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Vegetarian Dim Sum House

I don’t understand people who hate tofu and mock meat. Sure, fake buffalo wings and tofurky are kind of wrongheaded, but bean curd and gluten can be completely tasty, especially when transformed into dim sum. It doesn't seem unnatural.

I only ever seem to patronize Vegetarian Dim Sum House when my sister is in town. It was a hit on her last visit so a repeat performance was in order. This time we totally went overboard. What’s shown below is only about half of the food that was on the table, and even with five diners we all were able to take home leftovers. It’s easy to order wildly because you just check off boxes with the quantities you want and just about everything is $2.95.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_turnip_cakes

Turnip cakes are the most like "real" dim sum. The only thing missing are the pork bits. These are served with oyster sauce, though, instead of sweet soy.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_stuffed_lotus_ro

Lotus root slices were sandwiched between what I swear was mashed potato. The crunch and mush was a nice combo.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_potato_balls

Ok, more potato. These were essentially fritters.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_rice_roll

We had three varieties of rice flour rolls. White fungus and golden mushrooms are above. There were also mock ham and coriander and mock shrimp.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_fried_blobs

Fried dough blobs.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_bean_curd

Buddha's bean curd rolls were a hit.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_lotus_paste_buns

You never know if you're getting a sweet or savory. I thought these would contain lotus seed paste, but they were filled with crushed peanuts.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_shark_fin_dumpli   

Obviously, these shark's fin dumplings didn't contain any endangered species. They did mimic the texture, though.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_pork_buns

Pork buns are one of my favorite Chinese snacks. You might think faux ones would be a bust but they are fairly convincing. You can't completely match the sweet meaty, roasty flavor of char siu, yet these are respectable in their own right.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_sesame_tapioca_d

Tapioca dumplings filled with sesame paste were a little heavy. Half of one is plenty.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_shrimp_dumplings 

Classic shrimp dumplings minus the shrimp. I've always liked fake crab so mock shrimp isn't much different.

Vegetarian_dim_sum_almond_jelly

Honestly, I'm not sure what this was and if anyone actually ordered it. It seemed like one of those bland almond jelly desserts. Very blanc mange. The nuggets might have been mung beans even though they look like corn.

Vegetarian Dim Sum House * 24 Pell St., New York, NY

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  1. denny #

    This is one of those places where I stuff my face with yummy food, never knowing when to draw the line and then after cry myself in shame for having no discipline when it comes to food.

    You used to be able to go to their website and print out a 5% discount but guess they took that away.

    October 29, 2008
  2. denny: I love “real” dim sum but this place is also irresistible.

    October 30, 2008
  3. Chris #

    The “almond jelly” is actually called “ma dau go”, it doesn’t contain mung beans. It’s made out of “ma dau”, a kind of bean (I couldn’t find out the English translation), coconut milk, condensed milk, water, corn starch and sugar.

    December 11, 2008
  4. karen #

    Would you happen to have the recipe to the rice flour rolls and the fried dough blobs?

    March 11, 2009
  5. karen: I’ve never made these at home because they seem intimating, but I have seen recipes with photos online. Here’s one for the rice flour rolls/chee cheong fun. I’m not sure what the real name is for the fried blobs.

    March 13, 2009

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