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!
No comments:
Post a Comment