Just a few more reports to go from our trip to Seoul in July. We made a few returns on this trip: to Gwangjang Market, to Gwanghwamun Gukbap, and to Oreno Ramen (the first visit for me, the second time for the missus and the boys). This report is of a lunch that was also a return of a kind. One of our very last meals in the city in March 2024 had been an excellent dim sum lunch at the Samseong location of Tim Ho Wan, the famous Hong Kong-based dim sum chain. Now, it’s not like eating Chinese food would normally be a high priority in Seoul but when you live in a dim sum desert like Minnesota, you have to take every opportunity to eat high quality dim sum that you get. As it happens, we thought that lunch was even better than at the better dim sum places in the San Gabriel Valley outside Los Angeles. And so it was a given that we would return on this trip as well. And we did—but not to the location we’d eaten at in 2024. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Cantonese
Zao Bakery + Cafe (St. Paul, MN)
It’s been two months since my last Twin Cities restaurant report (of two lunches at two locations of El Super Taco) but here I am again. I have for you today a look at a restaurant we’ve been wanting to eat at for the last seven months: Zao Bakery + Cafe. They opened on University Ave. in St. Paul (where else?) just short of Dale last December and were rapturously received by the masses for their self-service offerings of Chinese buns and dumplings and other snacks as well as a limited offering of noodles, noodle soups and congees from the kitchen. These are all things we enjoy very much and hence our desire to eat there. Why it took so long, I can’t quite explain but we did finally get there last weekend. And I am glad to report that we were not disappointed in the slightest by it. Herewith the details. Continue reading
Henry’s Cuisine (Los Angeles, June 2024)
Okay, let’s get back to California in June. I still have one more report to come from our trip within a trip to the Bay Area (when last seen, we’d eaten excellent dim sum at City View) but I’m going to scoot back down to the greater L.A metro, where we spent a few more days after driving back from the north. Our first meal out after our return was eaten with old friends at Henry’s Cuisine in Alhambra (in the San Gabriel Valley). We had actually been scheduled to eat dinner there with them before we left for the Bay Area but those plans had to be scrapped. I’m very glad we made it in after all for this was an excellent lunch. Here’s a quick look. Continue reading
City View (San Francisco, June 2024)
Okay, it’s time to put the San Francisco trip reports to bed. As I think I mentioned before, a full half of our meals in the city involved Chinese food. Only one of these meals was planned: dim sum at Yank Sing on our first full day. Our brunch/lunch at 606 came about mostly because our evolving plans put us right by it on the second day. On the third day we started out with a visit to Alcatraz Island (highly recommended) and the original plan had been to eat at Hog Island Oyster Co. in the Ferry Building right after. But as the older boy had not been able to enjoy dim sum at Yank Sing (on account of a blessedly mild and brief bout of food poisoning), he asked if we could go eat a full-on dim sum meal again. And so we ended up at City View at Walter U. Lum Place. Continue reading
606 (San Francisco, June 2024)
Our second full day in San Francisco was also a busy one but thankfully it began with the older boy completely recovered from the mild food poisoning he’d suffered the previous day. This had kept him out of our excellent dinner at Copra the previous night and had also meant he could not enjoy our dim sum lunch at Yank Sing—at the beginning of which is when the symptoms first hit him. And so he asked if we could eat some dumplings for lunch on this day as well. This worked well with our plans. We were due at the Rancho Gordo mothership in Napa in the afternoon but had been planning already to take the boys to Chinatown and City Lights in the morning. I cast around for well-reviewed purveyors of dumplings in the relative vicinity of City Lights and 606 was right there. It turned out to be a solid choice. Continue reading
Yank Sing (San Francisco, June 2024)
On schedule for once, here is my second meal report from our brief visit to San Francisco in mid-June. We’d arrived the previous evening (when we had dinner at State Bird Provisions). Our first full day started in Berkeley, on the campus of UC Berkeley, to be exact, walking the missus’ undergraduate haunts with the boys. From there we returned to San Francisco for lunch. Dim sum was what we were after. The best dim sum in the Bay Area is said to be in the suburbs, not in San Francisco proper but it seemed unlikely we’d be driving to the suburbs just to eat. Luckily, there’s very good dim sum in the city as well and if you ask for recommendations from local foodies, the venerable Yank Sing is likely to be on most people’s lists. There are two locations; we went to the one on Spear St., in the Rincon Center. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Tim Ho Wan (Seoul, March 2024)
In my report on our meal at Grand Szechuan at the end of March I noted that in our three months away we had barely eaten any Chinese food. I listed two meals: one a Korean-Chinese lunch in Seoul and the other an Indian-Chinese takeout dinner in Delhi. Somehow I forgot about the third, which was the best of the three and the only non-hyphenated Chinese one of the three: dim sum at one of the Seoul outposts of the Tim Ho Wan empire. Tim Ho Wan, as you probably know, started out in 2009 as a no-frills, reasonably priced dim sum shop in Hong Kong, famously picking up a Michelin star. Multiple branches opened in Hong Kong (I’ve previously reported on a quick meal at the Central branch) and then all over the world (including the US). We’ve not eaten at Tim Ho Wan’s US locations but when we saw there were three in Seoul, we couldn’t resist. We ended up eating at the Samseong location in Gangnam. This is the flagship Seoul location and, most importantly, the largest of the three. A long wait seemed the least likely here and that hope proved true. After a brief wait we were seated and very quickly after that we we were eating. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Duck (Dublin, Summer 2023)
