Trying Everything on the Menu at an Iconic NYC Dim Sum Restaurant

[Lucas] Here we are in Flushing at New Lake Pavilion,

and we're gonna order one of everything

off of the Dim Sum carts.

My friend Eric Sze is gonna be joining us today.

He's a chef of Wenwen and 886 here in New York City.

So why are we here?

We're here to eat the menu of Lake Pavilion.

They still have the push carts.

[Lucas] All the carts have different items,

and you're gonna have a little card with you

that they'll stamp.

And the stamp is the denotion

of how expensive that Dim Sum plate is.

Ground rules.

Chinese restaurants have hundreds of items on their menu.

So today, we are only gonna get one of everything

from the Dim Sum carts.

'Cause we don't want to die.

The rule is we only take one bite of everything.

I'm quite hungry, to be honest.

This is a bucket list item for me guys.

When do you get to go to a Dim Sum restaurant

and order every single thing off the menu, literally?

Now we can definitively tell people

when we bring people here to this restaurant,

This is what's best, this is what you should come back for.

This is a hidden secret stuff.

For the sake of this video,

we should go by the general shape of the food.

So dumpling first, and then balls, rice rolls.

So fun.

Miscellaneous items. Oh, but there's also buns.

Let's do the buns before the miscellaneous.

Okay. What's the last round?

[Lucas] Desserts.

[upbeat music]

This is the dumpling round.

Before we begin, we have our tea and we have our condiments.

Dim Sum in Cantonese largely translates

to, What you like,

which means that customizing each bite

is part of the experience.

Some people go chili oil, some people go chili paste.

Some people go spicy Chinese hot mustard.

Some people go vinegar. Totally up to you.

The first is a siu mai, often sold as a pork dumpling,

with a piece of shrimp and a little bit of shrimp roe

over the top.

This is the most classic Dim Sum in all Dim Sum restaurants.

Here we go.

Tastes like Sunday morning. Pork is fatty.

Pork is chewy, bouncy. The wrapper is still tender.

It's not too loose, not over steamed.

The shrimp has the give and it's still fresh.

[Lucas] Har gow.

This is a crystal shrimp dumpling,

because the skin, as you can tell,

is a little bit translucent.

This isn't flour, it's wheat starch,

which is why it's so bouncy.

It echoes the bounciness of the shrimp inside.

Very good.

The skin is bouncy, but it's also very tender.

Let's do soup dumplings next. Handmade.

You see this little hole? That's where your thumb goes.

When you're wrapping a dough,

your thumb is right in the center of the hole,

and then you pull your thumb out.

You don't get that anymore.

If you go to a Dim Sum restaurant,

and you see that the soup dumpling in the middle

is just one tip, like a nipple, machine made,

because the dough is extruded

and the machine goes up like this.

Good.

It's so good. Everybody eats soup dumpling differently.

I have an iron mouth. No first timers.

So I can take heat on my fingers and my mouth.

Just pop it in. Do it at your own risk though.

This looks like shrimp.

[Lucas] Beautiful braiding technique.

Whole shrimps in here. Lake Pavilion: not screwing around.

[Lucas] This is chive.

Less chive than I want, for jiucai jiao,

or any chive thing, I want to be super chivey.

I feel like there's a lot of shrimp in here.

I disagree with you, 'cause I think

because shrimp is so much milder and it's more delicate,

I want the chive to be balanced.

I think it's a good amount of chives.

[Lucas] I didn't like this one growing up.

Chaozhou dumpling. It's huge. It's really heavy.

It's probably gonna have peanuts,

some pork, maybe some glass noodles, depends.

Do you think you can eat this one bite?

Don't eat it. More of like a challenge.

[Lucas] Don't tempt me.

I bet you couldn't. I'll do it if you do it.

Let's do it. Okay.

[jaunty music]

You just gotta chill.

Eric [beep] us.

Now we know where his limits are.

Seven rounds, fifth bite.

We bit into it thinking that it was gonna be filled

with things like vegetables, shiitake mushrooms,

maybe a bit of shrimp.

Thought twist. 70 grams of starch.

It is gonna be a fun day.

What we've learned: momentum.

I think we need to keep it up.

This is a leek dumpling.

I like this actually.

I love it.

[Lucas] I like this seared dumpling,

because it breaks up the monody of the steam dumplings,

which I think is the main anchor of Dim Sum.

Excuse me.

That's chaozhou jiao really got to him.

[Lucas] This is a very fun, puffy, glutenous rice

mochi-like dumpling,

but it's very crispy on the outside.

It's basically deep fried mochi

with a little bit of pork in the middle.

I love this one.

Again, it's just the beauty in balancing the textures.

So crispy on the outside. So pillowy in the middle.

Little bit of saltiness and savoriness from the filling.

This is the one I've been looking forward to the most.

Look at this beautiful honeycomb shape.

