7/4 Empress Harbour (Monterey Park, CA)

Dim Sum. After a long wait we were finally seated. Who showed up? C, E, Y, T, J, and i met Bo, L, and S. Good thing i took a picture of everything because at press time, i cannot remember a single thing. I think we drank long jiang (dragon well) tea. it’s a light green tea. i think E wanted chrsanthymum – my bad – but the chances of getting insecticide with that is probably higher.

Here are the listings:

Red bean / coconut layer pudding. “hung dow yeh jup go.” good but not popular with our crowd

fried shrimp/fish balls. “ja ha kow”. yummy

jellyfish – “hoy jeet”. elastic with a slice resiliency. yum. i like this a lot. hard to find and not cheap though

some dumpling “gow” that i didn’t try. probably has shrimp, pork, chives/green onions, etc.

shrimp dumpling. “ha gow”. a must-have at dim sum

chicken feet “fong jau” and spare ribs “pai gwut”. both i didn’t have.

leaf-wrapped sticky rice with pork, shrimp, duck egg yolk. “nor mai gai“. i split half with C.

turnip cake “law bakk go”. yum.

taro cake. “wu tau go”. kinda dry.

beef rice flour roll. “ngau yuk cheung (fun)”. case in point when C says that us girls gotta act fast else we don’t get anything to eat!

i didn’t have any. but it’s okay, i know what it tastes like

beef balls. “ngau yuk yuen” or “ngau yuk kow”. with worcestershire sauce, these balls are really good.

pork dumpling with a mochi / sticky-exterior. “haam sui gok”. this are pretty good

BBQ Pork buns “Cha siu bau” and Tripe “ngau bak yeep”. both are good in their own ways.

steamed fish balls. “lang yu kow”. These aren’t bad. Hard to find ground fish paste at the market though.

chinese greens. “choy sum”. not sure what the english equivalent would be. chinese spinach would be “yin choy” and that’s not right. not “gai lan”/chinese mustard either. chinese broccoli? oh well.

sweet buns with custard? “boh loh bau”. thetop of the bun has some sweet baked-on crust. inside there is some sweet goo. i wasn’t sure if this was boh loh bau or baked nai wong bau, which is is the sweet gooey eggy buns. who knows, i didn’t eat any haha.

this almond soup with a crust baked on top was a total dud.

the almond soup you can make by yourself by adding hot water to powder. the crust top reminded me of lobster bisque with filo baked over the top at Cafe de Coral in Hong Kong (chain of homecooking fast food).

Overall, it was fun times.

Shao May/Kang Kang Food Court (Alhambra, CA)

Deli. So with M rolling in late but yet hungry, we decided to meet here. I sat between Bo and J who both bought frozen Taiwanese dessert so i was eating off both. i’m such a scab. Bo got red beans, mochi/soup balls and lychee? J got mango, mochi/soupballs and lychee, i think. My memory is not so good. The dessert is good but you have to eat fast. Otherwise it’s like Katrina aftermath and you’re keeping the liquids within the boundaries of the shallow dish.

Famima!!! (Next to the Gable House, Torrance, CA)
While waiting for J and Y, we stopped at Famima!!! and sat at the table shot the sh*t while I drank a bottle of izze sparkling pear juice (70% juice and 30% sparkling water – good stuff) and i forgot what M got (who cares about M). haha

photo courtesy of some website

Poquito Mas (Rolling Hills, Los Angeles, CA)
Mexican. What to do with free movie tickets from Uncle J? How about watching Knocked up. The three of us found the AMC and got tickets and dinner. I got the chile pasilla plate -chicken with mango salsa on a tortilla, black beans with some melted cheese on top, mexican rice, tortilla chips with various salsas: Salsa chipano – orangy barfy color. pico de gallo; salsa verde; cilantro and onions, black salsa, radish. For my drink I got Jamaica. I think I need to drink a tamarindo side by side to compare which i like better

Tags: Empress Harbour, Famima!, Kang Kang Food Court, Poquito Mas, Shau May