I out-hustled a U-T Superdiner to finish a plate. Emerald has the best, toastiest, sesame-seed-coated dough balls (fried outside, a thumbprint of red bean paste on its chewy inside). Servers swarm the room with tempting dim-sum carts, lift container lids with three-card Monte agility, and reveal winners like pork siu mai, a succulent ground-meat cluster bomb inside a bit of wonton skin. Can you see how sweet-centered those pillowy barbecue pork buns are? Do you know that steamed inside those lotus leaf envelopes there’s sticky rice mixed with mini shrimp, pork and dime-sized sausage? There’s no picture of the salt-and-pepper squid entree, but imagine a great calamari fritti bristling with jalapeño.ģ709 Convoy St., Kearny Mesa.
This ballroom/restaurant has pictures of all its dim sum on its menu. Earnie Graftonģ893 54th St., City Heights.
The dim-sum action inside Emerald Restaurant in Kearny Mesa. “It’s good for your skin.” Surprisingly, no one said, “Roll yourself out to the lake behind the restaurant for a postprandial walk.” Another approved of my order of cartilage-chewy chicken feet in black bean sauce. But I love the gregarious cart-pushing servers most: “It’s just you?” One asked in disbelief when I took more slick and chewy shrimp dumplings, or har gow, or bulging pleated wonton purses. The wine cellar by this elongated restaurant’s entrance makes a good first impression. But there was a big dim-sum lull between carts one lunch, and we were stranded in this banquet hall, twiddling our chopsticks, hoping somebody would appear with pork spare ribs or Chinese broccoli even.ġ1666 Avena Place, Rancho Bernardo. As one Jasmine manager said, “Shark fin has no flavor.” (The delicacy will soon be banned since the state Legislature’s letting restaurants sell their existing kitchen stock only until next year.) The shrimp siu mai - a steamed prawn stack in a crinkly wonton wrapper - wasn’t a waste of time here, either. The ocean predator just adds that surprise “pop” texture. In Jasmine’s pork-and-shark-fin dumpling, the piggy protein does all the tasty work. Har gow: Cooked shrimp, green onions, ginger and seasonings are steamed inside thin, sticky wrappers with rumpled edges.Ĥ609 Convoy St., Kearny Mesa. Lotus leaf sticky rice: A cake of glutinous rice, mushrooms, water chestnuts and various proteins gets steamed inside a lotus leaf - it’s presented like a parcel. Pot stickers: Wonton skins filled with a mixture of meat and seasonings, these are usually steamed before being pan-fried, and they’re considered Northern China’s contribution to dim sum. Siu mai: Sometimes spelled “shu mai” or “shumai” (“SHOO-my”), these steamed dumplings may have diced ginger, green onions, water chestnuts and pork or shrimp inside their wonton wrappers. Some popular offerings:Ĭhar sui bao: These barbecue pork buns, pronounced “char-SOO-bow,” are fluffy white steamed buns that contain cube-sized pork in a Cantonese-style sauce. Dim sum, Cantonese for “heart’s delight,” originated in Southern China and is served in appetizerlike amounts.
0 kommentar(er)
