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We just came back from a weekend camping trip in Monterey. We dropped by May Flower in Milpitas Saturday morning and had dim sum on the way out there. They were great, just as I remembered. We had: Har Gow Siu Mei Shrimp Cheung Fun Nor Mai Gai (sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves) Beef tripe - steamed with ginger and a bit of curry powder Seen Jook Guon (steamed minced pork wrapped with fresh tofu sheets) Daikon Cake All were excellent! We didn't eat that much as we weren't too hungry. Between the three of us, 7 items, the bill came to US$28.xx (tax included). Re: Koi Palace - I think while their food might be good (which I have not yet tasted), their workers are very arrogant - as they probably have more business than they can handle. May Flower: 428 Barber Lane Milpitas, CA 95035 408-922-2700

Kee Wah Bakery 386 Barber Lane Milpitas, CA95035, USA 408-383-9288 A pleasant surprise... I was on my way to Monterey on Saturday for a camping trip and dropped by Milpitas for lunch, I found that Kee Wah has opened shop in this busy Milpitas mall. I gotta have a piece of the "curry puff". Hmmm.... great as always. Their bakery items are the best compared to all the bakeries I have been to in California. Kee Wah produces many of the "Hong Kong" style bakery items, such as Pineapple Bao, Ham and Egg Bao, Hot Dog Bao, etc.. Some 20 varieties to choose from. The best, IMO, are their curry puffs, chicken pies, egg tarts, and Cha Siu So (BBQ pork roll). They top my favorite "AA Bakery" in San Francisco Chinatown, though their prices are much higher. They still have boxes of mooncakes left. I thought they may discount them because the season is already over. No... still selling at the list price of US$27.00 for a tin of four. Same price for any flavor. After taking a look at their updated website, I found that they opened not only one but two locations in Milpitas. It must have happened only recently as I have not seen their presence in the Bay Area until now... Kee Wah locations

A pleasant surprise... I was on my way to Monterey on Saturday for a camping trip and dropped by Milpitas for lunch, I found that Kee Wah has opened shop in this busy Milpitas mall: 386 Barber Lane Milpitas, CA95035, USA 1-408-383-9288 I gotta have a piece of the "curry puff". Hmmm.... great as always. Their bakery items are the best compared to all the bakeries I have been to in California. They still have boxes of mooncakes left. I thought they may discount them because the season is already over. No... still selling at the list price of US$27.00 for a tin of four. Same price for any flavor. After taking a look at their updated website, I found that they opened not only one but two locations in Milpitas. It must have happened only recently as I have not seen their presence in the Bay Area until now... Kee Wah locations

I think they will taste very different, but you can try it and see if you like it.

TK Noodle Address: 6930 65th St # 131, Sacramento, CA 95823 Phone: (916) 422-3888 TK Noodle is a chain. They originated in the San Jose area and now has over a dozen locations. There is one in Sacramento on the 65th Street. I really like some of their noodle offers. For a quick meal, $4 to $5 a bowl of noodle soup. Fast and delicious. TK Noodle (Sacramento) store front. The menu is printed with pictures in English, Chinese and Vietnamese. I have tried but don't think much of some of their offers like wonton, beef briskets, char siu, and shrimp. But there are 2 items that we really like. This is the Satay Beef Rice Noodle (kway teow) Soup. The Satay soup base is very good. This is the other one that we like: Curry Duck Rice Vermicelli Soup. The curry soup is heavy in coconut taste. It is just right. There are many different condiments on the table: soy sauce, hoisin sauce, vinegar, chili sauce, etc.. I particularly like their satay chili sauce and pickled jalapenos. Mixing the two, I am realy to take some heat... I believe their noodle is chiu chow (Teochew) style. They also serve daikon cakes fried with eggs (a Teochew dish).

Yeah, no dialects. Maybe we just post in "standard" Chinese - written ones, the sqaures. Solve the dialect issue. (And scare Dejah away...)

I understand that "value is in the eyes of the beholder". I mentioned that recently I had the "8th month 15th day" dinner at Zen Peninsula (Millbrae). The host ordered a version of dinner package that included "shark fin soup". From what I gathered, this "shark fin soup" dish was sold at about US$100. That goes to about US$10 (10 person serving) for each small Chinese bowl of the shark fin soup. The way Zen Peninsula made it was not as good as what I remember of the ones in Hong Kong Chinese banquets. I think that shark fin soup is overrated. At least at Zen Peninsula. There are also other expensive Chinese dishes, such as "swallow's nest", bear claws or other even more "precious" items. I sometimes wondered if this is all psychological... in the minds of the patrons... that expensive must be good. BTW: The abalone slices at Zen Peninsula did not impress me as much as I can remember those that I had in Hong Kong.

