[Burlingame] Grand Harbor

[Night07]

@sck

I wonder how many were munching on their dim sum and watching the unfolding of the Asiana crash…

You know… you would actually be able to see it quite well, eesh.

@sck

How do their kitchen during dinner stack up against the Millbrae contingent? Was it crowded?

Mmmm from when I went to dinnner, it seemed around 80-90% full on the first floor and when we were about to leave, they opened up the top floor to what appears to be some sort of family event.

@sck

Good soup and good fish is the foundation of a good Cantonese meal. How’s their live seafood selection?

Their tanks are shown to the right when you enter the restaurant. I uh, fail to take any notable pictures of the tank, but they were fairly large and had quite a bit. I recall seeing rather large spot prawns. I like these more for a soy sauce supreme pan fry than the steamed/blanched version dipped in spicy soy sauce (the smaller uh… not sure what they’re called but … sweet shrimp? tends to have a smaller head and I tend to like eating that blanched/steamed). Around 5-6 king crabs were seen (later saw them serve one). I’ve seen the australian coral trout/east star grouper among the rarer deep sea fishes (not that many, and uh… I didn’t inquire the price on that one lol). Geoduck, boston lobsters (if you want the really big ones like 8-9 lbs, I suggest Zen Peninsula), and dungeness crab were available. I had the mouse grouper last time during the slow and limited menu time during Father’s Day (never go on notable holidays lol… sigh). Overall, fairly good selection, on par with HK Flower Lounge I’d say and KP and… similar price range (bleh haha).

@Chemicalkinetics

Yep. As for Cantonese dim sum, I think like to judge based on only a few dishes. The way I see it is that…har gow (shrimp dumpling), siu mai (pork dumplings), steamed rice noodle rolls and steamed BBQ pork bun (char siu bao), maybe chicken feet are most important to me. The Gai Lan probably has over cooked leaves, but as long as the stem is cooked right, then it is fine.

Yeah, I wasn’t too impressed with the overall dim sum lunch. I enjoyed dinner though (the gai lan’s stem was cooked throughout and was pretty good, just the plant I think was more on the old side; the leaves didn’t seem overcooked.

@naf

Just looking at the photos, the dim sum especially har how and siu mai seems big in size. Har gow was obviously overcooked, skin was sticky.

_> I think this is actually the typical US style lol. They didn’t seem that much bigger than the other dim sum restaurants in Milbrae. But wasn’t impressed with the shrimp dumpling

@naf

I always have a soft spot for ham sui gok, they looks alright, maybe I wouldn’t like to have them cut open like this, I always like them hot.

Haha yeah, but we were getting somewhat full (and wasn’t too keen on the rest of dim sum) so we just wanted to halve it in case it was terrible…

@Chemicalkinetics

Actually it could be a matter of the ratio between wheat flour and tapioca starch. I believe the more traditional way is to use almost all wheat flour or heavy ratio of wheat flour. More recently, people like to use more tapioca starch, and you see more “crystal shrimp dumplings (水晶蝦餃)”. The traditional har gow are not see-through.

Tapioca starch gives that translucent look and make it more elastic (more difficult to break). Yours in the photo is definitely see-through. However, tapioca starch also give a sticky and chewy texture that wheat starch does not. Think bubble tea pearls.

This is why you see very different har gow texture. Some are completely opaque, and some are entirely translucent.

Oh wow, now that you mention it, that is probably correct. I don’t think I’ve really paid much attention to the clarity, but the tapioca starch makes sense. I personally like things on the chewier side, so not a huge distraction for me, just didn’t quite care for the non-juicy interior