July 7, 2013 – Today we went to East Ocean Seafood Restaurant, a venerable Hong Kong-style restaurant on Webster. We went for Dim Sum on a Sunday and were a little apprehensive about the line that goes all the way out of the door on weekends. But we got a number (58 – they were on 43 at the time) and had a table in under 10 minutes.
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| #58 (plus we are ready with Tupperware) |
The restaurant is really huge and the service is super-quick. Our table was set in 30 seconds and we had tea and water within one minute flat. Then the Dim Sum carts started coming and coming and coming.
We had:
§ Two types of pork bau (baked and steamed BBQ pork buns)
§ Sui mai (steamed shrimp and pork dumplings)
§ Har Gau (steamed shrimp dumplings)
§ Har Cheong Fun (shrimp rice noodle rolls)
§ Crispy shrimp rice noodles with Chinese broccoli
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| Crunchy shrimp noodle (we got the last one) |
§ Eggplant with pork
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| The eggplant was awesome! |
§ Fried shrimp ball with prawn
§ Lo mai gai (sticky rice with lotus leaf wrap)
§ Custard tarts
§ Mango pudding with cream
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| Lazy Susan full of yummy-ness |
Greta says, “I think this place was delicious. I would give it five out of five stars. But just like any other Dim Sum place, I got way too full too fast. Because the food came so fast, I felt like I had to eat it right away. I wish I had taken the time to slow down and savor it more. My favorite thing is the steamed pork bun. I prefer steamed over the baked. I also really liked the tea. They said it was green tea, but it tasted like jasmine. So I think it was jasmine green tea.”
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| Greta with Elizabeth (who is home from college and guest blogging) |
Vera says, “My favorite is the shrimp noodle. It is so yummy and the noodle is so squishy.”
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| Vera and Linnea (who just passed the AP Euro) |
Compost Report – As we were coming to the restaurant we saw Faith Yamato from Kamakura coming out. We had heard from Miss Alameda that if the compost program at Kamakura went well, they could encourage East Ocean to participate (they must be tight). [Kamakura started the compost program a few months ago and after a few fits and starts, it is going well.] East Ocean has a very good recycling program, but they are very space-constrained in the parking lot (which they share with Kelly Moore Paint). We checked out the recycling and trash area and it is pretty tight back there, but they should be able to fit in a couple of 96 gallon carts (like the wheeled carts we all have at home) for compost, reduce the size of their trash container, and save money! [Most of the restaurants that have space issues can replace their large trash dumpsters with smaller wheeled carts.] We gave them a “Miss Alameda Says Compost” (MASC) brochure and they know Jessica from the Wellness Center (the Wellness Center is on the MASC program as well). So, it should be pretty easy to set them up!
Please go and visit East Ocean and don’t worry about the line (it moves fast!). They have excellent Dim Sum and the service is very efficient. Encourage them to participate in the MASC program. Since so much of their food is cooked on site from scratch, they will be able to divert a huge amount of material from landfills, help save resources and reduce climate change.
