Bites and Bolts

Have newspaper and tea, will eat dim sum. This was the common image inside NBC on the early Saturday morning of my visit. Easy to find if one knows where to look, this popular SGV spot has its niche catering to locals looking for simple dim sum. The vast parking lot gives way to a large interior lobby complete with a pair of snowy arowana fish swimming round in their tank.

Shortly after opening at 8am, we were quickly seated in their dining area. The area was split into roughly 2 equal sections of tables, and our section was filling up steadily with customers. Pink dressed ladies pushed their carts around table by table. There was no sense of rush in this establishment. As usual, everyone ransacks the standard dim sum, while the porridge and dessert carts are parked and abandoned against the kitchen. When we had our chance with the cart, we ordered generously from what little selection was available. Learning from past experience, it would be awhile if ever before we saw the cart again. Double orders of haw gow and pork sui mai, beef tripe, shark fin gow, and bean curd rolls filled up our table. We got started on our dumplings, anticipating another round with fresher fare, servers peddling new selections, and of course, Chinese broccoli nestled crisply under a slather of oyster sauce. We asked a server about the broccoli and he said it would be out soon.

The har gow’s over steamed, transparent shells gave way to a bland ball of shrimp lacking the usual flavor bursts of bamboo, ginger and garlic. Overcooked pork sui mai was dry and tedious to chew, a far cry from the usual juicy tender morsels they imitated. The beef tripe was slightly overdone, however it faired much better than the dumplings and was palatable. The shark fin gow was very similar in texture and taste to the pork sui mai. The bean curd rolls were prepared juicy and steamed perfectly, probably the most flavorful dish of the morning.

About midway through, we flagged down a server and asked him again for Chinese broccoli. It was almost 9am at this point, and we hadn’t seen the cart roll through. About 5 minutes later, he returned and told us it would be coming soon. We dug into the rest of our dim sum with hopes that the cart would come around before we finished. After about 15 minutes later, done with our meal, we still didn’t see the cart. Not just the broccoli cart was missing, so were any more dim sum carts. Our worst hopes had been realized and we hadn’t seen another dim sum cart pass by us since the first visit. There was only one poor lady pushing around the standard dim sum. We could have snagged a couple sesame balls from the stagnant dessert cart parked next to our table the whole time.

When we closed our final bill it came out to nearly $30. Not a great value for low selection, over steamed dim sum lacking in flavor. The picture menu looks great, if only you could get half the things listed on there!

Perhaps it was the fact that we arrived so early. Maybe the chef prepared everything in advance and left it sitting too long so we didn’t get a fresh rotation of dim sum. Maybe they need to buy some more carts and hire more pink ladies to push them around. For the lack of flavor in the dim sum, it sure gave a nasty MSG hangover later! If you live in the SGV, NBC may satisfy your quick dim sum fix. Driving any more than 10 minutes to go to NBC is wasteful especially with so many dim sum restaurants to chose from in the LA Metro area.