Sticky Rice Shrimp BallThe interior was a fluffy mousse of steamed whipped shrimp covered w/ with dense & chewy sticky sweet rice instead of a wrapper. It was so delicious that we ended up ordering another one later.
Baked BBQ Pork BunWhich had a sweet sticky coating & the bread tasted like stale hot dog bun. Bleargh
Steamed BBQ Pork BunsFortunately Sonia showed up at this point. She’s the one who introduced us to this spot, & knows what is good. She quickly negotiated an order of the Steamed BBQ Pork Buns.
Steamed Short Ribs w/ Black Beansone of my favorite dishes. It was full of tender & rich pieces of pork that had been steamed in a luscious black bean sauce, which rendered out the fat & infused the meat.
Seafood Dumplingwith the beautifully translucent but somewhat fragile & sticky wrapper. You can see plump shrimps nestled within along w/ chives & minced vegetables in a beautiful array of colors.
Pork Siumaidumplings sprinkled w/ tiny bits of fish roe & topped w/ a small shrimp. You can also see succulent bits of black mushroom peeking out.
Shrimp Dumplings (Hargow)Which had plump shrimp & tender bamboo shoots in a gingery marinade wrapped up in a delicate looking ruffled translucent bundle.
Tofu RollsLook so wrinkled & unattractive on the outside, but then the server whips out the scissors & cuts them open revealing the luscious filling of pork, shrimp, minced fungus, waterchestnut & cabbage along w/ succulent vermicelli noodles wrapped up in sheets of dried tofu that are first fried then steamed in the sauce to achieve the wonderfully dense & chewy texture.
Scallop DumplingsWere wrapped in ruffled swirls & topped w/ fish roe & bits of ginger. These were filled w/ bits of scallops & shrimp along w/ cilantro & minced vegetables.
Shanghai DumplingsXiao Long Bao that are tiny little steamed buns filled w/ a bit of soup, ground pork & chopped cabbage. They usually are served w/ a dipping sauce of red vinegar w/ ginger slivers & like a piece of sushi, once dipped, require that you cram the entire thing into your mouth so you don’t lose any of the broth. Some places provide a soup spoon for this purpose in case you aren’t able to take it all in one bite.
Stuffed MushroomsIn a gingery oyster sauce were overcooked & dry, but the gooey sauce helped cover the shortcoming
Fried Tofu Biteswere savory & well seasoned & kind of dry. Could have used a bit of sauce only to offset the dryness, but they were delicious on their own.
Fried Pork Dumplings(Harm sui gok), cloudlike sticky rice flour balls filled w/ minced pork, peanuts, chopped water chestnuts & fried to a deliciously fragile crisp crust. The dough becomes crunchy outside & slightly sticky inside.
Egg Tartswhich were the most delicious buttery flaky crusts filled w/ creamy rich egg custard that were still warm. Mmmmmmm, very delicious, hard to eat just one even if you are stuffed beyond belief!
Mango Puddinghat the server enthusiastically squirted some sort of vanilla condensed milk on, liberally dosing my leg at the same time. It was intensely sweet, light & fluffy & tasted like mangoes & a little bit of summer… It was very refreshing like a palate cleanser & very nice after all the rich little bites we had enjoyed.
