New York dim sum?

A year or two ago, I had a nice experience at Sunrise 27 (27 Division St.) by convincing them we'd be happy to pay for good tea with our dim sum. It was a green tea that I *think* the waiter called Loong Tseng.

/Lew

sorry, looks like i'm posting this too late for your dim sum excursion. however, for future reference, a suggestion: just bring your own tea. it's not at all uncommon, even at the best dim sum restaurants, for people to bring a special tea with them--in some places regular customers even leave a container of their preferred tea on the premises.

we have a number of excellent dim sum restaurants in the bay area, but only one of them has decent (not great) tea. i almost always bring my own. they may charge a small fee anyway, but that's ok with me. not too different from someone bringing a bottle of their own wine to a fine restaurant...

hope you had a good dim sum brunch.

mike

Alex wrote:

Seconded! And let me add that this goes for Chinese restaurants in general, not just dim sum places.

/Lew

[Alex] [Lew} [Michael] Alex, if you are in NYC, you might try the restaurant on Mott Street on the corner of something or other on the right as you walk south from Canal Street. The restaurant is more than halfway down Mott. I remember neither the name nor the cross street, since I find my way there through some sort of homing device. Perhaps it is not the best Dim Sum place around, but it is my place, and I like it. It's been there for many years, decades in fact. Tea will not be spectacular. Always bring your own, anyway. That's my advice. Michael, a day late and a dollar short

As it turned out you were all too late, but that was my fault for not logging on on Saturday morning. Thanks all for the great advice though. Next time I go out for dim sum I will definitely bring some pu'er.

For the record, one of my companions had a strong preference for Sichuan food so we ended up going to the excellent Szechuan Gourment (duoyi shifu) on 39th at 5th. The tea was crappy (I asked if they had better stuff and the answer was no) but the food was very good, as usual.

Any thoughts about what tea goes well with very spicy food?

For spicy food, my inclination would be a da hong pao, or maybe another relatively high-fired Wuyi oolong. Fragrant enough to complement the subtleties of Sichuan cuisine, robust enough not to be overpowered by the spice.

Mike

Alex wrote:

My preference is a sweet, mellow, cooked Pu'er. Probably not a tea whose subtlety would be outshouted by the food.

/Lew

Mike, So what's the name of the dim sum place with the decent tea?

Steven

Michael Aanavi wrote:

Steven:

Koi Palace--in Daly City, I think, or somewhere down there.

Dim sum there is good, but somewhat overrated--not as good as HK East Ocean in Emeryville or Asian Pearl in Richmond. (Yank Sing is excellent, but way way overpriced, IMO). But at Koi Palace at least you can get a few decent oolongs and a variety of other teas--at least, last time I was there, which was about a year ago.

Mike

snipped-for-privacy@krautworks.com wrote:

Mike,

That's what I thought you'd say--I'd been there once a while back and was "impressed" with their list of teas.

Steven

Michael Aanavi wrote:

People in Sichuan, when eating their more spicy dishes or when eating hotpot, usually prefer to drink flower teas like Chrysanthemum or other teas that have cooling properties to them. They also like to drink a type of tea called "ba bao" tea, which roughly translates to 'eight treasures.' It's a mix of several different types of flowers that creates a very sweet flavor.

Normally, the people in Sichuan prefer green teas to wulongs; partially due to Sichuan's proximity to the Eastern provinces. Some of the best greens in China, my biased opinion due to my love of the Sichuan province, comes from this province.