Saturday, March 22, 2008

Post #99 - Pearl Chinese Cuisine, Rancho Bernardo CA

We went to Pearl for dim sum on a recent Sunday. It was our fist San Diego dim sum experience, and it was delightful. The clientele was about 70% Asian, which was a good sign. The layout was the typical banquet dining style. All the cart ladies were friendly and willing to explain (though not in any detail) what the various items were to us white people.

Here's what we had:

Fried chive and shrimp dumplings - little balls of noodle wrapper filled with a lightly seasoned shrimp and chive mixture, then fried. A little greasy, but very good, probably my favorite.

Fried coconut shrimp ball - chopped shrimp, breaded with coconut, and covered in wonton strips. Messy, but worth it.

Sugar cane shrimp - shrimp dumpling skewered on a piece of sugar cane, then breaded and fried - husband's favorite, I wasn't as impressed.

Chinese broccoli - simple, the only green vegetable not enclosed in some sort of wrapper. The greens held up amazingly well throughout lunch, and were even good cold (but I'm of the opinion that anything can be good when dipped into Chinese hot mustard).

Barbecue pork pastry - Sweet barbecued pork wrapped in a bun, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and baked - a bit strange to the American palate, but very tasty.

Pork shu mai - the wrapper texture was perfect, the filling nicely spiced. I could live on these.

Pork potstickers - these probably would've been good if they were hotter than room temp and less greasy. The only disappointment.

I wish I had tried the shrimp cheong fun (shrimp in noodle, in sauce) and the fried taro ball, but we were too full. Oh well, just one more reason to go back.

Pearl Chinese Cuisine
11666 Avena Place
San Diego, CA 92128

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