Szechwan Garden

A few Saturdays ago, Tim and I went to Szechwan Garden at Lafayette and 38th.  He and his co-workers had recently started going there at lunch, and he was very impressed, especially with the dumplings he had.  He had noted that they serve dim sum on the weekends, and we'd both always wanted to try dim sum, so off we went.

First, a brief explanation for the uninitiated--servers come by with carts that are filled with bamboo steamers and plates of food.  They tell you what they have; you select a few; they stamp a card on your table to show the cashier what you bought.  Most of the plates came with three pieces of whatever the item was.  Since everything was in Chinese, and we had no idea how much we were paying for each item, we decided to just go with it and eat until we were full.

I won't go into detail about everything we had, but you can see from the pictures that we were pretty dumpling-happy.  The top left was a relatively standard steamed dumpling with pork, if I recall; the one on the top right was shumai that contained some shrimp.  Bottom left contained shrimp and pea shoots (this was one of my favorites); bottom right were a pan-fried version with pork and scallions.  They did offer us a hot chili paste dipping sauce; I would have loved a soy/ponzu based dipping sauce, too.  (Tim said they serve one when you order dumplings off the menu--we probably could have asked for it.)

The highlight for me, though, was the pork buns--yeasty rolls stuffed with barbecue pork (picture to the left).  So amazing.  I wished they had come by earlier; if they had, we probably would have had two plates of them.  Yum. 

The other highlight for me was the sesame balls.  These odd, sweet little nuggets were first introduced to us by some Chicago friends, and I've wanted to try them again ever since.  Well, there they were, and they were as good as I remembered.  They're glutenous inside--I believe they're made with rice flour--and are stuffed with sweet red bean paste.  And yet, they are crispy on the outside because they've been deep fried, and with the nutty coating of sesame seeds... it's just a strange and wonderful experience to eat one.  You have to try one for yourself to understand.

As I mentioned, we have no idea how much each individual item was, but our total came to around $20 for 6 plates of food, so I'd imagine they are each in the $3-$4 range (some cost more than others, I'm certain).  Not bad, and we certainly left full.

I would love to go back for more dim sum, now that we know what to do.  And I'd also like to try their regular menu, which Tim assures me is also tasty.

No website, but here's their Urbanspoon page:  Szechwan Garden