Dim Sum King

Dim Sum King is in the plaza behind Pho Nam, and that's how we found it. It's really like a fast-food dim sum place, in that there's a menu, you order and pay, then you take it to-go. There were a few tables, so we stayed to eat there. We got chow mein (average, a little oily), shrimp dumplings, stuffed pork dumplings, pork potstickers, and an egg roll. The shrimp dumplings were a little thick, but good. The stuffed pork were sweeter than I was expecting, and I could only eat one. The pastry part just killed me. The potstickers were average, but the sauce wasn't anything special, and I think that usually makes the difference. The egg roll was gross... I think I ate half before giving up.

Joy Tsin Lau

We were in Philadelphia for Independence Day. After the parade, we went to lunch in Chinatown. I was excited about a true Chinese meal (omg do I miss California Chinese!!), but got silly-nervous about the prospect of not having any English again. Jonathan picked out a place called Joy Tsin Lau that was doing a discount for the 4th (10% off with events calendar), and we went in for dim sum. We were seated after a short wait, and had delightful service throughout. Our waters were refilled twice (very important when it's near 100 degrees out!), and the carts came by at pretty good intervals. The food was fresh and hot (at least three out of five of our dishes were fresh-out-of-the-kitchen), and very good. We had pork dumplings, shrimp dumplings (but a different kind), bacon-wrapped shrimp, pork fried rice, and something that now escapes me. The cart-pushers knew the names of the meats in English, and that's all we really needed so that was fine.

Wing Wah Chinese Restaurant

There we were... we had just come out of the meat shop (not a butcher, just a meat shop, LoL), and had started the car. While Jonathan was looking at the GPS to plan a better route home (we were down New Falls), I noticed it. A Chinese restaurant across the street. But not just any Chinese restaurant... the sign read "Dim Sum Szechuan Cantonese" ... and before I knew it my arm was extended and pointing at the sign, as I said "Look! Dim Sum!" Our plans to head home were temporarily set aside as we quickly decided to dart across the street and check out Wing Wah.

The Dim Sum menu consisted of nine items and a combo platter. We ordered the platter to go, and Jonathan also tried the chicken egg drop soup. We waited about 15 minutes and then were headed home again. The menu also featured a bunch of regular dishes, and some unique things which we may go back to try at some point, especially if we're down in that area of Levittown.

We were quite excited about how good the food made the car smell (we also needed to stop at the liquor store on the way home, since I needed to pick up some sherry for a soup I was going to make the next night). When I opened the container in the kitchen, the mouth-watering aroma came pouring out all over again. I divvied up the goodies, and we each had plenty for just $7.25.

The shrimp dumplings were fantastic. The pork shu mei was very good. They fell apart a little bit, but that could have been because they sat in a closed box for twenty minutes so there was a bit of condensation build-up. The mini spring rolls were tasty considering their size and content. The flavor was more intense than many of the plain spring rolls most places serve. Lastly, the satay beef sticks were very large in portion. They had a great, sweet sauce lightly on glazed on them, and even I thought the beef was delicious. Jonathan said that the soup was "a little different" and "it had crunchy things in it," LoL.

If you're in Bucks County and want dim sum, this is the best place we've found. And for a great price, considering this isn't Chinatown! If you know of something better, please share the info!! :)

Pan Tao Seafood Restaurant

We wanted to try dim sum at a new place, and we also wanted to try ordering ourselves (aka not having a Chinese-speaking friend with us). So we found a place in Sunnyvale (it was maybe ten minutes away), called Pan Tao. It was noon on a Sunday, and we waited about ten minutes for a table (this was after scouring for a parking spot in their teeny tiny lot). Water and jasmine tea were served right away, and it was only a couple minutes before the first cart came by. The carts were frequent, and we chose five dishes overall. Since it was a seafood place, they were all seafood dishes, LoL. The Shrimp & Spinach Dumpling was good, but the spinach was a little overwhelming, but much better with some soy sauce (which, by the way, they do not offer a low-sodium option). We had Shrimp ground up on Green Pepper, which was pretty good. I wouldn't get that one again, mostly because I prefer a noodle/dumpling component to my dim sum. Jonathan didn't care much for that one either, as I ended up eating three out of the four pieces. Their Shrimp in Rice Noodle, on the other hand, was all Jonathan. I didn't care for the sauce on it at all, it was way too sweet for shrimp and noodle. I should note, though, that you got six pieces instead of four, AND it was cheaper than at Fu Lam Mum. We also had this weird item... it was a sticky ball covered in rice with a solid shrimp center. It was delicious and very filling. We should have gotten two helpings of that one, LoL. Finally, there was the Shrimp and Scallop Dumpling (pictured left), which was more of a ball than a dumpling. It was good... and different... but a bit odd.

