I've largely been off Cantonese buffets
and dim sum
dishes
lately. It has to do with the number of places that bring in
pre-packaged,
frozen foods from fast-food factories around the city – the
food
from these
places can be bland and oily and often all tastes the same. But not
every
Chinese restaurant does this. There are many good ones that make their
food
in-house, places like the Magic Bowl.
Own
by a
Guangzhou-born couple who also took their culinary
training there, the Magic Bowl handcrafts all their dim sum. The shrimp
dumpling are packed with crustaceans, rolled in rice dough and steamed
to a tender,
tasty perfection. The pork and chive dumplings are equally good,
rolled,
wrapped and steamed just the way they should be. (The work that must go
into
these helps me understand why many restaurateurs out source.) At lunch,
each
dim sum order is only $4.50; there’s a limited selection at
dinner for $5.00
each.
The
dim sum
and other menu items epitomize the elegant,
sublime food of
The
Magic
Bowl is all of twenty-eight seats, with little
décor. That’s OK-it’s all about the
quality of the
food. Which is more than
enough to bring me back.