I’m not a fan of tradition for tradition’s sake. For me, if something can be improved I’m all for it.
My first exposure to dim sum was Man Fook Low restaurant. My parents used to take my brother and me there when we were children. It wasn’t specifically a dim sum restaurant, but they had some dim sum dishes. This would have been in the 1960s/1970s. I don’t think they had carts, but this was a long time ago and we all know how memory fades.
You’re right, it wasn’t a dim sum restaurant. Rather, back then (say pre-70s) dim sum was an auxiliary item and places like Man Fook Low had a take out window where you could take home your purchases in one of those pink boxes. Also if you’re talking 1950s and 1960s, there weren’t a whole lot of varieties of dim sum either. Offhand the only Man Fook Low varieties I remember when I was a kid was the giant steamed bbq pork bun, ha gow, siu mai and I believe the sticky glutinous rice pastry.
I remember the pork buns. I quit eating meat in 1972 (when I was 12) and I was born in 1959, so I would have been eating at Man Fook Low in the 60s/early 70s. We didn’t use the take out window. There was a very nice waitperson named Alfred or Albert. Whenever possible we sat in his section.
I tried looking at on-line menus but often couldn’t find accompanying pics. They might have some variation of paste-like filling that’s been deep fried, but I would be surprised if they had the exact same version you had.
To all: friend and I are going for dinner tonight (11/16). Is there generally a wait at this place for dinner?
You might be interested in this 10 year long discussion thread about Man Fook Low that ran on the old Chowhound board.
We have a fave place in Seattle that is carts but some things are prepared to order, i.e., hot fried items.
You mean you don’t get up and chase down the cart like the rest of us old-timers who refuse to wait 30 minutes for a dish? 
I always figured it was because they didn’t know what the dishes were called, only what they looked like. And honestly I only know a few names but find most of the descriptions are good enough. Like “rice flour rolls with beef,” or “eggplant stuffed with shrimp paste.” I think those ladies know more than we give them credit for.
We went recently and I thought about that. I’ll do a report after I finally sit down and exhaustively google my way thru our delicious Sake adventures. 
It was really good, but man, I wish we had gone after @chandavkl’s report.
The in-house menu says shrimp & shrimp paste, but I mostly tasted the shrimp and not the paste so much. Does it melt into the roll during the frying or should it stand out more?
Hi @chandavkl & @maccrogenoff or Anyone -
I am not an expert, so bare with me. I thought dim sum carts mostly have steamed items, not fried. Am I mistaken?
P.S. @maccrogenoff, you’ve mentioned before that there is a lack of vegetarian threads on FTC and now it’s the lack of home cooking threads. You have a point. Yes, because it’s L.A.-centric and we have access to deliciously diverse restaurants, it’s also restaurant-centric. But you could always add your vegetarian finds or do a report about some of the little known places you mentioned above. I’m sure there are members or even non-members who are searching and would really appreciate it. I made a point of trying to revive the Home Cooking threads when I joined. I believe @MaladyNelson was mostly vegetarian and we were wild for her reports, so…
I won’t go off topic by linking the threads here. But there is the existing Vegetarian Rundown, What’s Cooking? and Home Cooking 2018. The Vegetarian Rundown could definitely use some help. 
Well there are at least two kinds of carts. Most commonly there are the metal carts with steamed items under the lids. But there are also the see through carts with baked, fried and other categories of items. And in either case, riding around the dining room is going to take its toll on the cart contents.
I thought about, but wasn’t sure which category the baked items landed in. I dont think I’ve seen the see-thru carts. Thanks for the clarification.
I would think, especially the fried items.
I don’t know if it there’s a “should.” My knowledge of prototypical Chinese fare isn’t nearly as advanced as some of the other posters, and I assume some of the variation will be simply a matter of taste.
In general, though, I assume that, when you can actually make out the specific seafood item (regardless of type of cuisine), it’s a sign that the chefs had enough confidence (or $) to put the seafood front and center.
I assume you went for dim sum? I just went tonight for the first time. Thought the seafood items (dungeness crab and 1.5-lb baby lobstes) were delicious and not at all unreasonably priced (esp given the area).
Kind of comes with the territory. There are plenty of places to discuss vegetarian food and baking, (ex: https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/). This place is great because it focuses (at least tries) on finding the best of the best of restaurants and hopefully keeps the info fresh with updated experiences. It’s not surprising that something like Cafe Gratitude isn’t going to be a hot topic here unless it’s a topic where I dump everything I find awful about it. Over modding isn’t cool though and we the people should be able to criticize a yucky food topic to death. I’d be surprised if that topic wasn’t allowed in an appropriate subforum
Back on the topic of dim sum though, (going to Cap Sea for lunch today)
While we exclusively go to menu only places these days, we do once in a while pop into something line NBC for the steam cart good time. But, we definitely focus on steamed dishes only when we do.
You do know we have a Home Cooking sub forum right? You can talk about grocery stores, baking, and home cooking to your hearts content on that forum. The “Los Angeles” forum is to discuss LA based restaurants.
We don’t have many cooks on this board.
I definitely miss the old CH cooking threads, and the long discussions on technique and ingredients. There were some very talented cooks and chefs posting.
Totally agree. It crosses my mind occasionally to return. But so many of the good cooks seem to have gone. I emailed a few that I have a off-site relationship with and they weren’t interested.
'Cept I’m not a baker unfortunately.
Hey, snap a photo of the lunch menu, if feasible. Thanks!