outside of my dimsum comfort zone

it's pretty much ridiculous how long i've held onto these pictures waiting for the "right" moment to post them on le blog. now it's been weeks and weeks since my last post, and these damn pictures still haven't been written up! well it's about time. i won't flatter myself into thinking that you've been waiting for the newest k&s update. lolz.

my coworker and i always talk about chinese food. we work on the opposite side of downtown from the ID, but we had a serious craving for dimsum. since the new hong kong restaurant has free parking in a vastly empty garage, G decided it would be the perfect choice. also, since neither of us had been there before, we thought it was a great opportunity to steer away from the usual jade garden, which was sure to be at least an hour and a half.

the new hong kong restaurant used to be called the new kowloon restaurant. i assume there was some shuffle in ownership, hence the immensely creative redubbing.

G and i arrived early to ensure adequate parking and to beat the lunch rush. we arrived around 11:45, and the place was nearly empty! we had service basically waiting on us hand and foot...one person with water. another with tea. yet another asking if we would like to order anything besides dimsum. very strange. we started off with shrimp-stuffed eggplant and shrimp tofu. they were both pretty good, though not the bang-bang like top gun. i think my biggest hang up was the sauce on the eggplant. i'm used to a more salty, preserved black bean flavor than what NHKR offered. boo.

next came pineapple buns, baked bow, and curry beef pastries. the pineapple buns were awesome. the pineapple stuffing baked perfectly with the dough to create an almost custard-y magma core. yummmmz. however, the same density that made the pineapple buns great made the baked bow heavy. i tried some of the bread, and it was leagues away from the light, slightly eggy dough i have grown accustomed too. there were no complaints, however, from S, for whom we picked up an extra three bow. G loved the curry beef. the pastry was buttery, light, and flaky. they sure looked tasty.

we also picked up some steamed bow and nor mai gai. the steamed bow was pretty standard: fluffy, spongy breading with a sticky, salty-sweet filling. it's difficult to eff these up. nor mai gai is my dimsum barometer (just as a chile relleno is my mexican measuring stick). the rice should be sticky, but not squishy; very herbal from the lotus leaf steaming; and full of delicious pork/lop xiang/dried shrimp/mushrooms, though not in an evenly-distributed, heterogeneous mixture. oh, and steaming effing HOT. NHKR's nor mai gai was decent. the texture was nice, and the filling, too, was quite meaty (which i picked out for G), however, there wasn't a strong enough lotus leafiness flavor. top gun, how do you do it!??! you've ruined me!!

just when we thought we were full, a fresh cart of shrimp dishes emerged from the kitchen. how could i pass up ha gow and shrimp potstickers?!? the ha gow was good. often times i have a textural problem with shrimp...it's difficult to explain, but NHKR's ha gow passed the test. and this brings me to my favorite dish of the day: shrimp potstickers. NHKR wraps their shrimp potstickers in bright yellow to differentiate them from the regular pork. i don't know what kind of crack they put in there, but as soon as i took a bite, my mouth filled with bright spring onion and juicy, salty shrimp. it was an OMG moment...unfortunately i was too full by that time to get another order, but i was tempted to take one home.

NHKR has a decent dimsum. i don't know if i would ever return here since i have my favorite only 10 minutes away from my house. if G and i require a quick dimsum fix, though, we'll probably be back.

the (dim) sum of all things

{click to enlarge}

coming from a former dimsum addict (suge and i used to double-dimsum a weekend), Top Gun Seafood in factoria is bizzomb. like, holy wow that place is good. i've been there literally hundreds of times, but i'll never forget my first time there. it was when i was in high school, and my uncle called the family together to enjoy some food and catch up. i don't speak chinese, but he and his family do, so out came all sorts of crazy good shit that's not skating around the room on steel carts, like cold sesamie jellyfish, special noodles, crispy and chopped duck (creatively deemed "duck two ways")...i can't even begin to list it all, but it was truly magical (and that was back in the day before i was sans-meat).

my family is chinese, so when i was younger, we would all go out to dimsum. every weekend. my father has two brothers that live in the greater seattle area, so the extended family would convene for dimsum at least every two months. sun ya used to be our favorite spot, but after changing over to new ownership back in 1999, it's never been the same.

the last time i went to dimsum there was probably 2-3 years ago (i lived next door), and it was good....just different from my rose-tinged memories.

ah, tea. i love tea. one nice thing about Top Gun is that you can ask for different kinds of tea...i always go for jasmine because i love the perfume, but you can get something heavier, like oolong. i also wash my hands with tea after i eat because the tannens cut through any oil that's made it's way onto my hands. :)

so here's the spread: shrimp on green bell pepper with a black bean sauce, hargow (shrimp dumplings encased in a rice noodle hug, turnip cake with flecks of pork, siu mai (pork dumplings with a rice casing on the bottom, nor mai gai (sticky rice stuffed with pork, "gravy," dried shrimp, and lap xioung [delicious sweet sausage]), and shrimp-stuffed eggplant covered in black bean sauce.

here's another look at suge's hargow handstyle. :) i forgot to capture the char siu bau (steamed bun with bbq pork stuffing)!

and of course, the crowd favorite, honey-walnut prawns. i had actually never had these little gems of fried goo until about three years ago, but i do like them. i have a tenuous relationship with shrimp, so i'm not always in the mood for HWP, but these were tasty.

ah, mango pudding. how do i love thee?? covered in condensed milk, of course!!! i like the mango pudding at Top Gun because it has chunks of mango in it, and they make it with a little bit of coconut milk, so there's the slightest hint of that flavor in the pudding. also, it's not really pudding, like bill cosby-style. it's more of a cross between jello and pudding...it's soft, but you couldn't stir it. whatever it is, it's awesome. it actually so inspired me to make some red bean jelly/pudding at home! all i need is a can of lychees, and it's dessert time all the time!

last, but certainly not least, the black sesamie balls. holy crap i love these. they're little balls of mochi covered in black and white toasted sesamie seeds, stuffed with black sesamie puree, and flash fried until the outside is juuuuuust crispy. damn, they're so good. i like the white sesamie balls, too, but they're stuffed with lotus paste, which is a little too rich for me in this particular incarnation.

Top Gun Seafood

12450 SE 38th St
(between S 124th Ave & S Factoria Blvd)
Bellevue, WA 98006

(425) 641-3386

CAVE: this place is uber-busy on the weekends, especially sunday in the post-church time. i would suggest arriving early, like between 10 and 11. if you arrive after 1130, you're completely screwed and will have to wait at least 30 minutes. going late is also an option, when we went, it was nearly 2, but we still had to wait about 15 minutes. you have now been thoroughly warned.

parking is a bitch, too, so park in the back movie theater lot. do not park in marked places, because they will surely tow you. they are serious!