Overall, we were semi-comfortable pointing to dishes and using keywords to ask for things. Five dishes was plenty, and our total was about $22. Not too shabby. Jonathan really loves dim sum as a cuisine, and I've got to admit that I'm coming around. I've always enjoyed it, but since we've been out here it's been growing on me even more.
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Update: we went again (today) before I had a chance to actually publish this entry. We got 5 dishes, four of which were repeats. We got the sticky-rice-balls again, as they're a favorite. We also got a plate of noodles (like a wheat vermicelli with onions and bean sprouts) that was pretty bland. I special-ordered the shrimp and banana roll... which was interesting. The outside was very flour-y, and it was shrimp and cilantro with a hint of banana puree. We also got a crunchy shrimp ball... it was the same insides as the sticky-rice-ball, but instead of rice, it was covered in crunchy flat noodles. Not all that appetizing. We also had some sort of shrimp-egg mess. It was in a pastry, and served in a very thick sauce. I didn't care for it, and neither did Jonathan. It totalled $25 this time, and there was no wait (although parking was still a problem). I felt a little more rushed and we needed our waters refilled more frequently than they were. Goal for next time: learn how to order in Chinese. seriously.

[we ended up going many more times, never ordering in Chinese. But, as of 4/16/11, it's gone. There's a new dim sum restaurant there, called New Port Restaurant, which is overpriced and only average]

Dim Sum: Not For Dum Dums

Jonathan and I have been looking forward to trying a full dim sum meal for some time now, as we love the small selection that can be found in certain restaurants in Florida. We've been twice since living in California. Andy and Jim, and Jim's girlfriend Vivian invited us to a dim sum lunch in downtown Mountain View the first time, and we went with just Andy the second time. Both times we went to Fu Lam Mum, which is on the north side of downtown. The place is two stories, but uses a gigantic atrium with only a handful of tables upstairs, when it might have been smarter to have a smaller atrium and more upstairs seating.

Servers bring around carts with covered baskets and plates of food. This ranges from chicken feet to egg custard tarts to pork dumplings. There are also pork-filled pastries, rice paper-covered shrimp, pork-rice-mushrooms in leaves, and a variety of other things. You just let the servers know what to put on your table (which has a big lazy susan), and then you share the dishes. The servers mark on your receipt what you got, and then it is tallied up later to get your total bill. The difficulty: the servers don't speak English, and the dishes aren't labeled. So if you're not sure, you take a gamble. Luckily, Andy could communicate with the servers, so we were set.

We loved pretty much everything we tried, especially the shrimp dim sums (and I'm not sure of the pluralization, so feel free to correct me). I didn't care for the leaf-filled option or the sweet pastry with pork, but we're definitely dim sum fans in general and can't wait to try more. The Chinese broccoli is also worth noting... I thought it was bitter, JB thought it was sweet. It looks nothing like regular broccoli except that it is green. However, it has the stem of asparagus and leaves like spinach. I included a stock internet photo, the only difference from ours being that the oyster sauce was served on the side for ours, not drizzled across (which was a good thing, since it was way too salty for my tastes).

Luckily, this place has a night special, where after 9pm you can get three plates of dim sum for $10, so we want to try that next. :)

Something to beware: only three people out of five had tea with the meal (trip #1), but they charged us for five people. Since the table was set with cups at each place setting, I guess that's how they charge... but Andy and I didn't even turn our cups over so they would be usable. Perhaps it could have been argued, but we didn't bother, since we only caught it at the last minute. The second trip, none of us had tea so it was a simple solution.