Cleveland Dim Sum Update

[NancyH]

I’ve been trying to get a group together to sample Dim Sum at the reincarnated C&Y Restaurant at 2222 St. Clair Avenue for many months. Two large tables of friends finally gathered there on Sunday, and we left full and happy. Sorry – no photos this time – the food action was too fast and furious, and I was sort of overseeing the ordering. Edsel – did you take any pictures?

As some of you may recall, C&Y opened in 2004 and was immediately praised for its Xiao Long Bao and Dim Sum. C&Y closed in the Spring of 2005 and laid dormant until early 2006. Yes, it took me a whole year to find some folks willing to meet us there and give it a try, after some negative talk surfaced about it. Recently, we’d heard both positive and negative reports about the revived C&Y, so I was determined to try it for myself. Jimmy Fong is still running the house and they never disconnected their phone, but I don’t know if they changed ownership.

The first new thing I noticed in the restaurant was a fry cart. This cart has a high BTU griddle for frying goodies tableside, and isn’t seen at many Dim Sum houses these days. Even the huge Jing Fong in NYC Chinatown eschews the fry cart and instead has a “food bar” for freshly fried items. Speaking of Jing Fong, we ate there about three weeks ago and the experience was still pretty fresh in my mind, so I was comparing C&Y more to NYC Dim Sum than Cleveland Dim Sum. C&Y did very well and was actually better than Jing Fong on some things, although the selection was smaller. Notwithstanding the smaller selection, we reached “full” even as new items were still coming out of the kitchen!

The only C&Y dish that did not succeed Sunday was the formerly storied Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings). They were not fresh and had little liquid in them – neither table cared for them (the “fishy” taste some noted was stale crab). I would guess that they have only Cantonese Dim Sum Chefs at the restaurant now – Xiao Long Bao are a Shanghai delicacy, and are not found in traditional Dim Sum houses anyway. Sad that these aren’t up to their former glory, but I felt that the freshness and skill displayed in the Hong Kong style items made up for this disappointment. The only other dish that I felt “lacked profundity” was the steamed spare rib bits; to my taste, it didn’t have a lot of flavor.

Almost everything else we tried was stellar. Two items that are made to order rather than served off the carts – scallion pancakes and Lo Hom Fu Pei Chag (Cruller stuffed with vegetables and wrapped in rice noodles) were excellent – they have somehow solved the sogginess that used to pervade the Cruller and it remained crunchy to the end. The scallion pancakes were savory but not at all greasy. Also, the la jiang (chili oil) tasted very fresh and delivered flavor along with heat. The junior member of our group (age 11), after bravely tasting some Dim Sum, elected to have an order of Lemon Chicken that looked nice and put a smile on her face.

Our first round came from one of two dumpling carts. Shao Mai and Har Gow were devoured by the table before I could sit down. I tried the rolled bean curd sheet with pork/shrimp filling, which was very good, the so-so spare ribs, then sticky rice dumpling, which was packed with fresh bits of pork and lap cheong (Chinese dried sausage). The sticky rice was infused with a wonderful “grassy” flavor from the lotus leaf it was cooked and served in – a sure sign of fresh leaves. The steamed translucent dumpling stuffed with pork and shrimp was deliciously toothy.

The second cart offered fluffy rice noodle sheets stuffed with beef or shrimp; standard fare executed well. One person selected tripe, and pronounced it very good (hubby Bob didn’t think it was fresh, though, so the jury’s out on this one, I guess). We took one plate of Beef Balls, which disappeared before I could try them, and I was too full for chicken feet by the time it was passed to us from the other table, but both items got great reviews. One new item on this cart was a steamed cake that looked like cornbread, but was light and fluffy – I don’t know what it was made from, but everyone praised it.

The next cart offered scrumptious fried Taro dumplings (Chinese potato-like vegetable with pork and bits of shrimp) and tasty spring rolls. The Baked BBQ Pork Buns melted in the mouth – each component was perfectly executed. One person especially enjoyed the Eggplant Stuffed with Shrimp, which I also liked. We passed on the other baked items, because they are so darn filling! But the Pineapple Bun, Coconut Bun, Steamed BBQ Pork Bun and several permutations on Bean Paste Buns and deep fried Fun Gow all looked and smelled wonderful.

