Chimei Cabbage Bun

Cabbage buns are one of the staple buns around out house. These frozen Chimei Cabbage Buns, from Kam Man, are pretty average buns. They have a little bit of textured vegetable protein in them. The filling is otherwise kinda slippery and not very textured. While I'd consider getting these again, I thought the Prime Foods ones were a little better. I have to hunt around more at the store for something with a little more pep. It was nice that these were a little on the smaller side, and the bread was plenty fluffy and soft.



Score: 3/5 - These were completely acceptable frozen cabbage buns, just a little bland.

China Pearl Review

China Pearl (9 Tyler St., Boston, MA) is a huge dim sum palace that I have frequented on numerous occasions. This is the typical, red and gold decorated, push carts and punch-cards type of dim sum place. Have I mentioned that this place actually has two floors? Ack, I think they have an elevator for the carts! I recently visited for my friend Nicole's birthday, in a party of 10. We were lucky to get seated rapidly.

With so many people in the party, we were able to get and try a lot of stuff. I of course stuck to the vegetarian stuff, so there aren't any meaty pictures here... Even with a few of my favorites awol (the rice roll long donut, fried bread inside a rice roll doused in sweet soy sauce, is an elusive target, with the chance of getting it 50/50 any time you go, and the half-moon vegetable dumplings with walnut were also impossible to find this time), I still stuffed myself like crazy. It's hard to eat it all even if you take it easy.

First up, Chinese broccoli with dark sauce. This vegetable is a crispy stalk, like a broccoli rabe with more stalk and less leaf and buds, which is lightly sauteed. They put a dark sauce on this that may not be vegetarian. It's a savory umami sauce, I buy similar sauces for use at home that are vegetarian, but it could be oyster sauce... So sometimes I avoid this, but it is very tasty and probably the healthiest thing here.

Egg custard cups! They're flaky and light on the outside, and firm but smooth on the inside. The custard flavor is eggy, but not dominantly so. Better than buying them at a pastry shop.

Lotus buns, steam buns with sticky sweet paste on the inside. I have never gotten much from lotus paste as a flavor. It's a simple smooth sweet paste. The texture is good, it's not mealy or grainy, just soft and almost creamy.

Sesame balls are a classic favorite. These are chewy thick dough balls coated in sesame seeds with red bean paste on the insides. They're deep fried, so they end up a little crispy on the outside. The flavors are distinct, with the toasted sesame crust and an actual strong red-bean flavor for the paste.

These baked custard buns have the same custard inside them that the next bunch of fluffy custard buns. The custard is softer than in the custard pastry tarts, quite sweet, but still eggy. The crust on top is a sugar crumble crust, sweet but not too sweet. The bread of the bun itself is fluffy and just a little chewy. In the right corner of the picture you can see a tofu skin roll poking out. These are like giant sprint rolls with a wrapped tofu skin instead of a pastry wrapper. They are deep fried. The filling has strips of bamboo shoot, mushroom bits, carrots, baby corn, and such. The filling is pieces of these veggies, pretty well cooked, but large, and will totally just fall out of there. The rolls are relatively oily, but I love em. Don't know why I don't have a separate picture...

Next, fluffy steamed custard buns... How can you go wrong? Other than finger photo bombs...

A relatively new offering for China Pearl, edamame. These were pretty thoroughly steamed, and lightly spiced. There was a distinct sea-salt flavor, but some other subtle spices. Definitely some light pepper. There were hints of other spices I couldn't pin down. Maybe there was a tiny bit of ginger in the water? While I thought these could have been a cooked a little less, I thought the flavor was surprisingly subtle and good.

Finally, true desserts. This is silken tofu in a light honey ginger sauce. The honey is dilute, and the ginger flavor is light. The tofu is otherwise unsweetened. It's a surprise hit dessert. I should have taken a picture to show you of the serving cart, which has a giant wooden barrel for the soft tofu, which the server ladles out into bowls, then pours on the sauce. It's a very different dessert, and not overwhelmingly sweet. On the left, you can see the mango pudding cup. It's more of a firm jello, but it't probably made with agar, it's that firm. There are little shreds of real mango in there, too.

Overall, China Pearl gives the full dim sum experience, and actually has a lot of vegetarian stuff, though if you don't know what's what, you could have a hard time. Ask the waiters and the servers, but be aware that a fair number of the cart servers don't speak a lot of English. The maitre'd is a busy person, but can help you out in a pinch. Anyway, even if you just get your regular frozen favorites, like custard buns, they're just a little better fresh from a cart! And frankly, this is a cheap proposition. You probably couldn't manage $20 of dim sum a person!

Score: 4.5/5 - There's plenty of good stuff here besides sweets. Beware of sauces!

Dim Sum Breakfast at Home

So half of the time, I'm eating what's probably technically dim sum as dinner appetizers or sides, punching up a big veggie curry or noodle dish with some tasty treats to make a fancier meal. The rest of the time, I'm making a dim sum based brunch. This is a picture of the one I reviewed the chive dumplings from.

Along with the chive dumplings we've got the Vegetable Rice Roll and the last of the grainy Spring Rolls, just to finish them off, along with sweet chili sauce. The nice thing about the dim sum brunch like this is that it's possible to balance all this stuff even though it's all cooking differently. In this case, the chive dumplings were pan fried, the rice roll was microwaved, and the spring rolls were in the toaster oven.

Foodhut Frozen Chive Dumpling

Frozen Chive Dumplings! On the whole, I find most of these style of chive dumplings quite similar. I am not sure what culture these trace to originally, although I think the writing on this particular package is Thai, and you do get these at Thai restaurants... but some of the packages are for Chinese chive dumplings, and i have had similar dumplings at Chinese dim sum places. Anyway, I pan-fried these guys, for quite a while. They are pretty frozen solid on the inside, so you can make a beginner's mistake and get them done on the outside but not done on the inside. To combat this, you can pre-microwave them. I think the package suggests steaming them, but to be honest, I don't think I'd like that. That would make the outside sticky, with the inside slimy and dense like thawed frozen spinach. The filling is primarily just chives, well cooked so the flavor is mild, but basically a thick and dense layer. Overall, I do like these when they're fried, but they are a bit of a pain. Also, they end up being pretty messy. The filling squishes out.

Score: 3.5/5 - Chewy skin and dense filling. The flavor is good, but they can be a pain to deal with.

Prime Food Vegetable Dumpling with Cabbage and Mushroom

These froze dumplings from Kam Man were really good. Though, what struck me about them first is how they do not match the picture on the bag... The ones on the bag look like gyoza type dumplings, long, with thin skins, like the Day-Lee ones. The actual dumplings have a thick, chewy skin and are squatter. After the initial doubt played out, I decided that these were pretty good. The way we made them, was to boil them first for five minutes or so, then to pan fry them. The original instructions just said to boil, but I like the extra texture afforded by pan frying. These guys are a little tougher than the gyoza style ones usually are, so they are able to take it. Even little rips don't necessitate a loss of filling. And on the topic of filling, I have to give these good marks. The little bit of mushroom in the dumplings is tastable, and the filling sticks together without being pasty.

Score: 4/5 - Chewy, satisfying skin, and simple, well-textured filling. These have hit the top of the list for veggie dumplings so far.