Dim sum by the book
Ocean Star offers the best in delicious lunchtime morsels
By Erica Wayne 03/26/2009
My favorite Asian food-scene read is a great little book by Carl Chu called “Finding Chinese Food in Los Angeles.” It’s a real gem, with chapters on tea, social customs, alcoholic beverages, desserts, vegetables, banquets and all the geographical areas of China.
Along the way, he describes individual dishes and recommends some of his favorite restaurants. All his tips have been winners, including one that has become my favorite dim sum destination for the past half-decade: Ocean Star on Atlantic Boulevard in Monterey Park, just south of Alhambra and a mere stone’s-throw from central Pasadena.
According to Chu, “the dim sum ... experience in Los Angeles is leagues above that in other US cities, mainly because the San Gabriel Valley is now home to some of the world’s best dim sum chefs. Many travelers to Hong Kong have even returned to confirm that the dim sum in LA is better than the originals back home. The large dim sum houses have deep financial backing to hire the best dim sum chefs. Tasting their innovative dishes is the main attraction.”
Served from breakfast to lunch, the meal consists of various small plates holding a number of tidbits, easily shareable with one or two other diners (think of Chinese tapas). These items are moderately priced so you can sample 10 or more at a sitting. There are delights for the adventuresome (how about meat-and-vegetable-wrapped duck fin or honeycomb tripe?) and comforts for the traditionalist (such as egg rolls and roast pork).
Most frequently, the dishes are wheeled around on carts pushed by servers who shout out the names of their offerings in Chinese. The atmosphere is bustling and crowded, and you never know what item will show up next. Some restaurants dispense with the carts in favor of a printed menu; but without the moving display, dim sum is nowhere near as much fun.
If you see something interesting approach, you hail down the server and point. Often the servers speak little English so you may have to guess what it is you’re ordering, like a pig in a poke — or pork in a dumpling. In addition, there can be incredible waits for certain dishes, or even for a table — especially on weekends.
Ocean Star, in prime position atop an upscale shopping structure, is impressive in size and decor, with white linen and crystal chandeliers. Most important, however, is the long line of fully laden carts that are visible as soon as you enter the cavernous dining room.
Almost as soon as you take your seat, smiling cart-pushers begin their tempting and cajoling. “Shrimp har gow? Pork sil myl? Cha shu bau? Eggroll? It’s good. Try this one. You want this?”
If you don’t use restraint, soon you’ll be overwhelmed by a tableful of fried, steamed and baked goodies you hope you can devour before they get cold.
The printed menu identifies about 40 items, most priced at about $2, with a few from $3 to $7, depending on size and ingredients. In addition, there’s a list of about 50 a la carte dishes, mostly noodle and rice variants, that can be ordered to supplement the dim sum meal.
My lunch mates and I usually stick to the seemingly never-ending variety of delicacies on the carts (who needs to order suckling pig at $12 a pop when BBQ pork buns are two for $2). We spend almost two hours gawking and pointing and tasting and analyzing. In all that time on multiple visits, I bet we’ve never seen more than a quarter of what’s available.
By the time we finish, we’ve always downed steamed dumplings with pork, with vegetables and shrimp and with shrimp alone. We’ve had deep-fried shrimp wrapped in noodles, deep-fried taro dumplings, and steamed rice noodles with seafood. Sometimes there are huge battered scallops, sometimes flaky chicken pies. (Who says the French have the best pastry?)
We always order broccoli with oyster sauce (oddly expensive) to assuage our guilt at such a carb- and fat-laden meal. We’ve drunk innumerable cups of tea, tapping our fingers on the table as each cup was poured to indicate our gratitude (see Chu’s chapter titled “Finger-Tapping at Tea Drinking” for an explanation).
For dessert, there are always egg custard tarts and chewy sesame rolls filled with red bean paste. If we're lucky enough to spot them, we commandeer a plate of coconut balls filled with peanuts. Last week, we had
a divinely perfumy almond soup topped with puff pastry.
Once we tried something that was pushed on us by the sweet-cart lady. She told us the crispy fritter was good for us and good luck. I'm still not sure what this deep-fried cross between a jelly doughnut, a lotus-seed bun and a taro cake was. But I can assure you that any cardiologist would probably have disputed her health claims.
Nevertheless, it was absolutely delicious and, even if it never brings us more luck, it still epitomizes our good fortune in finding Ocean Star, where the bill for a protracted feeding frenzy for two never exceeds $20. And, even more fortunate, right now Ocean Star is giving a 20 percent discount for weekday dim sum dining!
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