Dim Sum Brunch @ Ming Hin Chicago

Took a vacation in Chicago and came back recharged and filled to the brim with yummy food. The trip did not get off to a great start as we were bumped off our flight and the flight we were put on was delayed 3 hours. So we spent a good 8 hours or so stuck in the airport. At least we got some useful travel credit out of this ordeal.

On Sunday we went for dim sum brunch in Chinatown. I did some research and Ming Hin with it's good website drew me to it as they had zha leong on the menu and their website allowed for online booking. We were there around 10am and the place was already close to being full. The decor was nice and modern, far cry from the Chinese restaurants in Socal. They gave us a menu with lovely pictures of the food and we ordered by checking the boxes next to it.

First up was the quintessential har gow. It is the usual suspects that will indicate what kinda dim sum restaurant it is. MH's har gow passed with the not too thick skin, flavorful and succulent shrimp.

We also ordered char siew so which is Chinese BBQ pork enclosed in golden puff pastry. This was goood. I have not had this for quite a while and MH did not disappoint. The pastry was flaky and not oily and a hint of sweetness from I guess brushing syrup on top. The char siew to pastry ratio was also just right. The filling had no fatty pieces of meat which suited me well!

Next was something that captivated both of us. I've had very good salted egg yolk custard pau in Singapore so my expectations were high. I ordered the polo bun version instead. The polo bun was tasty with the right amount of sweetness. The salted egg yolk custard while good did not have the molten lava texture I was expecting. To think I even warned the boy that the insides might flowing out. Nonetheless we both enjoyed this very much. He's never had this before so he was really pleasantly surprised by it.

Then my zha leong came. I first had zha leong several years back in Hong Kong and my cousin brought me to Sweet Dynasty. The zha leong was so good my friend and I visited the restaurant again just to savor it before we left. Unfortunately this is one dim
sum item that is not widely available. It baffles me because chinese fried crullers are so readily available and most restaurants offer it, so why not stuff it inside some cheong fun? Alas, the zha leong at MH wasn't good. The cruller was stale which ruined the whole dish.

Another standard dim sum dish for me would be the lo bak go (pan fried radish cake). This one had a smooth texture but I felt it wasn't fragrant enough.

The boy wanted the glutinous fried rice and that was the last item for our brunch. The rice was ok but I didn't think it was worth $7 for such a small portion.