Dim Sum & Hong Kong Seafood Specialist - Sea Harbour

no, but it does give rise to otherwise unimaginable scenarios involving the acquisition of raw bitter melon in manhattan.

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Hi @ipsedixit,

Awesome. :slight_smile:

Oh I forgot to ask, have you (or anyone else) tried Sea Harbour’s Advanced Order Soups? They look so interesting…

  • Double-Boiled Maca with Sea Horse and Black Chicken - I have no idea what this would taste like.

  • Double-Boiled Squab with Lucid Granodema and American Ginseng Soup

  • Double-Boiled Matsutake, Conch and Chicken Soup

and like 5 other ones. Worth ordering?

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Yes

I usually prefer the double-boiled squab with incoherent Grandma…

There’s a surcharge if you want grandma to arrive at your table incoherently. :wink:

Update:

Ordered many of the same dishes (due to a friend of a friend wanting to try all the “must have” dishes), so I’ll keep the comments to a minimum, but the one new dish I had to try:

French Style Sweet Taro Bun:

OMG! @ipsedixit was right. This is SO good! We loved the French-style Sweet Potato Bun last time, but with Taro instead? It’s even more fragrant and crave-worthy! :smile: It’s toasty hot, with a slight crunchy outer shell, and then the warm Taro filling inside. I’m so glad it’s on the menu now.

We devoured this, and ordered another order immediately.

The other Dim Sum (still just as good, except their Pork and Shrimp Dumpling with Truffle - Siu Mai, which today had a slight burnt / smoky flavor. We’re guessing one of the steamers underneath this might’ve dried up / burnt some food underneath, giving it that smell (the actual Siu Mai weren’t burnt at all, just a slight aroma)).

Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant
3939 Rosemead Blvd.
Rosemead, CA 91770
Tel: (626) 288-3939

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Were you there today? We may have bumped into each other, in a sort of culinary fourth-wall existential way.

A tad OT but… My only (so far) dim sum in SGV was Elite. It was terrific and also menu not carts. Which I far, far prefer. Cooked to order with an occasional dish brought around. Mmm :slight_smile:

Gorgeous photos as always, @Chowseeker1999! How was the gai lan?

Hi @ipsedixit,

No I wasn’t, sorry. We were there on Saturday, I just didn’t get a chance to post. Thanks again for the rec on the French Taro Buns. :slight_smile:

Hi @MaladyNelson,

The Chinese Broccoli was good. Perfectly cooked as usual (still had a bit of firmness and slight crunch, but tender at the same time). It’s a great counter to all the other Dim Sum.

If you like Taro, you must try those French-style Sweet Taro Buns that ipse recommended! So good! :slight_smile:

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Hi @catholiver,

Nice! We made it to Elite as well a few times. Also pretty good. :slight_smile: FYI, Sea Harbour also is order from the menu (not on carts), so it’s fresher.

Maybe a stupid question, but, can one dine as a solo diner at Sea Harbour for dim sum?

Yes.

Indeed possible, but it’s a muuuuch better value if you have like 4 or 5 others with you.

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Dim sum served by carts are now considered relics of the past in most high end dim sum in Asia (and becoming so in North America, too). At the cartless places, the order is placed by menu and cooked to order, and brought to table from kitchen hot and fresh (instead of making who-knows-how-many rounds around the dining room in a heat lamp on the cart before it’s picked).

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Begger…choosers…gluttons…etc…

definitely, though the ideal number for the perfectionists, so as to maximize the number of different things to try, is complicated by the fact that when it comes to some items such as ha gao or siu mai, there are typically 4 distinct pieces, but with other orders, there are often only 3, or when cut, such as chang fun or beef balls, etc., still in multiples of 3. that would seem to make a total of 12 ideal (where you can divide evenly by 3 or 4 or 6), but then you have logistical problems trying to get 11 other people to show up at the same time…

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8 is the ideal number in my view. You get two of the 4-piece items and triple up on the 3-piece items as necessary. And while you make it into the reservation window with 8 people at most places, you can also all still chat and not have the table get too hectic. Also, while I haven’t gone in a group as large as 12 in a long, long time, my memory is that many places in the SGV didn’t have that many tables set aside for groups that large. If that’s still true, if you don’t have a reservation (or are going to a place that doesn’t take them) you might get stuck behind other large groups.

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It’s almost always my husband and me so we’re duty bound to eat TOO much. I’ve gone for dim sum a time or two by myself and was always unhappy. I got so full so fast. But we’ve discovered that a fair number of the dishes will MW fine.

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that’s why party of 3 is perfect - so they can each have 1 and I can have 2.

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