Chinatown Crawl Recap

Last month, I led a crawl through Chinatown. It will be one of a few tours I’ll be taking through as I explore LA’s Chinatown.

 

We met up at Long’s Family Pastry and bought some items to compare with Yum Cha Cafe. I have to say that despite Family Pastry’s B rating, it felt much cleaner than the gritty Yum Cha Cafe which had an A rating. Taste wise, some of us favored Yum Cha Cafe though I have to admire Family Pastry’s pride. The counter woman noticed I was taking pictures and made sure she selected better looking dim sum for me.

 

 

We ordered one sesame ball, one egg tart, and orders of beef balls, siu mai, har gow, cheung fun and egg rolls. The total was somewhere around $7 and change.

Family Pastry: 715 N Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 – (213) 622-5255

 

At nearby Yum Cha Cafe, we acquired another friend so our order here was much more. Despite the bounty you see above, this came out to be $11 and change. We got loh mi gai (lotus leaf wrapped rice), har gow, siu mai, buns, chicken feet, noodles and a few drinks.

 

I was a bit sketched out by the white styrofoam of mysterious seasoning. Is that MSG? More likely, it was white pepper…mixed with MSG. Okay fine, probably not MSG. But seriously, why is it in that white, no-lid container!? Some may over look this for the cheapness factor. Plus, you don’t have to use it, right?

 

 

We took out our goodies from Family Pastry for a taste test. We preferred Yum Cha Cafe’s version of har gow (pictured left) as the shrimp seemed plumper.

 

But then when we got down to the siu mai, I prefered Family Pastry (pictured right). The strange color of Yum Cha Cafe’s threw me off and it wasn’t very flavorful. The real winner though from Family Pastry was the egg tart and beef balls.

The winner at Yum Cha Cafe were the noodles. It was a huge order and quite affordable.

 

Yum Cha Cafe:  638 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012 — (213) 617-8698

 

After our dim sum battle, we walked around Chinatown, stopping at the Wishing Well. I had to laugh that the “Love” well was the highest and possibly the most unattainable wish.

 

 

We were going to visit Hoan Kien as well as Kim Chuy this day but Hoan Kien was tiny and completely busy the 3 hours we tried to go. We settled for just Kim Chuy, one of my family’s old haunts. It must have changed ownership as the condiments on the table were quite different. Was this not a Chiu Chow place. The items didn’t seem as familiar as the other Chiu Chow noodle shops I’ve been too. After listening to the workers, I decided I was in a Cantonese influenced shop.

 

We had lost some people at this point and so we decided to get our individual orders. One ordered the fish porridge (slices of fish are at the bottom of the bowl).

 

I ordered what appeared to the be the main sponsor of the restaurant- the Lady Fish Paste with their fish paste, fish balls and fish cakes crowding around my seafood noodles. I really wish I had some Chiu Chow satay sauce to add to the broth. It was quite salty but didn’t have the zip or zing of the Chiu Chow satay sauce.

Kim Chuy: 727 N Broadway, #103, Los Angeles, CA 90012 — (213) 687-7215

 

We were supposed to hit a few more spots but I decided to save it for next time. Look out soon for a crawl where we hit Phillipe’s, Spring Street BBQ and more!

 

© The Minty 2012