#Shrimp Har Gow Cookie

[mercy-love-joy]

Shrimp Har Gow Cookie

SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING OF "THE BURNS MELTED INTO GOLD" AND IN SICKNESS AND NEVER IN HEALTH AU

This little Haetae is a centaur of a rare kind! While she does still act as a guardian, her Papa says that she needs to finish her academics before she becomes a fearsome Haetae guardian of the Kingdom.

Shrimp Har Gow Cookie (or Shrimp Har Gow Dumpling Haetae Cookie) is the adopted daughter of the Pharaoh. She was created and born via the same methods used to create Cloud Haetae Cookie and the Dumpling Kings. But the only problem was that she was born sickly, the Pharaoh took her under his wing (literally) and nursed her back to health.

Upon seeing the Pharaoh, the little centaur Haetae called him "Papa" and it was sealed.

She is currently enrolled in her homeschooling thanks to her grand uncles and aunts but she has also been begging to attend Parafedia School of Magic for friends. You don't get to have a lot of friends as the Princess of the Kingdom of Soft Sun Rays. Maybe she'll get her wish granted if she uses her "Haetae puppy eyes"

(Original art was made by WereRaven in a commission. Thank you @the-wereraven

[mercy-love-joy]

She is! Her name is Shrimp Har Gow Dumpling Haetae Cookie!

The adopted daughter of the Pharaoh!

CR styled custom for @mercy-love-joy!! Thank you again for commissioning me! <3

My commissions of any kind are CLOSED right now, but look out for it's opening next month where I'll have a PROPER display for my comms! ^^

[papilio-anima]

Favorite Foods

Sooo Hu Tao's voice lines state that her favorite foods are prawn dumplings and steamed fish. However, there isn't exactly an in-game dish of those exact items...

Sooo doing a bit of research... and digging around ...

Har Gow...or rather crystal shrimp dumplings would be the closest in comparison to the prawn ones. Made with rice, shrimp meat, and carrots.

As for the 'steamed fish'? There is a couple of possible choices of what it could be. We know that she tends to prefer spicy flavors so includes some of the seafood dishes from Wanmin Restaurant that add juenyan chilis.

For those the boiled fish and stir fry fish noodles come to mind. Both served in Liyue Harbor as well. With the latter being sold from a street food vendor at the Xingyue Kiosk.

Bonus cookies for @starwardsword for actually sending me this particular video that explains more of Hu Tao's food preferences. (posted below the cut)

[rickchung]

Street Auntie Apertivo House x Granville Street.

While the often sketchy Granville Strip may be a curious location for the new upscale Chinese eatery, it’s hard not to be impressed with [its] already refined fusion-ish offerings. I cannot remember the last time I so thoroughly enjoyed such a meal thanks to its authentic meets new wave Chinese cuisine.

Dim sum basket: sea urchin dumpling, scallop avocado har gow (steamed shrimp dumpling), and morel shumai (steamed pork dumpling).

Fortune cookie cake with jasmine and strawberry; mango and pomelo sago explosion; and the “VanCity Special” with smoky mint, chocolate, and apple.

Shanghai noodles with XO sauce.

[formeryelpers]

KBC Bakery, 661 N Broadway, Los Angeles (Chinatown), CA 90012

KBC Bakery looks like countless other barebones old Chinese bakeries in Chinatown. Surprisingly, they did get an A from the health department though. The Chinese seniors are present and so was the clutter, like cereal boxes.

They have a lot – including dim sum, steamed rice rolls, baked buns, steamed buns, Chinese rice tamales (gongzi), cookies, congee, cakes, etc. Custom cakes are available. The signs are in English and Chinese. It seems like the type of place where you have to know what to order. Some items didn’t look appealing.

* Pork noodle roll ($1.10): Giant, extra heavy, very thick, slightly gummy steamed rice rolls – I’ve rarely encountered such thick rice rolls. They were okay but each roll only had about 4 tiny pieces of chopped pork. I still prefer the thinner rolls with more filling.

* Har gow: The skin was very thick and slightly gummy. The shrimp part wasn’t as flavorful as some places. Okay.

