L.A. Eats Day 3 – Dim Sum, Beer, & Pork Shank…..

I love me some slow braised pork shank….

I’m still in search of a good reliable dim sum place in LA. You would think having so many Chinese places it would be easy to find a place with good dim sum. Maybe I’m picky, okay I’m picky. How I tell if a place is good by ordering the rice rolls (cheung fun) because that’s mostly a thin sheet of rice noodle. If the rice rolls has a good balance of thickness and thinness (does that make sense?) then the restaurant is good. Anyways, so before flying home I did a little research if there are any new or good dim sum restaurants since I was last in LA. Read few food blogs and there seems to be a new dim sum player in town, took over another Chinese restaurant that I actually had dinner once last year. This new place is called Elite and seems like every food blog I read gave it a plus. I was excited and I brought along the one person I trust will give me an honest and good feedback, my mom!! So after dropping off my niece at pre-school, we drove out to Monterey Park. Review after the jump…

OMG finally a place with awesome Ja Leung (fried dough wrapped in rice noodle) hm…maybe because these were fresh but the rice noodles were good and the fried dough were still crunchy. Usually, most of the time, when I get these the fried dough has already gone soggy and cold. These from Elite were warm and crunchy..perfect! I think my mom really likes steamed turnip cakes, she gets them whenever they’re on the menu. As for me I love steamed, pan fried it’s all good. The one from Elite was good but not great. There wasn’t much texture except for the shredded dried scallop on top of the dish. My mom also decided to get curry baby squid. Now both times I had baby squid, they were just okay. I felt yucky the first time I ate them at those cheapy Chinese places in mid-town. Don’t think those were cleaned properly — I felt like I was chewing the guts in the heads. Surprisingly, these were cleaned and the curry sauce was pretty good.

The Macau roasted pork served with sugar and soy sauce was the overwhelming winner in all the food blogs I read about Elite. What made it Macau style anyways? The sugar? I’m not quite sure but what I am sure was this was pretty good. Good tender pork with crispy skin sliced into think slices. My mom insisted on dipping the pork into the sugar but tasted slight weird to me so I just enjoyed it as is.

Right before dinner we decided to (actually I decided) stop at Delirium Cafe for beer. Yes I did my research and found they have a loooong list of beers from Belgium and the UK. And how can you resist a pink elephant huh? The Delirium Cafe is situated in a quiet neighborhood just few blocks north of Arcadia, which is a fancy expensive neighborhood with a giant mall and the Santa Anita race track. It’s interesting how this neighborhood, just couple minutes away, looks the exact opposite of Arcadia.
So the Delirium Cafe serves eccentric beer and regular pub food. We shared a plate of fish & chips (it was good, didn’t expect much from bar food) and I got the Delirium Nocturum beer which was quite tasty. My second beer I got was Scotch de Silly. Both yummy beers and so I found a new spot for beer! Yes!!

Our next and final stop for the night was Shanghai Bamboo House (hm…nice name) for their 2 day slow braised pork shank (picture above). It’s mostly fatty tender off the bone porky goodness served with some bok choy. Goes so well with a steamy bowl of rice. We also got a plate of fried buns filled with…..pork and a plate of shrimp. Everything was so good but I was so full!!! Literally this whole trip was nothing but eat.

Elite – S. 700 Atlantic Blvd. Monterey Park, LA

Delirium – 21 Kersting Court, Sierra Madre, LA

Shanghai Bamboo House – 5910 N Temple City Blvd. Temple City, LA