King Hua in Alhambra: My New Go-To Dimsum Joint

I finally found a decent dimsum place, King Hua in Alhambra, although that doesn't mean I don't crave the razor thin-skinned dimsum had back in Hong Kong. I liked that the skin in these dimsum was thin enough and also liked the shrimp variations it offered. I like the standard har gow (shrimp only dumpling) as much as the next person, but I love when combined with all sorts of greens, at times nuts and cilantro. The additions give the dumpling a whole new dimension.

My favorite was the shrimp with greens beautifully topped with a goji berry, corn and pea. It was one that I hadn't seen in other dimsum joints, and the combination of sweet and tart was wonderful. I liked that this place isn't a cart-type of place. I always like to hail down the ladies with the carts trying to use all sorts of hand gestures to figure out what's in a particular dumpling, but made to order dimsum is the way to go, I say. No hassle, made fresh rather than sitting on a cart for a while and no futile attempts at pantomine involved.

I liked the har gow well enough but it didn't blow me away. I preferred the shrimp dumpling that came with nuts -- which gave it a crunch and a nice nuttiness.

Then I had my usual suspects, including sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf, which was nothing special but ok, barbecued pork buns, which were soft and fluffy but whose pork was a tad smelly and some steamed greens, which were a bit over-steamed but fine.






We also got a few unusual suspects like croquette-like taro dumplings stuffed with pork, mushroom and veggies, which were crunchy and tasted very comforting. Guess croquettes will do that to you.

Then we also had those flat rice noodles filled with, you guessed it, shrimp again. Hey, just trying to be sensitive to the pescatarians on our table. They were good and the rice noodles had just the right amount of chewiness.

Still, the pork-lovers at the table couldn't resist getting Shanghai soup dumplings, which of course, were no Din Tai Fung xiao long baos but they were decent. Then again, we hadn't come here for the xlbs...

The all vegetarian dumplings with mushrooms, bamboo shoots and other veggies were bleh. For some reason, the skin on vegetarian dumplings always seem to be on the thicker side. Not sure why that is but it makes me like them even less. Ok, I already had some contempt for them for being vegetarian dumplings.

The best way to end a dimsum meal is with those ethereal lovelies -- warm and crispy custard cakes. Oh yes. I had one and then another. They went fairly quickly.

I like to have Chrysanthemum tea instead of Jasmine because it's not caffeinated and I think is a better complement to the greasy dumplings I keep popping in my mouth. Well, the dumplings themselves aren't as bad but it's the chili oil and all the stuff I dip it in that may contribute to the heaviness.

Or it was just a simple case of overeating. We also had seafood congee, aka juk, or porridge. It was fine but I'm not a big fan of juk in general so it didn't leave an impression.

The only thing I noticed was that the congee was very much smooth rather than grainy. It was like mieum in Korean food that you're supposed to have when you're sick and can't digest solids.

Also, the place fills up quickly so arriving before 11:30 is probably best if you want to avoid a wait.

Overall, thumbs up!

The Most Sublime Dumplings in America

Here it is, the mother of all soup dumplings -- Din Tai Fung. I never thought I'd say this, but it does live up to the hype. The photos don't do them justice. They make them look like any old dumplings at other dimsum or Shanghainese places. Well, I went. I ate. And I'm officially hooked.

I also discovered the wait isn't as bad if you go to the newly opened wing around the corner that's almost as good as the original location.



Let's focus on the flavor and juice. The moment the wait staff sets the steamer on your table and uncovers the lid to reveal ten perfectly steamed "juicy pork dumplings," as the menu states, you have to grab one quickly. Be gentle so as not to puncture the delicate skin or you will lose the essence of these little morsels. If you are right-handed, take the spoon on your left hand, grab the dumpling with your right hand using chopsticks and place on the spoon. Make a small incision in the top part of the dumpling to let the steam out as the soup inside the dumpling is scalding hot. Suck out the juice. What heavenly juice it is. Not a hint of overpowering pork smell. Instead I taste all the goodness coming from the broth that has been simmering for hours. Not too salty and seasoned just right. I left some juice and dipped the dumpling into the vinegar sauce, topped it with some fresh ginger strips and in my mouth it went. I tasted the pork, ginger, maybe green onions, revelatory with the delicately flavored soup. They were simply the best soup dumplings I've had in this country.