* Baked red bean bun (85 cents): This was bad because the filling had a bitter aftertaste. The bun was dry (probably old) but not too sweet.

* Steamed chicken bun: This was the best thing I had, even though it was a little mushy in parts. But the bun was fluffy, light and sweet. The gigantic bun had lots of chicken, plus Chinese sausage, hard boiled egg and cabbage. It’s meal sized.

* Congee with pork & preserved egg ($2.20): Not bad, it had some pork flavor and was very broken down, I would get it again

* Glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf: On the small side, the rice was pretty mushy but the proper elements and flavors were present

I got 2 pork noodle rolls, 3 har gow, 2 buns, congee and one rice wrapped in lotus leaf for under $10. Cheap! This was enough for three meals. Cash only.

3 out of 5 stars

By Lolia S.

[prophetbirds]

Doyers Street is less a street than an alley, curved and one block long, an afterthought to the rest of Chinatown’s infrastructure. In past decades it has been the site of gunfighting and street brawls between Chinatown gangs, but those days are gone. Now Doyers evokes a sense of nostalgia and longing, of stepping back into a world that seems slower and somehow unreal.

From the south, on Worth street, you come upon Doyers as it curves into Mott. You walk in a little, up a slight incline, and right before the bend lies Nom Wah Tea Parlor, a dreamlike place if there ever was one. The yellow sign looks ancient, like something out of a Tin Tin story about the Far Orient.

20120604-nom-wah-interior.jpg

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

As I always had it explained to me, the dim sum At Nom Wah has never been excellent, nor does it need to be. Where else in the city can you have your dim sum served on red-checkered tablecloths, or sit in vinyl covered booths while pictures of celebrities line the walls? Nom Wah has been around since the 1920s. It is a throwback to a different era, borrowed maybe from the Italians in Little Italy.

Making Shrimp Rice Rolls

Rice roll batter.

The menu is your standard dim sum menu. Depending on the dish, the quality ranges from less-than-average to slightly above. The dumpling skins made of glutinous rice flour, used for shrimp dumplings (har gow), are notoriously difficult to fashion, and at Nom Wah they are thicker, a little clumsier, than their counterparts in Flushing.

A confession: I only go to Nom Wah for the rice rolls. Some weekends, I bring a book, order a plate or two of the rice rolls, and I sit back and wait. Chinatown is quiet in the morning, especially on Doyers.

The rice rolls at Nom Wah are some of the best I’ve tasted in Chinatown. So often rice sheets are too soggy, too laden with sauce and steamed for too long. But at Nom Wah, the sheets strike the right balance: they are soft and tender, a little slick, a little chewy. Brown sauce (XO, oyster sauce, soy sauce, or some combination thereof) is spooned over with restraint—just enough so that each piece soaks up some flavor.

I like all the rice rolls, except the vegetarian option, with a slapdash mixture of canned baby corn, canned water chestnuts, canned straw mushrooms, and celery. But I am partial to the pork ribs. There could be more fermented black beans in the sauce, but I’m too enamored of the texture of the rice sheets to grumble about the details.

Rice Noodles With Fried Crullers

Fried cruller rice roll.

Another iteration comes rolled around fried crullers, you tiao, which I’ve always thought of as the croissants of Chinese cuisine—crisp, airy, yeasty delights. I love the contrast between the soft noodles and the crisp interior. If you happen to have leftovers, they are surprisingly satisfying when eaten at room temperature right out of the take-out box.

When the rice rolls arrive at the table, they are so fresh and delicate that there is something poignant, poetic even, about their freshness set amidst everything else, which is old and faded. Still the place has managed not to sink into decrepitude. Nom Wah has aged, is aging, cheerfully. In the mornings, the light that shines through is yellow and warm. On its westward facing wall, a glass counter holds trays of almond cookies. They aren’t tempting, not do you get they sense that they are meant to be. Instead they seem like fixtures, like the retro bar stools and the coat racks and the old black-and-white porcelain tiles that run askew on the floors. For a moment, all judgment about the food is suspended, giving way to enjoyment and appreciation for those things that are older and wiser.

[rickchung]

Street Auntie Apertivo House x Granville Street.

