhead from the "hellraiser" movies).

photos have been taken at most meals, but i'm travelling sans photoshop equipped laptop.

[Behemoth]

Has anybody been to the LA branch of Din Tai Fung? They don't do all the typical dim sum but specialize in Shanghai stuff, especially soup dumplings. We ate at their Shanghai branch, and liked it so much we squeezed it into the schedule for a second visit.

The La menu online looks a little different that the Shanghai one, in that there are far fewer cold dishes and greens (why hasn't this bit of chinese cuisine made it to the US?) and they are missing the crab xiaolongbao and crab with soft tofu, probably becuase it is hard to get the right kind of crab. Might be worth checking out though, the soup dumplings at the Shanghai branch were wonderfully delicate, and I was told are some of the best in town. The wonton soup was also phenomenal.

[hollywood]

Has anybody been to the LA branch of Din Tai Fung? They don't do all the typical dim sum but specialize in Shanghai stuff, especially soup dumplings. We ate at their Shanghai branch, and liked it so much we squeezed it into the schedule for a second visit.

The La menu online looks a little different that the Shanghai one, in that there are far fewer cold dishes and greens (why hasn't this bit of chinese cuisine made it to the US?) and they are missing the crab xiaolongbao and crab with soft tofu, probably becuase it is hard to get the right kind of crab. Might be worth checking out though, the soup dumplings at the Shanghai branch were wonderfully delicate, and I was told are some of the best in town. The wonton soup was also phenomenal.

About every 6 weeks or so I line up and get a bunch of dumplings to go: chicken, shrimp, pork. Very tasty. And they microwave well--in the rare event any are left.

[Behemoth]

I am officially jealous.

[mongo_jones]

the problem with din tai fung is that they are located in the farther reaches of the sgv, when looking from the city center (koreatown). i've never actually been. we were supposed to go this time, but because we wanted to combine our soup dumpling outing with a dim sum outing, we ended up at mei long village (which is down the road from our favourite dim sum place).

[hollywood]

I am officially jealous.

Hmmm. I sense a dumpling run coming on.

[hollywood]

the problem with din tai fung is that they are located in the farther reaches of the sgv, when looking from the city center (koreatown). i've never actually been. we were supposed to go this time, but because we wanted to combine our soup dumpling outing with a dim sum outing, we ended up at mei long village (which is down the road from our favourite dim sum place).

Makes sense, however, the farther reaches you speak of are on Baldwin Ave in Arcadia, not far from Santa Anita if you are equine inclined.

[hollywood]

A brief survey of LA area dim sum.

[mongo_jones]

lunch at 888 seafood today. we got there at 1.15. they were still busy, but winding down, and so there wasn't a huge selection (not a problem since we'd got there from brunch down the street). nonetheless, everything we got was freshly made. highlights: the chicken feet, which were so delicately flavoured; a steamed bao, which seemed to contain something other than the usual slightly cloying bbq pork; the sliced pork and preserved egg porridge; those little rice ball shrimp cakes with a little bit of chinese sausage sticking out that they do (the ones that look like pinhead from the "hellraiser" movies).

photos have been taken at most meals, but i'm travelling sans photoshop equipped laptop.

some pictures. the dumplings at top left of the first collage are soup dumplings at mei long village. everything else is from 888 seafood.

[hollywood]

Good looking eats, mongo.

[Aaron T]

I had dim sum at Ocean Star in Monterey Park, one of the places in the SGV that was mentioned in the LA Times article from a few years back that Hollywood linked to. I had wanted to try Sea Harbour but had heard that the waits were insane and we were not up to waiting for hours. I had been to Ocean Star before and we got there about 11:45 on Saturday (actually I got there at 11, but my friends were almost an hour late coming from OC). There was no wait during the entire time we were there - I guess the crowds have moved on.

We had a bunch of the standards and thought it was good but I wouldn't jump up and down about it. Beef meatballs, beef rice noodles, the rice noodles over donut, sticky rice, cho shu bao, har gao, chinese broccoli, roast duck etc. It came out to about $15 per person + tip. Very fair.

I'd like to try New Concept and/or Sea Harbour when I am next in LA. Mongo's pics of 888 also look great, so that should probably go on my list too.

[jschyun]

New Concept changed hands a while back and is now Elite Restaurant. I think Elite is the best dim sum in L.A. because it combines interesting flavors with good execution. Wait is terrible after, oh, 9:45 in the morning. Were you thinking of New Capital? That just opened up, but I heard it was going for the cheap/big audience.

888 is pretty decent, fairly cheap too. Empress Harbor seems really good too iirc, but the last time I tried to go there was such a long wait that I couldn't get in.

A lot of people on Chowhound bashed the relatively new King Hua, in Alhambra. However, I had what I thought was excellent dim sum there, and it was busy, so I wasn't the only person who apparently liked it. In fact, I like it second to Elite. I also like Sea Harbour in Rosemead. Actually, King Hua was started by some ex-cooks from Sea harbour.

Granted, now that I have this stupid rash thing, I haven't really had much dim sum lately. The last time was a couple of months ago at Sea Harbour.

I used to think Triumphal Palace wasn't bad. The siu mai there I had months ago was really great. But they just closed down.

If you want to go dirt cheap, try Yum Cha Cafe. I mean, an order is a dollar. And a lot of things there aren't bad at all. Large menu to choose from. There are several locations.

[Aaron T]

New Concept changed hands a while back and is now Elite Restaurant. I think Elite is the best dim sum in L.A. because it combines interesting flavors with good execution. Wait is terrible after, oh, 9:45 in the morning. Were you thinking of New Capital? That just opened up, but I heard it was going for the cheap/big audience.

888 is pretty decent, fairly cheap too. Empress Harbor seems really good too iirc, but the last time I tried to go there was such a long wait that I couldn't get in.

A lot of people on Chowhound bashed the relatively new King Hua, in Alhambra. However, I had what I thought was excellent dim sum there, and it was busy, so I wasn't the only person who apparently liked it. In fact, I like it second to Elite. I also like Sea Harbour in Rosemead. Actually, King Hua was started by some ex-cooks from Sea harbour.

Hadn't heard of new capital. I am several years out of the loop on LA dim sum, hence my visit to Ocean Star. How would you rank the ones you have had in the past year? Elite, King Hua, Sea Harbour, 888? Also guesstimate of a wait at any of those say at 11 on a Saturday or Sunday?