The second-best dumplings we had were the pork and crab soup dumplings (above). The soup alone wasn't as flavorful as that of the pork-only dumplings but it was very good consumed in its entirety. The extra-thin skin helps keep the xiaolongbao, or "xlb," as the soup dumplings are called among the cognoscenti, light and airy. Perhaps the downside is that you don't quite feel full until you've had one too many.



Another must is the steamed chicken soup, which is so comforting and palate-cleansing that even non-chicken lovers relished it at our table. I myself don't usually like chicken soups unless I have the Korean kind with lots of ginseng and spices to temper the strong chicken smell and fat. But the chicken in this soup had been steamed before it was even dunked into the soup, so there is very little fat. The broth had hints of ginger that made for an incredible combination with the chicken meat, which had a mild flavor. The star of the chicken soup is undoubtedly the broth. It tasted a bit like the "supreme soup stock" at Triumphal Palace that made those bean curd rolls so sumptuous.



It helped to have some sauteed spinach with garlic to balance out all the meat and shellfish we were eating. Other non-soup dumplings were ok but nothing special, including the fish dumpling, which I found too dense and not as flavorful; vegetable and pork dumplings, which had a strong sesame oil smell that didn't go too well with the dumpling; shrimp and pork dumplings that didn't seem as well incorporated; and vegetarian dumplings that I found tasteless.



Other dishes were ok but again, were overwhelmingly overshadowed by the superstar of this meal. The Shanghai rice cake dish was sliced rice cakes sauteed with some greens and onions in a slightly salty and sweet brown sauce. It was amusing that the rice cakes bore a striking resemblance to the rice cakes used in Korean rice cake soup (ttuk guk) that is eaten to celebrate the new year (or maybe our rice cakes bear a striking resemblance to the Chinese version). The shrimp fried rice was fluffy and mild-tasting with an occasional shrimp thrown into the mix. It seemed purposely neutrally seasoned not to steal the limelight from the boldly-flavored dumplings.



If you have room for dessert, the sweet red bean dumplings are decent but a bit too sweet for my taste. I would recommend walking off those dumplings by heading a few steps over to JJ Bakery in the same minimall. JJ has an immensely popular array of baked goods, including red bean bread or plain old white sliced bread that people were standing in line to buy in bulk. The bakery has an impressive dessert selection such as mocha mousse (which was just ok), black cherry mousse and green tea mousse that I have yet to try but looked promising.



If you want to get really adventurous with dessert, however, you'd have to drive another 10-15 minutes to Rowland Heights, which we only recently discovered thanks to our very well plugged-in friend. Class of 302 (site is currently under construction), an unlikely name for a place serving such an ethereal dessert and allegedly the only place in LA or possibly America, that serves it. Think dark green tea ice cream that isn't just dyed green but truly tastes like green tea. Now think that ice cream has been shaved into fluffy layers and topped with red beans and chewy mochis (rice cakes). It was massive, but two of us managed to finish it because it was so incredibly delectable. This was after a full Din Tai Fung meal, mind you.



Others ordered a fruity version featuring vanilla or cream ice shavings topped with chopped fresh mango and strawberries, which was very refreshing but not nearly as good as the green tea version. This differed from one of my favorite Korean desserts, patbingsoo, with shaved ice topped with red beans, fruit, milk and rice cake in that the shaved ice is made out of ice cream or cream instead of water like the Korean version.

Quick shoutouts to AC for letting us shadow him in SGV, QL for helping with equipment and KD for the dessert shots!

Din Tai Fung
1108 South Baldwin Avenue
Arcadia, CA 91007
(626) 574-7068

(This is the original location's address. The new wing is between the minimall of the original location and Wells Fargo Bank)

JJ Bakery
Multiple locations
1130 South Baldwin Avenue
Arcadia, CA 91007
(626) 574-5866

Class of 302
1015 South Nogales Street #125
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
(626) 965-5809

Soup Dumplings Without the Wait

Consider this a prelude to the big one -- a teaser to the mother of all posts on soup dumplings. Discovering San Gabriel Valley has become an addictive pastime lately, and Mei Long Village deserves at least a brief mention as a semi-find in San Gabriel.