From dim sum to street-style comfort dishes, Chinese fine dining, and other Asian fusion inspirations including some truly inventive desserts, [it] offers some really thoughtfully-made and ultra-delicious dishes full of fresh, high-end ingredients and modern twists paying homage to the cuisine of the Chinese region of Yunnan along the Burmese border.

Dim sum basket: sea urchin dumpling, scallop avocado har gow (steamed shrimp dumpling), and morel shumai (steamed pork dumpling).

Fortune cookie cake with jasmine and strawberry; mango and pomelo sago explosion; and the “VanCity Special” with smoky mint, chocolate, and apple.

Shanghai noodles with XO sauce.

[formeryelpers]

Won Kok Restaurant, 210 Alpine St., Los Angeles (Chinatown), CA 90012

When you’re craving cheap dim sum at 3 AM, Won Kok is the place to go. Walk right inside and head to the takeout dim sum corner. On Friday and Saturday nights, you can get dim sum till 3:30 AM. Dim sum is made there and served all day. They have steamed buns, baked buns, dumplings, baked pastries, egg rolls, and sweets (egg custard tarts, almond cookies, sesame balls). Some items are on the small side but the prices are super cheap, so you’d expect that.

* Pork shu mai (55 cents): Pretty good with thin wrappers, prominent pork flavor

* Shrimp dumpling/har gow (60 cents): The wrappers were very thick and the dumpling had very little flavor

* Sesame ball (70 cents): The best thing I tried, a big ball with sesame seeds on the outside, chewy thick glutinous rice and lots of red bean inside, yum

* Egg custard tarts (80 cents): Below average, a small tart that wasn’t very flaky, with a thin layer of super sweet custard filling. I wouldn’t get it again.

* Steamed chicken bun (70 cents): Very small and very little filling, the bun was too sweet

* Baked BBQ pork bun ($1.10): The bun dough was too sweet but the filling was actually pretty good with pork and onions

* Baked red bean bun ($1.10): Odd version with too much coconut, very little red bean and too much sugar

* Chicken sticky rice ($2.30): Good flavor but the rice was mushy and very sticky

Won Kok is an older restaurant. It looks pretty big and run down. They have a full menu with fried rice, beef dishes, pork dishes, seafood dishes, congee, noodles, etc.

$10 credit card minimum. I think they have their own parking lot, which is very unusual in Chinatown.

3 out of 5 stars.

By Lolia S.

[formeryelpers]

KBC Bakery, 661 N Broadway, Los Angeles (Chinatown), CA 90012

KBC Bakery looks like countless other barebones old Chinese bakeries in Chinatown. Surprisingly, they did get an A from the health department though. The Chinese seniors are present and so was the clutter, like cereal boxes.

They have a lot – including dim sum, steamed rice rolls, baked buns, steamed buns, Chinese rice tamales (gongzi), cookies, congee, cakes, etc. Custom cakes are available. The signs are in English and Chinese. It seems like the type of place where you have to know what to order. Some items didn’t look appealing.

* Pork noodle roll ($1.10): Giant, extra heavy, very thick, slightly gummy steamed rice rolls – I’ve rarely encountered such thick rice rolls. They were okay in terms of flavor but each roll only had about 4 tiny pieces of chopped pork. I still prefer the thinner rolls with more filling.

* Har gow: The skin was very thick and slightly gummy. The shrimp part wasn’t as flavorful as some places. Okay.

* Baked red bean bun (85 cents): This was bad because the filling had a bitter aftertaste. The bun was dry (probably old) but not too sweet.

* Steamed chicken bun: This was the best thing I had, even though it was a little mushy in parts. But the bun was fluffy, light and sweet. The gigantic bun had lots of chicken, plus Chinese sausage, hard boiled egg and cabbage. It’s meal sized.

* Congee with pork & preserved egg ($2.20): Not bad, it had some pork flavor and was very broken down, I would get it again

* Sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf: On the small side, the rice was pretty mushy but the proper elements and flavors were present

I got 2 pork noodles, 3 har gow, 2 buns, congee and one rice wrapped in lotus leaf for under $10. Cheap! This was enough for three meals. Cash only.

3 out of 5 stars

By Lolia S.