Finally – the fry cart and the best two dishes of the day (IMO): Chive Dumplings and Turnip Cake (described on the menu as “Radish Cake”). Both were exquisitely fresh and left Jing Fong in the dust. Some of our diners felt overwhelmed by the intensity of the chives, but the freshness of this dumpling exhilarated me, and the bits of shrimp (not usual in this dumpling) nicely complimented the greenery. The Turnip Cake tasted like no turnip or taro cake I’ve ever had before - as if the vegetables had been grated that morning. They didn’t gussy it up – I did not miss the dried shrimp, pork bits and other “fillers” normally in Turnip Cake – they let the creaminess of the cake and the freshness and flavor of its namesake speak for it.

The other two fry cart items were also stand-outs – an egg wrapper stuffed with freshly minced shrimp and potstickers. I think that the secret to the fry cart’s success was that instead of pre-cooking the food and then re-heating it on the cart, the food was all or mostly cooked to order on the cart. This added to the service time, but the results were well worth it!

Even as we were filling up on all of this goodness, we had to try a couple more – I thought I’d had the penultimate Baked Egg Custard tart at Jing Fong, but C&Y’s were just a little yummier. The fried Shrimp Ball was also very good. In fact, not one shrimp item I tasted suffered from bad smell or taste and I almost always dislike shrimp because it isn’t fresh enough or tastes like chemicals.

As the Tofu Fa (sweet tofu “soup”) cart came around, I cried “uncle”, and my tablemates agreed that they were too full to go on. But the fried sticky rice looked so tempting, as did the soup cart. And then plates of simply steamed green vegetables and plates of fried noodles came out of the kitchen and . . . .I guess I need to get another hungry group together soon, because there is too much to sample on just one visit!

Oh – and dinner looks to be wonderful too – they have menus for prix fixe authentic Chinese multi-course meals for 4, 6 or 10 diners and a large multicompartment fresh fish tank. Prices for 10 diners range from $169-$338 per table, depending on the menu. Email or pm me if you are interested in seeing those menus or partaking in such a meal. FYI, Chinese New Year starts February 18 this year.

The current incarnation of C&Y gets an A from this Dim Sum fan.

[tino27]

I think NancyH pretty much exhaustively covered the meal. It was quite amazing. I was the one who had the tripe and honestly, it was quite good. I also ordered a pot of "flower" tea, something I have gotten used to tasting at Columbus, OH dim sum restaurants, although I missed the rock sugar that is usually served along side with it.

I think the thing that impressed me the most was just the sheer variety and amount of food we had at our table. As fast as we could eat the food, the servers would put additional food out.

BTW, Kudos to NancyH's amazing grasp of the dim sum menu. I like to think of myself as educated, but my dim sum knowledge pales in comparison to hers.

[NancyH]

I think NancyH pretty much exhaustively covered the meal. It was quite amazing. I was the one who had the tripe and honestly, it was quite good. I also ordered a pot of "flower" tea, something I have gotten used to tasting at Columbus, OH dim sum restaurants, although I missed the rock sugar that is usually served along side with it.

I think the thing that impressed me the most was just the sheer variety and amount of food we had at our table. As fast as we could eat the food, the servers would put additional food out.

BTW, Kudos to NancyH's amazing grasp of the dim sum menu. I like to think of myself as educated, but my dim sum knowledge pales in comparison to hers. 

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Thank you Tino! You all have E-Gulleteer Jo-Mel to thank for my knowledge about Dim Sum - when I lived in New Jersey, she was my Chinese Cooking Teacher and taught me about much more than just cooking.

[edsel]

Wow, thanks for the report, Nancy. I have just a few comments to add:

I was at the other table. We ordered pretty much the same items that Nancy already described, except for the Chive Dumpling (which Nancy generously shared with us when they had extra). Two of us said "Yes!" to the chicken feet while everyone else said "Uhmmmm..." Some of us also tried the tripe. I liked both quite a lot.

Everyone was really excited about the xiao long bao, until we tasted them. The "fishy" taste reminded me of that asian dried shrimp that's used (quite successfully) as part of certain pungent / spicy sauces. The crab didn't taste "off" to me - there was just a strong fishy taste that wasn't right in this context.

I didn't bring my camera. I thought Stuart was going to be there. The presentation of many of the dishes was attractive, but nothing unusual for dim sum.

One minor - slightly surreal - note about C & Y: They have a cross-promotion deal going with the Christmas Story House which is located a few miles away in Tremont. It's a bit goofy to have them reenacting the "Chinese Turkey" scene from the movie every time someone orders the duck. Don't mind the cleaver!

[LuckyGirl]

The company was great. The dim sum was AWESOME as is Nancy's description of each dish.

[torakris]

Sounds incredible, but I can't believe you had two tables of people and not a single picture!!