It’s been a while since my last restaurant report from our trip to Ireland in the summer. That most recent report was of a lunch centered on seafood, at King Sitric, in the coastal town of Howth, just about 30 minutes by train from Dublin. Here now is a meal eaten in Dublin proper, centered on Hong Kong-style barbecue or roast meats. Duck is located on Fade St. right by the George’s Street Arcade, and just around the corner from the excellent Asia Market—and not very far, for that matter, from either Good World or Ka Shing. It is a tiny operation. The room has seating for maybe 20 people, either around a larger communal table in the middle or at the narrow counter that rings the three walls around it. The fourth wall is taken up by the counter where you place your order and pick it up when it’s ready. It’s not a place to eat in at if you’re a large group—and even if you’re a group of four, your chances of getting seats together are higher if you show up right when they open at noon. After that they fill up quickly with solo diners on their lunch breaks. Not surprisingly, most of their business seems to be carry-away. The four of us did sit down. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Dim Sum at Good World (Dublin, Summer 2023)
As previously reported, our second meal out in Dublin involved dim sum. We ate on that occasion at Ka Shing (on Wicklow St.) but only after being turned away at Good World (on George’s St.) because we didn’t have a reservation. Good World is Dublin’s premier dim sum restaurant and the one that shows up on all the lists of Dublin’s best Chinese restaurants. On weekends you will need a reservation. Accordingly, we made one for the following weekend and showed up again. We’d been pleasantly surprised by the dim sum at Ka Shing the previous week—our expectations had not been high—and I am pleased to say that we enjoyed Good World even more, on the whole; though there were a few things we preferred at Ka Shing. Herewith the details. Continue reading
Dim Sum at Ka Shing (Dublin, Summer 2023)
Our first meal out in Dublin featured Persian/Kurdish food (at Passion 4 Food). Our second meal out featured dim sum. I’d done some cursory googling on Dublin’s Chinese restaurant scene and the consensus seemed to be that Good World on Georges St. was the place to go. Accordingly, we went there; only to discover on arrival that we needed to have made a reservation. Casting around for a fallback option, I came upon another restaurant just a few minutes walk from Good World: Ka Shing on Wicklow St. We sauntered over and were glad to be told that they could seat us. Herewith a report on the meal that followed. Continue reading
Dim Sum at Yangtze, 2023 (St. Louis Park, MN)
I bring shocking news: we went out to eat dim sum in the Twin Cities. Regular readers of the blog know why this is shocking. It is not a secret that we—my family and I—are not fans of the dim sum available in the Twin Cities metro. Despite what a lot of people will tell you, it’s not really very good—both on its own merits and when compared to what’s available in American cities with large Chinese populations. In fact, you don’t even have to compare the local scene with that in Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Valley to find it lacking; we ate better dim sum in Denver when we lived in Boulder in the early-mid 2000s. In the past, Yangtze in St. Louis Park was the one place we would eat dim sum at from time to time. But our last meal there—back in 2017—was a big disappointment and, given that it’s a 50 minute each way drive for us, we swore off returning. But we needed to be in St. Louis Park at midday on Sunday and as I cast around for a place to eat an early lunch at Yangtze was right there. And so we decided to give it another go. And we kind of liked it. Herewith the details. Continue reading
Dim Sum at Lunasia, South Bay (Torrance, CA, December 2022)
Here, finally, is a report on our first meal on our Southern California trip in December. This was originally scheduled to be a sushi meal. We were supposed to arrive right before lunch time and the plan was to stop in Torrance for lunch at Nozomi before heading to Seal Beach. But our flight was delayed by more than three hours, and by the time we got our bags and picked up the rental car there was no way we could have made it to Nozomi before they closed for the afternoon. And so we changed the call to dim sum—after sushi, the other genre of food our family loves that we can only get very inferior versions of in Minnesota. Of course, you wouldn’t think that if your only source of information was the local Minnesota food press. According to them, there is very good dim sum available in Minnesota. Just recently a popular food website gave yet another rave review to Mandarin Kitchen, a restaurant at which we’ve only had farcical experiences (the most recent one reviewed here). As such, we always make it a point to eat dim sum at least once on our Southern California trips. And on this trip it was on the very first day. How did it go? Read on. Continue reading
Dim Sum at J. Zhou (Los Angeles, June 2022)
