It was a fun lunch, company great as always, food mixed bag as it usually is, but some different things eaten is always good in my book.
The most surprising thing to me about the menu was how little dim sum there was on a Sunday – a very, very short list, no har gow, no shiu mai, nor most of the things you’d expect at weekend dim sum.
I’m sure the menu was influenced by the neighborhood, in that we chose a Cantonese spot in a Korean area. Also meant the place was empty at 11am, and filled up as we were leaving after 12, but still no lines, just a couple of people standing around.
Still, the rice rolls were delicate and well-made. Anyone notice that shrimp cheung fung “shrinkage” means 2 shrimp along the length instead of the previously usual 3? I noticed that only today. The crispy beef cheung fun wasn’t the stuffed youtiao style we’ve had elsewhere, but there was a thin layer of crispy dough.
The fish cakes were not what I was expecting, but were not surprising in a spongy, fishball-esque texture. But I think the clams and celery were in the mixture. I couldn’t tell what the yellow sauce with something chopped in it was.
The chive and shrimp dumplings were pretty much what I expected, if a bit more fried than usual.
I wondered if they gave us the wrong grouper fillet dish, because what we ordered was called “Sauteed Fillet”. However as I now recall we faced a similar situation at Hakka Cuisine, where “Sauteed Squid” came out as the deep fried salt & pepper squid much to our surprise. So we probably need to start asking if things we think are saucy are actually saucy, or some other thing.
I saw a big platter of lobster with noodles go by, and then another platter of what appeared to be salt & pepper (fried) lobster, which made me think that lobster was probably decently priced. The manager gave us a few options including ginger scallion, though I didn’t hear the one I saw with noodles. Dave picked one that had not been mentioned, and the manager asked if he knew what it was and had eaten it before, which maybe should have been a clue to us to ask more? In any case, I enjoyed the prep that arrived, which had ground pork, black bean, garlic, and egg (scrambled in). We later saw the noodle version on other tables was with saucy e-fu noodles, and the table next to us and a few others had a big steamer of lobster with sticky rice that was also pictured on the wall. So, lots of lobster everywhere.
Some fun reading below about that “Cantonese” lobster (apparently it’s a new york american chinese invention), and a recipe that is similar to what we ate except that our wasn’t saucy, the egg was hard-scrambled. I’m thinking now that what we had would be good with shrimp too.
Inside shots of the beef cheung fun, fish cakes (with mystery sauce), and chive and shrimp dumpling:
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