jschyun

Thanks for the input mongo_jones. Usually if a restaurant is busy, I tend to think it must be good. By that measure, 888's among the best! On the other hand, we had the bad fortune of being there during Chinese New Year. Yeah, I remember Empress Pavillion's wait, even early in the morning was always awful. I haven't been there in ages. --Actually, I too have a lot of Chinese friends. I'm not going to guess what you mean by 'afficionado' but if you mean hearty dim sum lovers, I think I can safely say I have my fair share. I've eaten at all of the popular dim sum houses on the West Coast, except Kirin (Cambie st) in Vancouver, Hong Kong Flower Lounge (sf), Tin's (small place in Oakland), NBC, and 888 Seafood. Who needs Hong Kong when I can just use frequent flier miles and eat in Vancouver, then come back all in the same weekend? I've eaten with my Cantonese speaking friends, with white friends, by myself, and with my sig other. I've shared my experiences with my friends and I always hound them for more advice, just in case I missed something. So I've been around. It was a Chinese friend who loves dim sum, that said 888 wasn't that great. She said she didn't like how the food wasn't fresh, and she had stopped going there. I think I'll probably go one or two times before attempting to form a real opinion. I actually think the meal I had at 888 Seafood was decent food for the price. I didn't have any problems with freshness, except for some old broccoli, though I didn't have anything there that struck me as particularly wonderful. Plus Claro's is right across the street, which is very convenient. I wonder how many of 888 Seafood's patrons know what a jewel of a store Claro's is?

Next time you want to try something different, you can post here that you are interested in going there, there will likely be someone who is also interested in going. --Hell, I'd like to try Chinese Islamic. There's one near where I live, but I'd like to try another place.

Yeah, I was kind of being sarcastic, but it didn't work. I didn't think it through. I hate to say this, but I agree with you on SF, at least in terms of some types of Asian food. Good Korean and Chinese are not really to be had in SF area, with a couple of exceptions. L.A. is a totally different story.

I'm sure others will disagree with me, but just based on my experience, I would put Mission 261 on my top 5 CA dim sum short list. Yeah, I thought they had some crap dishes. But they had some spectacular ones too, at least I thought so. I'm just hoping they iron out their kitchen probs with time. And I love Sea Harbour, the sister restaurant, the one tissue and her friend Rupert took us to for one of the dim sum lunches. That was so fun.

There are 6 Claro branches, so this may or may not be the one that you've been to. It's kind of nice to know it's there, because after dim sum, I can grab some pasta and parmesano reggiano, maybe a sub or some of their sausages to go. What really shocked me is they have a branch in Tustin! Tustin???? But then there are some pretty decent Italian restaurants in Tustin, so it sort of kind of makes sense.

For your reading pleasure, an old thread on NY vs SF dim sum. I thought it was funny. NY Wins!

I had heard bad things about 888 Seafood from my friends, but then it's been highly praised on this board, by people whose opinion I have every reason to trust. I hadn't been, so I went to 888 Seafood yesterday, and checked it out. Caveat: I'm just not cut out for the big dim sum places like 888 Seafood anymore. I'm one of those people that flags down carts, chases after them, and orders stuff if it's not coming fast enough. Yeah, one of those. After eating dim sum at one of these places, I almost feel like I've gotten a workout. And I still never get everything I want. I only got a couple of dishes because the same carts kept going by me, and when I tried to order stuff from the waiters, they kept saying I had to wait some minutes for it to be ready. Meanwhile, other people were getting the same dish sent to them from the kitchen. I really need to learn Cantonese, damnit. Like I said, we only got a couple things, mostly sweets, a few seafood, because that's what kept coming by. The fun noodles were not as stretchy gooey delicious as I've had elsewhere, but they were good snacks reheated at home. Their har gao were small but decent. Their egg custard tarts were okay, I loved that filling, just as good as good stuff elsewhere, but I've had flakier crusts. Ton Kiang's egg custard tart is a dead ringer for 888 Seafood's, at least the ones I've had were. I liked their green tea mochi (don't know what they call mochi in Chinese). Wasn't able to get much else, because it was so crazy busy. Oh yeah, we had a mango pudding and it was okay, but I had a much better version just the other week at Y. Ben House, probably for cheaper. Their buns were decent. Next time, when I'm with someone who wont be grossed out, I'll check out the pai gwat and blck bn chicken feet and the other brown stuff. Chinese New Year's celebration meant that the line at 888 Seafood was 100 people long. I miscalculated the line length and missed an opportunity to snag some stuff at the bakery while we waited. Damn. We did manage to eat a really tasty snack at Claro's, the awesome Italian market across the street, while waiting the 2 hours for our number to be called, so all was not lost. Their custom subs are damn good, and they have what appears to be every single brand of panettone on the planet. As we ate, I kept zoning out, lapsing into daydreams about the wonderful, relaxing meal we could have been having at nearby Sea Harbour, where I could actually hear what is being said to me. At 888 Seafood, I literally had to yell a couple times to get someone to hear me, due to bad acoustics and the number of diners. I tried not to think about how, at Sea Harbour, I could have been checking off items on the dim sum menu and gone back to my conversations, instead of watching for carts as I ate. I tried to keep out thoughts of those delicious mochis with black sesame inside, I had at Sea Harbour, when I was with the eGullet group. The times I went there myself, the black sesame filled mochis were never as good. Just based on this first impression, I'm not a fan of 888 Seafood, but maybe you guys know something I don't. Please, tell me your secrets.

