Cart(less) dim sum

I caught up with a couple of friends over dim sum today.  It's been a while since I was at Che's Cantonese Restaurant (車氏粵菜軒), so I thought it'd be a good idea to refresh my memory - and palate.

Che's crispy pork buns (酥皮叉燒餐包) - these were the first to arrive, and being the signature dim sum of this place, they were definitely the best way to start.  The exterior has been baked to become crispy and flaky, much like the ones I had at Tim Ho Wan (添好運) recently.  These were a little more plump, and the crust a little more golden.  The filling, however, was deliciously runny.

Steamed dumpling Chiu Chow style (潮州粉果) - the mix of ingredients - including some spicy preserved mustard greens (榨菜) - ensured an explosion of flavors.  While this dish scored high in terms of flavors, ultimately I was disappointed as it had been over-steamed (the same mistake made by Tim Ho Wan) so the skin became mushy, stuck to the chopsticks and kinda fell apart.

Che's shrimp dumplings with bamboo shoot (車氏筍尖鮮蝦餃) - this was alright, and the skin passed the test.

Steamed pork siu mai (乾蒸燒賣) - this was OK.

Pan fried rice noodle roll with XO sauce (XO醬煎腸粉) - the exterior was crispy and crunchy, kinda like the ones from T'ang Court (唐閣).  But there wasn't quite enough XO sauce so some of the rolls were a little bland.

Deep fried mashed taro puff (鬆化炸芋角) - a deep golden brown in color, the exterior was definitely very crunchy and flaky.  Pretty nice.

Old-fashioned spring roll (懷舊炸春卷) - these were OK, being a little thinner and more elongated in shape.

Pan fried turnip cake (香煎蘿蔔糕) - just realized that this item never came, even though we ticked it on the order sheet.  Wonder if we ended up paying for it...

I didn't have the steamed pork liver with meat ball (懷舊豬潤燒賣), since there wasn't enough to go around.  But the piece of liver looked pretty good, and there was a thin layer of tofu skin on top to keep everything moist while being steamed.

A waitress came by and dished out free mini egg tarts (蛋撻), which had pastry crust and were OK.  They were just too small for me to appreciate the skill of the chef...

It was a pretty good meal overall, and it's nice to get away from the usual lunch spots once in a while...