Sun City Seafood - 7540 E Garvey Ave, Rosemead, CA 91770
Pricing - $ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Chinese, Dim Sum | Reservations - Unnecessary
The above information in terms of pricing is for the dim sum I had here. Ah yes, can you believe my fortune? I normally only get to have dim sum one time whenever I'm back home for breaks (either winter or summer) but in a span of less than two weeks, I had it twice! My parents actually offered to go back to have some at NBC Seafood again and though the offer was tempting because I was reminded of the delicious dan ta, I suggested that we try somewhere else because I wanted to get a wider taste of what LA County had to offer. We picked up my grand-aunt and said that we would have dim sum for Sunday brunch; her suggestion was this place because it had cheaply price dim sum at $1.88 per dish. That was quite fine by us and our wallets! You'll see a lot of repeat dishes from my previous dim sum post because we eat a lot of the same things when we have it; we like what we like of course. Also, I don't know how to order in Mandarin so I let my parents take care of it.
Meatballs (middle row, both left and right sides) - I don't know what these were called, but I wasn't a big fan. The meat was very soft and smooth, having definitely been processed into a paste before made into a ball from what I could tell. The sauce that came with it was definitely needed as it was slightly bland on the inside. The part that I did like was that it had water chestnut and green onions inside.
Tripe (top right corner) - The tripe was in a slightly spicy gooey sauce that I quite enjoyed. It was cooked to the perfect texture for tripe, being firm to the bite but not so hard that you couldn't appreciate the soft ribbed texture of the flesh.
Har gow (three dishes of white-looking dumpling things) - I liked the wrapper for the har gow here. It wasn't too ricey but also not so translucent that it tasted thin. The shrimp was large and delicious inside.
Lo mai gai (bottom right) - This would be glutinous rice (sticky rice) wrapped in a banana leaf with a meat filling inside. The rice was a good consistency, not being too mushy but still quite sticky. I can't say much about the filling though because my younger brother and I split this and when he gave it to me, he had eaten the insides already. I just had the rice and some traces of the preserved egg yolk. It was good but I've had better.
Sun tak shumai - I think that's how it's spelled? We had never had it before, and my dad told me that it was mainly the restaurant's own creation. The meat part of it was very like shumai - pork and shrimp in chunks. There was a bottom part that resembled soft fried tofu but was really some concoction of egg and flour. I liked it over all but when eaten together because the bottom part itself was strange alone.
Shumai - The regular stuff! I actually didn't like it here, and my mom agreed. As aforementioned, I really enjoy shumai wrappers, and this one was too soft and hardly noticeable except for its bright yellow color. The whole thing was quite large though but everything about it was too soft and squishy.
"Phoenix feet"/chicken feet - This came out to be very red in color (the picture doesn't do it justice) so that I thought that it was spicy beyond belief. However, I learned that there was no spiciness to it at all. The skin on this was quite thick and the meat plentiful, more so than I was used to. It was great because the bones came right out when I picked at it with my chopsticks, and it was tasty. My only concern was how much oil and food coloring they used.
Ha Cheong Fun/Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll - My favorite dish! Unfortunately, I didn't swoon over this one at this restaurant. The wrapper was too ricey and thick; I expected it when I saw them bring it out because you can tell the thickness by how transparent it is. The shrimp inside was good but small unfortunately. I've had better. Sorry if I seem so critical of this roll but considering it's my favorite, I have to be!
Beef Cheong Fun - I don't have a picture of this because I didn't expect to have any. Someone else had gotten it but then I figured I needed to try everything. I never like the beef version of this dish and for good reason - it's never good! It's more fitting in Vietnamese fish sauce than soy sauce (similar to bánh cuốn) anyhow. The meat was paste-like inside and the addition of water chestnuts and chives made it awkward. Thumbs down.
Coconut egg pastry - Delicious stuff despite that I'm not a big fan of shredded candied coconut. The dough part was thick and sweet and filled with an egg creme and coconut inside. The sugar glaze on top with coconut shreds made the presentation wonderful. My only complaint is not a big one - it was just so rich and sweet that I had to have some water after eating half of one. I could've had more though because it was delicious.
Egg creme buns - Those aren't my hands by the way. Anyhow, these buns are almost always great. I've yet to have a TERRIBLE one anywhere. The filling is creamily smooth and the dough sweet. The glaze on top with the crumbly shortbread-like topping made it mess to eat but quite worth it. I definitely wanted several.
Dan ta/egg tarts - The yolk was quite scanty on this one and the crust part overdone in flakiness. It reminded me of the flakiness on the top layer of baklava, which is not what I prefer in dan ta. I like having the crust more compacted. The taste was still good...just different.
Tea - The tea here was different from normal green or jasmine tea. I asked my dad but he didn't know what it was called in English so I'm not sure how to explain it. Nevertheless, it was definitely stronger than typical, and I liked it for that. They charged here for tea despite it being given to every table as if complimentary.
