[SF] Broadway Dim Sum

[Carolyn Tillie]

As part of my adventure in exploring other cultural aspects of fried dough, dear friends Sara and Cassy had brought me into Chinatown for the beginning of investigating Chinese fried dough at Hing Lung. But just a block or so away was Broadway Dim Sum Café and our day of discovery continued.

Rather small and somewhat dank, this is an establishment which gives the appearance of desperately needing a good cleaning. It seems the ladies behind the counter don’t speak English, but thankfully I had translators with me to order the three fried dough offerings in the display case; fried sesame ball, fried fun gow, and fried meat dumpling.

Sadly, none of these were very good. All too oily and cold, they were not cooked through properly with unbalanced seasonings and some raw dough found in the middle. The fried fun gow had the most potential since it contained the least amount of dough around the meat, but there was such a pervasive flavor of old and stale oil as to overpower any potential goodness which might have existed. The fried sesame ball, which I know is supposed to be slightly chewy, was so rank as to be thrown away after a mere nibble. Not recommended.

Pictures on Fried Dough Ho

[hzrt8w]

Carolyn if you want to explore more of the Chinese bakeries and small "dim sum" shops... the ones along Stockton Street (Between Broadway and Clay) are better ones. While Grant is mostly for tourists to browse around ("China Town" and all), Stockton is where the local Chinese do their shopping.

My favorite is "AA Bakery" (Stockton and Jackson). They offer the best dan tart, curry puff, cocktail bun, etc.. They make some "ham siu kok" (that one you had, fried glutinous rice dough with savory filling - minced pork, etc.) and other fried dough kind of dim sum too I think. But I haven't tried them there.

An old post:

AA Bakery