We went to
China Pearl for some
dim sum on Wednesday (luckily they do dim sum all day until 9 pm!). I think it had been at least one year since either of us had dim sum because I think Tony went with his coworkers from Eaton Vance before he left last December, and I can't remember ever going since then (which is kind of sad).
I guess with my food allergies I was always hesitant about going out for dim sum because I don't know what ingredients they use to make the dumplings, etc. I played it somewhat safe this time (especially after just getting over whatever it was that bothered me during the Christmas holiday) and stuck with mostly shrimp dishes like
har gow, and of course,
shumai. I couldn't resist eating one of the
lo mai gai (lotus leaf wrapped rice and meat) bundles, especially after Tony opened one up and the fragrant smell of the leaves and sticky rice enticed me.
Two days later (and even the day after), I felt fine so I think my fears have been calmed. (Woo hoo!)
They didn't have the egg custard tarts (
dan tat) that we both love, so we stopped at the
Hing Shing Pastry store on our way back to the car to pick some up. We normally stop at the
Eldo Cake House but we parked in the opposite direction this time and thought about trying out a new place. I'm so glad we did!
Hing Shing is small and there are no tables and chairs to sit down at to enjoy your pastry purchases, but they have a large variety of things to choose from both sweet and savory. There were a couple of people ahead of us in line so we patiently waited while the one woman working the front tended to orders and a bunch of men in the kitchen were busy baking and talking.
This rack of pastries caught my eye and come to find out, they are sponge cake. They looked like popovers to me but sure enough, they are sweet and really light and fluffy in texture.
We laughed a little bit when we saw these "big walnut cookies". They were huge! And full of whole, large walnuts.
The woman had just put out a fresh batch of the dan tat so we were pretty psyched.
So we took our pastries, headed back to Somerville and to
Bloc 11 for some coffee. I'd say that the dan tat and lattes were quite a perfect combination.
The dan tat were so yummy! I love the crunchiness and flakiness of the crust, and how the egg custard is not overly sweet. I found a recipe to make them at home on
Jen's blog, so I might muster up the courage to try it out some day. But making a trip out to Chinatown for some makes it all that more special in the end, and this time I promise I won't wait a whole year to go back!
Joanne Chang's newest Flour location -- F3 -- is located at 190 Mass Avenue in Central Square, right next to Central Bottle. We stopped by Saturday morning (the day after it opened) to check out the new digs and get our favorite pastries.
I really like what they did with the decor. It's a little bit more modern than the other two locations, and it has a nice flow to it.
Oh yum!! The wonderful pastries are all freshly baked. Of course, we went with the usual suspects: brioche au sucre and a maple scone. So good!
The "quote of the week" board. I love how they utilize the chalkboard theme for their menus in all three locations.
We got there at a good time because the line was pretty long soon afterward.
We did kind of think that the seating area would be a little larger than this, but it's still a good space. Love the large windows and natural sunlight.
It's going to be so nice having a Flour much closer to Somerville. I think they picked a great location because it's really close to the MIT campus and many of the bio-tech company buildings in the Kendall Square area. Can't wait to stop by there for lunch later this week! 