The pork soup dumplings were tasty -- juicy and not too porky-tasting. The pork dumplings were better than at Triumphal Palace, our go-to dimsum place that does a bit of everything and doesn't seem to specialize in any one thing (but is decent). I didn't care for the pork and crab soup dumplings, however.

Being Shanghai food novices, we weren't sure what to order so we went with what we know, even though some may frown we had a Szechuan dish in a place specializing in Shanghai cuisine. We got the mabo tofu that ended up being pretty solid. In fact, we had been on a "Harold & Kumar"-type of a quest for mabo tofu in LA and had been repeatedly let down. One of my fellow dinner companions went as far as to declare this the best mabo tofu in LA. Still, for me, the search continues.



The other dishes were nothing special but comforting. They were shredded bean curd stir-fried with beef strips and shrimp with egg that was basically a massive omelette peppered with large shrimps. There were three Shanghai-style restaurants lined right next to each other in a small mini-mall with Beard Papa and $15 foot massage places.

The moral of the story is Mei Long Village will do if you are unwilling or unable to wait for hours on end at Din Tai Fung, which is coming soon to a blog near you.

Mei Long Village
301 W. Valley Blvd., #112
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 284-4769

Dim Sum: Mission Impossible

I've been in a quest for good dim sum ever since I moved here about five years ago, and sadly, I have yet to find that perfectly steamed har gow in razor thin rice paper filled with plump shrimps -- yes, the kind served in those huge, bustling halls in Hong Kong.

True, I haven't looked that hard and barely made it to a few San Gabriel Valley favorites, but none has impressed me so far. Lately I have motivated myself to trek out there on a regular basis to check out various dim sum joints, including Triumphal Palace recommended by a trusted source for all things Chinese and auto-related, and The Kitchen recommended by J. Gold.



The first thing I liked about Triumphal Palace was the short wait and its manageable size. No throngs of large parties waiting outside for hours on end. This place doesn't do carts, and as much as I like to chase down the cart ladies while trying to understand what they describe is in the dim sum, no cart means it's all made to order -- hence, more fresh.



We ordered the usual suspects, such as shrimp dumpling, pea-tips and seafood dumpling, vegetarian dumpling, shanghai dumpling, BBQ pork buns and sticky rice in lotus leaf. They were acceptable, but the best was something new we tried, grandiosely called House Special Dumpling in Supreme Soup Stock. It is a deep-fried bean curd roll with a mix of carrots, bamboo shoots and green onions inside that comes in a surprisingly refreshing, clear broth (aka Supreme Stock).



My second favorite was the pea-tips and seafood dumpling, mostly because I happen to like the combination of shrimp and greens and the shrimp was fresh. In the same vein, the basic har gow shrimp dumpling was good but not fantastic. The steamed baby broccoli provided some much-needed fiber.



The shanghai dumplings were too dense and didn't have enough soup inside. There's a reason they are called soup dumplings. These didn't even give me the pleasure of poking a hole to let the hot steam out before biting into them. The BBQ pork buns were a bit too porky and fatty. I got the sense that the pork wasn't the best quality.



As for the Kitchen, it has some cart service but we mostly ordered off the menu. The only two standouts were the noodle dish with lobster that we ordered after our neighboring table started devouring its own; and the sweet green tea concoctions with red bean inside that I couldn't stop popping into my mouth.

The noodle dish seemed luxurious with its glistening lobster pieces in the shell and colorful vegetables sewn throughout the large plate. To be brutally honest, the dish looked better than it actually tasted, but that didn't stop me from deriving satisfaction whenever I scooped out a large piece of lobster meat from the shell.



The green tea rice cakes tasted like they were deep fried or maybe baked, but were perfectly soft and addictively just sweet enough. I couldn't stop eating them despite having reached my capacity for the day. It made me forget about my favorite dessert at dim sum joints -- the mini-custard pies.

One thing I noticed about both these places is that service was unusually courteous and attentive. I wasn't sure whether to be sorry the dim sum experience had become less authentic or glad I was finally getting refills of my chrysanthemum tea without having to chase down the wait staff. Whatever you do, try to get there before noon to avoid a wait. I would probably try them out for their regular menus as well.

Factoid: Dim sum literally means "touch the heart," or "order to your heart's content," but meaning "morsel/snack".

Triumphal Palace
500 W Main St Ste A
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 308-3222

The Kitchen
203 W. Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 289-4828