Funky dim sum run

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I'm on a mission to reconfirm the quality of dim sum at Hong Kong Cuisine 1983 (壹玖捌叁), and it was a bit more than a year ago that I found them to be interesting. I haven't had the opportunity to dine with The Great One in a while, and I managed to catch her in town and available. I also managed to rope in the lady with the Tiny Urban Kitchen, as we made plans for a future meal together just downstairs from her apartment.

I wasn't surprised to find that the dim sum menu had been overhauled, and some of the items we liked last year were no longer available today. So it was time to try out the kitchen's other creations!

Steamed Shanghainese pork dumplings, served with homemade young ginger vinegar (一口灌湯小籠包) - these looked reasonably decent...but turned out just OK.

Sichuan style spicy mixed vegetables crystal buns (川式麻辣素水晶包) - these little babies, on the other hand, were a nice surprise.

We've got crunchy bamboo shoot and wood ear fungus inside, and the flavors were pretty nice with some mala (麻辣) tingling the taste buds.

Pan fried minced pork and Chinese chive buns (韭菜餡餅) - these were also very nicely done, as the wrappers were actually pretty thin.

Lots of Chinese chives (韭菜) inside along with crunchy water chestnuts. The kick and fragrance from the white pepper were a nice touch.

Pan fried beef puff (香煎牛肉餅) - yeah we were definitely hankering for pan-fried goodies today...

The wrappers were a little thicker, as one would expect, to be able to hold in the hot beef juices. The spring onions were nice and fragrant, and I was really surprised by the tiny diced water chesnuts mixed in with the beef.

Salted egg yolk Thai basil fish skin crisps (鹹蛋黃九層塔炸魚皮) - I knew this would be a crowd-pleaser, as both Pinky and The Great One love deep-fried fish skin. I still remember the days when I did a group buy and shipped cartons of these from Singapore to Hong Kong... but of course it's much better to have them freshly made in the kitchen.

Chicken foot tendons marinated with ginger and Chinese wine (三杯雞腳筋) - I've made many different types of "three cup XXX (三杯XXX)" over the years, but with the tendons from chicken feet?! This I gotta see! Surprisingly this was a dish served cold, and the tendons were pretty crunchy. Flavor-wise, though, this wasn't very classic "three cup" so... meh.

Steamed rice rolls with shredded roasted duck and preserved vegetables (雪菜火鴨絲腸粉) - I ordered this because the filling was most definitely not classic, but is inspired by a fairly common noodle dish in cha chaan teng (茶餐廳) all over town. Unfortunately, this didn't turn out too interesting... although the duck was at least smoky.

Crispy spring rolls with hairy crab roe and fish maw (蟹粉花膠春捲) - I'm always interested in trying new things made with either hairy crab roe or fish maw, and the way these spring rolls puffed up they certainly looked promising.

The wrappers very very crispy, but the flavors were a little milder than I had hoped for.

Stir-fried leafy mustard stem (清炒菜膽) - needed some veg for fiber and balance.

Traditional crispy mashed taro puff (傳統蜂巢芋角) - can't leave without checking out their version of this classic item. The puffed up, deep-fried taro mash certained looked great.

The flavors of the filling were somewhat on the mild side. Maybe I'd gotten too used to the ones being served at The Chairman (大班樓)...

Steamed lava salted egg custard buns (黑芝麻流沙包) - I'm always up for trying things like this, especially when black sesame is involved.

Unfortunately I didn't like the pungent flavors coming from these black sesame seeds... a bit too vegetal and instead of leaving beautiful, toasty fragrance in one's mouth, these tasted a bit rancid and off. Blegh!

It was a pretty good lunch, but the hit rate seemed somewhat lower today compared to my first experience a year ago. Maybe I need a rethink and find a different venue...