--see post on 888 seafood

When I was very young, I remember my grandmother telling her new daughterinlaw that is was a sign of a prosperous household if the ghee bubbled at the top of each dish! Yikes Yeah, I think I've actually heard something like this. Agh! I guess I forgot. --as the worst offender was in Newport Beach, CA, I suppose it fits. As I haven't had enough ghee to tell which is bad or good, I couldn't tell on that one. This is obviously not a cardinal sin then, just personal preference. Apologies for the faux pas.

I actually don't like Yank Sing. They have a nice website though. I've been at the sit down area and the to go place next door, and I prefer the togo place because at least by the time it gets to you, it's still warm. They are not so much creative, as they offer cute little shapes, like dumplings in the shape of frogs and fish and such. Still you have to eat it, and I don't like the quality there. The carts at the sit down place aren't refilled fast enough, IMO, and what they do have is better prepared elsewhere, at Koi Palace, if you will, or at many of the Monterey Park places, which really do have some innovative things. alanamoana - Thanks for the NY vs SF dim sum opinion. I thought as much. But it would be interesting just to try and see the differences for myself. Maybe I'll try New Green Bo and compare it with Din Tie Fung when I get back home.

For someone who definitely isn't a dim sum novice, where would you point them? I'm going to NY as well, in about a month or so, and I fully expect to try NY dim sum once while I'm there. I am looking to be wowed with novel dishes, wonderful preparation, as I am at my favorite CA dim sum joints. Let's say distance from Manhattan isn't an issue. Let's say, Hong Kong style, but if they serve juicy dumplings (xiaolongbao) so much the better. Also-- How about dessert? My dim sum devirginized boyfriend loves egg custard buns, aka steamed cream buns, aka ni long bao (pronounce: nigh long bow). These are steamed buns (bao) that have a filling of rich eggy custard filling with a pastry cream texture. If you're into sweets (like me), maybe you might like egg custard tarts. If they're good, you get to bite into eggy rich warm custard and a wonderfully flaky crust. I love them. Another fave, if you can get it, is mango pudding which should be creamy and full of little mango bits. Yum. When it's been molded into shapes and then unmolded onto a plate, that's usually a sign that it will be at least decent. I think I've only seen it at Hong Kong style places, but I can't remember exactly.

I don't know if this is a cardinal sin but I absolutely hate it when there is too much ghee. If it puddles into a big greasy pool, I can't eat it.

Hmm, good question. I haven't made much of an effort to case out the seafood purveyors around here, but in general the Japanese markets have a good selection of seafood, at astoundingly high prices. But I saw o-toro recently at Marukai for I think $25 a pound, which is actually pretty reasonable in my mind. Unfortunately, at the Costa Mesa Marukai, you have to pay a dollar a month for "membership" and I tend to lose mine. But for crab and lobster, I usually go to 99 Ranch, the on in Irvine on Jeffrey and Walnut, because they often have specials like $6.99 for lobster, and sometimes $3.99 or $4.99 for Dungeness crab. Of course they're all live. I did a thread on this a while ago, but you won't learn much more than I'm telling you now.

That Bengali Sweets pic made me drool. I wish we had something like that in the States. Or do we, and I just don't know about it?

Just came back from Golden Gate. Oh geez, of all the times to go, I had to stand in that damn line during New Years celebration. Bought half dozen, probably the most consistently made flaky crust I've seen so far. Filling is not as rich as I've had elsewhere, more milk or water, less eggy rich. Still quite addictive. Had an old man try to squeeze me out of line. Repeatedly. Will go again to check for consistency. I've never had a decent crust at Koi Palace. Maybe they don't like me there or soemthing. Always get them and always get a cookielike crust, the filling is okay.

I recently had a great meal there, but there were a couple of missteps. The milk custard tart with ginger juice was an undercooked, bland joke. An expensive joke. By contrast, the regular egg custard tarts were among the best I've had in the state. The soy sauce chicken was mostly bones. I liked the egg custard in a har gau type translucent wheat starch wrapping, shaped into a bunny rabbit. That was the highlight for me even if it tasted only okay. We had some great egg custard buns there. The shrimp and black cod dumplings were very tasty. We had a bunch of other good things, but it's late. Very nice surroundings. Some lady was playing what appeared to be a Chinese version of a banjo or guitar. Also, the first time I ate dim sum while watching tournament golf. I thought Mission 261 had decent tea. That may sound funny, but I'm always disapointed when an otherwise good dim sum joint has stale, tasteless tea. In general, I would go there again. But this place is pricey. I thought it was great at first, but after thinking about it for a week, those missteps stood out. Joe Blowe, where are your MIL's friends' favorite haunts?

That's for damn sure! Hehe.

What about L.A. snobbery about NY's Chinese, Korean, not to mention Mexican.

What?

But of course. I'll be putting it in the Dine About Town 2004 thread.

Sure enough she flaked. Anyone interested in go Farallon for lunch at 11:45 on Sat? --okay, it's been filled. thanks!

Hell yes. --actually we may have someone cancel, so we might have an empty seat. I'll post if that happens, in case anyone is interested. It would only be one seat though. This person has a tendency to flake.

What did you have? I'm going there Sat for lunch.

One of the best meals of 2003 was at Sun Sui Wah in Richmond. The tea! Probably some of the best dim sum I've had on the West Coast, along with Koi Palace and Mission 261. Not the worst but definitely down there, was a small meal at an empty Joe Fortes. Oysters had been sitting on ice, not cut fully off the shell, and the cracked crab claws came frozen, but the dijon dressing was pretty good.

Polly Ann has durian ice cream too, last time I checked. Everyone's so big on durian these days.