Here, finally, is my last restaurant report from our time in Los Angeles in June. It is of our last meal eaten out, which coincidentally bookended the beginning of our eating out on that trip quite well. As you have doubtless memorized, our first meal was at 101 Dim Sum/Dim Sum 101 in Lomita. And this last also featured dim sum, at J Zhou in Tustin. Dim sum aside, the two restaurants are quite far apart in ambience and style. You could fit several 101 Dim Sums inside J Zhou and where the small restaurant is done up in a hipper, more contemporary style, J Zhou’s decor is in a more maximalist banquet restaurant style (unlike 101 Dim Sum, J Zhou becomes a Cantonese seafood restaurant in the evenings). Their menu too is much larger than 101 Dim Sum’s and contains a lot more than just the greatest hits/standards. But did it all add up to a better meal for us? Read on. Continue reading
Dim Sum 101 (Los Angeles, June 2022)
Alright, let’s get started on the meal reports from our 9 days in Los Angeles before we headed off to Hawaii. Unlike our two weeks in Hawaii, our time in Los Angeles was very food-focused—as it always is. We are not tourists in Los Angeles: all we do is hang out with family and friends, hang out at the beach and go out to eat. And one of the three categories of food we look forward to eating the most when in Southern California is dim sum (sushi and Korean are the two others). Usually, we head to one of our favourite places in the San Gabriel Valley for dim sum but on this trip we decided to stick closer to home, which is now in Seal Beach (which is not only not Los Angeles, it is not even in LA County). We ate dim sum twice on this trip—coincidentally for both our first and last meal out—and at two different ends of the spectrum. First up, a quick meal at Dim Sum 101 in Lomita, a relatively new operation. Continue reading
Dim Sum at Rosewood (Toronto)
Here is some better dim sum than last reported on from Minnesota. The dim sum at Rosewood in Toronto was nothing amazing on its own terms but was on a whole other level than that at Mandarin Kitchen which was no good at all. Of course, Toronto is one of the major centers of Chinese immigration and cuisine in North America, and for Cantonese food in particular Vancouver is said by the knowledgable to be the only metro above it. However, the best Chinese food in Toronto is now found not in the city proper but in the suburbs of Scarborough, Markham and Richmond Hill. The old Chinatown is no longer the center of Chinese food in the city. However, my group was staying close to Chinatown and we did not have space in our itinerary for a long round-trip just to eat brunch. And so a couple of us cast about for plausible places in Chinatown and Rosewood showed up on both our radars. Continue reading
Dim Sum at Mandarin Kitchen (Bloomington, MN)
Oh boy, this post is going to win me even more friends and well-wishers in the Twin Cities food world.
My views on dim sum in the Twin Cities have never been popular. Many people here say that the dim sum scene in the Twin Cities is very good. In this they are supported by members of the local food media. Exhibit A for this position is Mandarin Kitchen in Bloomington, a restaurant whose dim sum selection has recently been described by one critic who dislikes me intensely as “dizzying, dazzling”. Alas, our opinion—the missus and mine—has always been that Mandarin Kitchen is in fact the worst of a ho-hum lot. We liked Jun Bo in Richfield better (before it closed) and still prefer Yangtze in St. Louis Park and the far less written about A&L Chinese in Inver Grove Heights. However, our last meal at Mandarin Kitchen was some years ago. That meal was so bad we’d sworn to never go back; but my parents are in town again and they always want to go to dim sum and Mandarin Kitchen is the most conveniently located of all dim sum houses for us. And so we decided to go back and see if things have improved. Here are our findings. Continue reading
Crown Princess (Toronto)
Back to Canada. We took the train from Montreal to Toronto, a journey that takes longer than I’d thought it would before we purchased our tickets, and which mostly goes through rather boring countryside. Well, there may be things of interest in there, I suppose, but nothing very interesting to look at from the train. Arriving at our hotel around 2.15, we were all starving—we’d foolishly assumed there’d be food to eat on the train and there was nothing beyond snacks, and so very few of us had eaten anything since breakfast. Along with a few others I went out for a small snack to a Taiwanese place down the road from our hotel. This is not an account of that small snack. This is an account of the meal a few hours later that is the reason for our having gone out for only a small snack: a full-on Cantonese banquet dinner at Crown Princess, rated by many as the best formal Cantonese restaurant in Downtown Toronto. The best Chinese food, otherwise, I’m told is out in the suburbs of Markham and Scarborough. I’ve no idea where Crown Princess ranks in the Greater Toronto Cantonese hierarchy but I can tell you this was a very good meal. Continue reading
Dim Sum at Tim Ho Wan (Hong Kong, December 2018)
Here finally is my last food report from my Hong Kong trip in December. As on our previous visit in 2016, I inaugurated my eating at Crystal Jade at the airport not too long after landing; but on this occasion I did not eat my last meal there as well. Instead, I took the opportunity offered by traveling alone to eat at Tim Ho Wan’s Hong Kong station outlet. We’d tried to do this on the last trip too but the line was very long on every occasion that we passed it and our kids were in no mood to stand in it. The line was quite long this time too but I stood in it and it moved fast enough to not be a trial. Was the food worth it? Yes, it was. Continue reading