China Pearl Redux

Last month included a visit to China Pearl, with Ben, Nicole, their sons James and Zac, and Rydia and Antonio. It's a place I used to frequent in my grad student days. I don't know if dim sum is not as popular as it used to be or what, but we haven't had to wait for a table even for a pretty large party the last couple of timed I visited. I tried a few new things this time around, and have pictures of a few things I didn't catch last time! First up are these new veggie dumplings. I think I have seen these on the carts before, but didn't realize that they were vegetarian! The old veggie dumplings were simple crescent/half-circle affairs, but these ones are much more ornate in shape! The filling is not identical to the old filling, although the filling does still include nuts. I think the nuts are walnut bits. Otherwise, mostly napa-type cabbage and carrots. Despite the decorative peas on the top, no peas are in the filling!

These baked buns were on the same cart as the pork buns that look like this and spring rolls and shrimp crisp triangles and the like. The red dot in the middle distinguishes them from the pork buns of this type. The cart attendant suggested that they were pineapple, but I didn't get any pineapple out of them! They didn't seem to have any filling at all, really. Just pleasant, freshly baked lightly sweet dough with crumble topping. The bun is chewy, but not very dense, and the sweetness level is not cloying. These are pleasant buns, and I would consider them instead of other dessert options, like custard buns or custard cups.

Half-devoured plate! The exploded thing in the lower right is one of the veggie dumplings, you can see the exposed filling. It's joined by a baked bun and half a sesame ball.

The following picture is for the elusive fried dough rice roll! Rice rolls are very popular, and most of the ones on the rice roll cart are beef or shrimp. This one, with the fried dough, is only available on that cart sometimes. I you don't see it on the cart and ask about it, you get the "later" response, which can really mean all done for the day. I have a feeling this is because they don't "sit" as well as the meat filling ones. But on to the substance! These rolls are, yes, fried dough, wrapped in a rice noodle-like wrapper. They are sprinkled with what I think is cilantro? It adds a little bit of flavor, but not much. After you ask for it from the cart, the server douses it in a thinned, sweetened soy sauce. This is the standard sauce for rice rolls, the frozen fungus rice rolls I like come with a packet. This results in the presentation below. And let me just say, I love this stuff. LOVE IT! We actually got a second round when it appeared again, even though we had all just said we were completely full and done eating.

Now, this is next roll was in my last China Pearl review, but I didn't have a good picture for it. These large rolls have a tofu-skin wrapper, and are deep fried. The filling is cut into strips, with pieces of carrot, bamboo shoot, mushroom, baby corn, and a few other things. The sauce they put on them is again, soy based, but with a little vinegar along with the bit of sweetening. The tricky thing with these is that when the server snips them into pieces, they rarely get cut through all the way, so you have to be a little careful and rip the segments apart. These are one of my favorite savory dishes at China Pearl.

I should note that while everything I ate is to the best of my knowledge vegetarian, I have no guarantees, just the best knowledge of the floor staff. As noted in my previous review, some of the sauces can be suspect, though I am pretty sure that the rice roll and tofu skin roll sauces are veggie. If you have an allergy to nuts or fish and shellfish, you should probably give the whole thing a pass. For example, the tofu skin rolls are usually on the same cart as shrimp spring rolls and those crispy crab bundles, which the servers cut with the same scissors. And I doubt they have a dedicated vegetarian deep fryer. Still, I am willing to go there and risk a little food touching.

Score: 4.5/5 - A lot of good stuff here. I guess I just can't give it a 5 because I still miss some of the dishes from Vegetarian Dim Sum House in New York.

Chef One Vegetable Bun

These are another remainder from Kam Man. The Chef One buns in general have breadier, drier dough that I am not in love with. The ratio of filling to dough is also low. I think it works for their rich sesame peanut variety, but with a sort of plain vegetable filling, you want more filling! These were inoffensive, but I should really plan on not buying them in the future, they don't live up to some of the other options out there.

Score: 2.5/5 - Just OK. More bread than filling, which doesn't work that well for vegetable buns.

Korea's Hoppang Vegetable Bun

Another H Mart find, Korean steamed buns. The package does illustrate what flavor of veggie these buns are, namely a little cabbage, a little onion, a little carrot, but leaves off the vermicelli used to round out the filling. Overall, the filling had a good texture and a pleasant but not exciting flavor. The bun held up to the filling, not letting it crumble out too much. The size is just right for a vegetable bun, a little larger than a dessert bun, but not large enough to fall apart.

These held up nicely during steaming.

Score: 4/5 - A well done vegetable bun. Again, not exciting, but I will buy these again for the "vegetable bun" rotation.

Taiyaki "Fish" Custard Cake

H Mart! There's an H Mart in Burlington. It's a big popular Korean-American chain. I went because I needed some sauces and deep-fried tofu (and to explore). Of course, I wouldn't skip the dim sum section! These "fish" cakes had no English on the package except the brand name, Taiyaki, and the ingredients. I was pretty sure from the picture on the front of the package that this was just going to be a custard bun of some kind, and I was right!

The first time I tried these was when Rydia was visiting. She was super psyched for them, because she's had them fresh at her local market in New Jersey. They are made in a cooking iron like a waffle iron. The dough does taste like Chinese egg waffles, so it all makes sense.