Oh, I should clarify it. I understand that the "real" Buddha jumping over the wall uses such precious ingredients. The one offered in the local restaurant: In only saw a whole abalone in the picture of the small soup bowl. I could not tell what other ingredients they use (and they didn't say). I agree that US$25 pp is not a whole lot if they use all the precious ingredients but I don't think they do. In the San Francisco high-end restaurants, the prices are much higher.

Is that what it is in Toisanese? I thought ham choy = ham sheun choy which is the preserved sour mustard green.

Yeah, me too. To me, I always like to find different ways to (or to improve on) use different sauces (just the means) to cook different dishes (that's the end results). I have not spent any energy to try to make the raw ingredients or sauces myself. As that would take too much effort (cooking dinner everyday is exhaustive enough as it is...). Imagine that you would need to make your own: soy sauce tofu soy milk foo yu rice wine vinegar bean sauce (etc..) Dry your own oysters, dry your own shrimps, scallops. Grow your own mushrooms? Make your own cheese? Brew your own wine? ...

Choy poh, as subtitled in an earlier post, is preserved turnip. Please don't be too sensative. In this forum, all we talk about is choy - different Chinese dishes.

Has anybody had this "most expensive" Chinese dish: 佛跳墙: fo2 tiao4 qiang2 [Mandarin], fut teow cheung [Cantonese] The literal meaning is "Buddha jumping over the wall" (to have this dish because even the Buddha cannot resist its temptation). I learned about it in Hong Kong long time ago but had not ever tasted it. (You think my father would order that kind of dishes?) I saw this dish in the menus of some restaurants in San Francisco. They offer this in a local restaurant in Sacramento too. Price: US$25.00 per person, order of 4 minimum. From what I understand, they use whole abalone, Japanese "fa guoo" (a kind of dried mushrooms), sea cucumber, dried conpoy, chicken, Chinese ham, pork and ginseng to make the dish. Also, fut teow cheung is one of the dishes in the famous moon hang [Cantonese] banquet. I wonder if any reader here had had the dish and what you think of it. Worth the price or it is all hype?

How about minced choy poh? From my experience, they put minced choy poh in many dishes too (some rather unexpectedly). e.g. in oyster omlette, in soup kway teow. Does Teochew style throw minced choy poh on steamed fish too?

Did somebody call me? Yes Sir! Here is the post discussing about making siu yuk (roast pork) and suckling pigs: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=49705 Not quite 5 months old, just about 2 months. Ben Sir! Here is the post discussing about pork belly: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=20297

Thanks for that tip, eje. Let me say something about these "make to order" claims. They steam up or heat up the dim sum per the order you placed, true. I hope one doesn't think they make the har gow, siu mei, or whatever you ordered from scratch at the time you ordered them. Dim sums, especially dumplings like har gow and siu mei, are make in bulk. In quantities of hundreds. When they marinate the shrimps, they can't just marinate 4 shrimps to make you an order of har gow. When they create the skin for har gow from wheat starch, they stir enough to make hundreds of har gow at a time. When they wrap the dumplings, they wrap them by the hundreds at a time. The dumplings (har gow, siu mei, etc.) cannot be left in raw form after wrapping. They will deform, the skin will crack, the skin will dry up, etc.. They must steam (or fried, whatever) the dumplings right away. Once cooked, the dim sum can hold up much longer. When you place your dim sum order, all they do in the kitchen is to fetch the corresponding dumplings from the steamer (or where-ever they store the dim sum) and steam them up for you. For fried stuff, re-fry in the fryer. There is just no way the kitchen can make dim sum from scratch per your order. If they really do that, your wait time will be over 30 minutes and the price will be many times higher. When they have left over dim sum, some kitchens will store them in refrigerators and sell them the next day. Therefore, sometimes it is risky to arrive a dim sum restaurant when they first open - you may have overnight leftovers reheated.

Something that a savory Teochew dish should almost always have? Of course! minced Choy Poh (preserved turnip). Am I right? A dash of hot oil on steamed fish may be a very Cantonese (or Guangzhouese/Hong-Honger) thing...

Is this "Yikes" on too much fat or not enough fat?

I love to solve a puzzle... "something vital is missing to this dish" as in you should have used it but didn't, or you used it but did not mention it in your text?

Yoohoo....Suzy....the answer to your questions were up there. ← Also, quote: You went back and edited your first post to add the cooking time! Didn't you? Didn't you? (I can't believe I missed that the first time around... maybe the eyesight issue again...)

Those Chinese restaurants near the downtown area (between X Street to about R, from 3rd to about 10th) are really run down from what I observed. The newer eateries are clustered either along Broadway (Fook Lum, New Canton) or Freeport Blvd. There are 7 to 8 restaurants along Freeport and they *all* serve jook: New Hong Kong Wok - this is the one I like, very close to Hong Kong style Yeung City - ate there also, jook is also good Far East Cafe - this one is from the old school, has been around forever. I used to eat there (ie >20 years ago) but don't think of them much nowadays Jade Garden - this one is also from the old school. I haven't eaten there but my wife and MIL like their wonton noodles. They do offer jook. Lai Wah - this restaurant first opened about 22 years ago. I liked it then because they were among the best in town. But things are not the same any more. Right across from the Municipal Airport. Yummy Guide - opened only a year ago, right across from McClauchy High School. They do offer jook but it is just so-so per my taste. Leegacy - they offer just about everything (western style and Cantonese stir-fries). I believe they do have jook. Jumbo - they make very good Cantonese seafood dinner entrees and chow fun, chow mein (Hong Kong style). I am not sure if they offer jook, but you can call them to find out. Oh, New Canton on Broadway has jook too, I am fairly sure.

It's funny you said that. Yes I had been paying attention to the numbers called. That didn't help. (1) The numbers were not called sequencially. They had to match us (party of 2 only) with the size of the vacant tables. I asked the hostress a couple of times (and got a rolling eye response after the second). No committed time. I just felt as if she was telling us: if you don't care to wait, just go somewhere else (which was part of why we left on an empty stomach). (2) There was a time period that 15 minutes had passed by without a single number being called. I have since learned that you can actually call in to the restaurant and "get a number" in the queue. They will tell you roughly how long the wait maybe. You can go shopping in the nearby Serramonte Mall (or just call ahead if you are from out of town before you reach SF). You still need to wait when you get there. But that may be 15 minutes instead of 1 1/2 hour. Next time, though, if we cannot make it to the restaurant when they first open in the morning I would not bother. I took a look at the online menu Ton Kiang has posted. 9 items for $39 for 2 persons. I hate being so restrictive. And between me and my wife, we usually only order 6 dim sum items, maybe 7. Sometimes we have a few plates of dim sum and then a plate of fried noodle or something. I like to have dim sum in some less well known places (but still good food). The one that we go to often is on Noriega and 33rd in the Sunset district (forgot the name). Their dim sum is good, and the prices are not overly expensive as in Koi and Yang Sing.

More than you can..... eat? From what Ben described, it's a minimum of 10.

You can steam them or lay on top of rice during cooking. Eat them as is. Or cut them up, use them to stir-fry vegetables. Like they said: you need some healthy jaws to handle these rubber meat! I am not too crazy about lap yoke or lap cheung since I was a kid. For one thing, I don't like eating fats. Neither fresh ones or cured ones. With lap yoke, I can only find tiny piece of lean meat on each piece. With lap cheung, I always needed to spew out the fatty cubes. The only thing that I like is lap ngap (duck). Again, separate the skin and fat, I chew on the lean meat. That tastes great! But... that's just me... The one pork fat that I do like is mui choy kou yoke (sorry muichoi)... The pork belly is simmered in the sauce for hours and the fat doesn't taste like fat at all! But even so... I can only have it every now and then...

The roast pork used by TP was stored-bought. She used it to make her dish. It is pretty difficult to make roast pork at home. Unless you have a fork big enough to hold the whole pig and a BBQ big enough for roasting. And it takes about 3 hours of constant rotating the pig on the fork. (If you need to make your own roast pork, it won't be faster than you can say "siu yoke"... )

Shouldn't that be an even number? Pigs have 2 rows of nipples, right? "lok fah naum"?