I ended up steaming them (alongside Chef Hon veggie buns and lotus buns), even though the directions said to microwave them. Which would have been weird, I think? Seaming them, they ended up kind of soft, but the flavors were great. The custard is a standard, smooth egg custard, and the shell has a light flavor.

The next time I tried these, I microwaved them part way to soften the custard, and then put them in the toaster oven to crisp up the outsides. Ross thought they were too crispy that way, but I liked them that way! There's definitely a balancing act with the timing. Microwave them too long, they rupture, not long enough, they will still have solid custard cores. Toast them too long, and the custard will dry out and the shell will be crunchy, not long enough and they'll still be soggy.

Score: 4/5 - These are pretty darn good. I will buy them again. I will probably try the red bead flavor of these I saw at H Mart, too. (And I hope to try them fresh in New Jersey.)

Chef Hon Steamed Green Vegatable Buns

These are some of the last remaining buns from Kam Man. I know I mentioned at some point that I've moved, so the South Bay Shopping Center and its Kam Man are no longer in my backyard. I still have some goodies from there, but pretty soon it will be a distant memory... Anyway, on to the buns. The filling in these had a lot of green leaf vegetable bits, sort of like spinach bits, and generally held together well. There was a little onion flavor, according to my fellow taste tester. The bun dough was alright, on the bready side but not dry.

Score: 3.5/5 - These are pretty good for simple vegetable buns. I am still on a quest to find an amazing vegetable bun, but these are certainly good.

Wei-Chuan Sweet Potato Bun

These Wei-Chuan Sweet Potato Buns came from Kam Man, frozen. The Wei-Chuan buns generally have a good ratio of bun to filling. The sweet potato filling is just OK. The sweet potato flavor is there, but it's not very strong. It's just a little bland. At least it's not overly sweet, I guess.

Score: 3/5 - These are inoffensive and pleasant buns, but I just am not that excited about them.

Mary's with Blake

I hit Mary Chung's last month with Blake. Here he is modeling his Suan La Chow Show, which I have never had since it's meaty. Some kind of meaty dumplings in spicy broth.

Mary's does menu-based dim sum on weekend mornings, but we were here for dinner. Still, I ended up ordering one of the popular appetizers that is of course a dim sum feature. Scallion Pancake!

The scallion pancakes here are thick and chewy, not crisp and flaky, and definitely deep fried. They're served with a lightly sweetened soy chili sauce. While not quite the standard scallion pancake, these are amazing. If you go to Mary Chung's, get at least one for your table! As an added bonus, a friend asked and has been assured that these are vegan!

Wei-Chuan Sesame Paste Bun

These Sesame Paste Buns, which I bought frozen at Kam Man, have black sesame paste. The paste gets fairly soft and liquid when you heat it up, it's practically just sweetened ground sesame. The liquidity makes it a little tough to eat, as it tries to drip out as soon as you've taken a bite. For whatever reason, I find these to be grittier than the Wei-Chuan Sweet Powder Sesame Seed Buns. It's like the hulls of the black sesame seeds are crispy and gritty. Still, good flavor, good bun-to-filling ratio, good bun size.

Score: 3/5 - I like them enough, but I would buy their plain sesame counterpart over these.

Wei-Chaun Sweet Powdered Sesame Seed Bun

These were bought at the Kam Man, frozen of course. The sesame filling is sweetened and smooth. While it gets close to liquid warm, if you let it cool a little you can take a bite and put it down and not worry about it oozing all over. The ratio of filling to bun dough is just right for me, and the dough texture is soft and suitably squishy when it's steamed. I like these buns, and I hope I can get more of them!

Score: 4/5 - Pretty good sesame bun. Up there pretty high on the list for pure sesame buns. (I like the Prime Foods Sesame Peanut Butter ones' filling better, but that's not pure sesame, and this bun has a better overall filling-dough package.)

An Update on Cooking Frozen Sweet Potato Pies

So, this isn't a full on re-review, but after some experimentation, I've decided that pan-frying is the way to go with these sweet potato-stuffed pancakes. (And truly, all frozen pancakes.) Fried with a little bit of peanut oil or whatever you have on hand, these end up fully cooked and crispy, but also still fork-edge-cuttable. So, add these to your frying medley.

Cassava Net Spring Rolls

Sorry for my long absence. I've been... busy... work, family wedding, moving, it's all been keeping me from posting. But, on the plus side, I have a lot of Dim Sum to show you.

These are K Fat Inc. Pandang Purple Cassava Net Spring Roll. Bought from the Kam Man frozen. We traditionally cook these in the toaster oven to get that pleasant crispness without frying. Generally, I love net rolls, but they do tend to be quite flaky so you get threads everywhere. I think deep frying them would make the net threads stick together a little better. Still, I really enjoy the texture. The cassava filling is sweet, but not overly so. It's the kind of sweet that I tend to pair with salty sauce, usually vegetarian oyster sauce. The cassava filling is very evenly pasty. The paste remains firm at temperature, but not so firm that you can't mop up a few fallen net flakes with it. Overall, I like these rolls. I think I slightly prefer the small versions of these, which I usually intentionally cook to over-done, in which the cassava is less prominent. But, I like the cassava!

Score: 3.5/5 - A lovely simple roll with a flakey outside, sweet inside.