This is taro paste with wheat starch.

There's a good amount of oil in the batter itself.

As it fries, the moisture start to push it outwards

to create this honeycomb effect,

and it just locks perfectly in shape.

It's one of those miraculous things

you can only do with a taro batter.

The reason why Dim Sum restaurants don't make this anymore

is because this has to fry at a slightly lower temperature.

If it fried at a higher temperature,

it would lock in and get hard.

So, you need a separate specific fryer for making wu gok.

I didn't have a lot of respect for this dish,

but now I do.

[Lucas] So good. I love this one. This might be the one.

Okay. Lotus leaf wrapped rice.

Sticky rice with chicken. Like a Chinese tamale.

[Lucas] Yeah. Usually there's one piece of fatty pork.

Sometimes some dried shrimp. Shiitake mushrooms.

10 bites in. What is your favorite?

I think top, top bite for me would be the taro,

because there's just so much textural difference,

and they pack so much stuff into just one single bite.

This is too technical of a dish for us as chefs

to not respect it, and not put it at the top.

They have 470 seats here,

and they're still making these every single day.

Lake Pavilion. That's why we come here.

Respect.

Balls next.

[upbeat music]

This is a lightweight round.

How are you feeling?

I'm feeling

good.

That's a long pause.

You know how when you play Tetris,

you go into a game, you know you have a strategy,

you're building it up, and then you just make one mistake

and it derails that whole thing.

Chaozhou dumpling.

Of these, the most traditional is the beef ball.

It's whipped until it's emulsified,

and it develops a good amount of myosin,

which is why, despite it being beef, it's quite bouncy.

When I grew up, I didn't like the beef ball,

because it doesn't taste like beef.

You taste beef, you want to see those protein strands.

This is really bouncy. It's very light.

It's not as dense and bouncy.

It's more of like a fluff and bouncy.

[Lucas] Fluff and bouncy.

Do you think that this is an acquired taste

for people who didn't grow up with it?

Yes, but then I think the historical context

is also important.

This is a good way to utilize

a very little bit of protein and make a lot of food.

This is a pork ball with Chinese mountain yams

and lotus root.

I've always preferred pork balls more than beef balls,

because pork in itself just absorbs more moisture-

[Lucas] More than beef does.

Yeah. And so, the texture is always a little bouncier.

Good. Sticky rice meatball.

In Chinese it's jianzhu, which is pearl,

referring to the shiny bits of rice on top.

This is my favorite. I love this one.

So, sticky rice on the outside. Pork on the inside.

Oh, good. It's like a little rice ball.

It's like an onigiri.

This is not strictly a ball, but there are fish balls.

Oftentimes in the US, people will see pork skin

in the farm most common as-

[Eric] Chicharon. Chicharon,

or those crispy puff thing.

Similar technique in puffing it,

but you've built all this air inside.

The gelatin is trapping all of that moisture.

Why not braise it to soak up the broth?

Natural sweetness from the daikon. I love this dish.

It's so much flavor for such little color.

[Lucas] This is lang yu kao, which is, fact check me,

I think the translation is carp.

Carp fish balls.

Fresh water fish tends to be a little bit grassier.

Some people might say fishy or gamey.

So that's what the white pepper on top is for.

It's a cut through that gaminess.

It's good.

Similar flavor profile to the beef, actually.

[Eric] Sinjoi.

[Lucas] Fried black sesame ball.

But they've dyed it green.

[Eric] What's inside? I think black sesame paste,

and fried glutinous rice.

Oh my god. It's electric green.

Why does it have to be green?

[Eric] Presentation is everything. Delicious.

Round two, light work. Balls are done.

What's your number one?

The braised chicharon really struck a chord with me.

It's not something I eat often.

It could be a sleeper hit.

It's nostalgia. But we're in a Dim Sum restaurant.

I'm entitled to give out awards based on nostalgia.

Very nostalgic for me. I'll put that at the top.

Next round: rolls.

[upbeat music]

[Lucas speaking Cantonese]

I swear, I think they get a commission.

By the way they're really trying to push their stuff,

I wouldn't be surprised.

[Lucas] Round Three. How are you feeling?

I feel okay.

Actually, after the balls round, I feel kind of refreshed.

[Lucas] I feel successful.

Rolls, cylindrical items at the Dim Sum restaurant.

These dishes in Dim Sum are really important,

because they have to be made to order.

They're always steaming hot.

They plate it, they cut it up,

give you the soy sauce over the top table side.

This is what they call a crispy shrimp roll.

Deep fried shrimp inside of a batter,

wrapped inside of a silky, slippery rice batter

on the outside.

Soy sauce over the top.

The reason why it's red is red glutenous rice.

Mustard for me.

As is for me. One bite.

Straight up to the top of the charts.

This might be the one.

Glassy, crispy, little crunch.

It still has the textural presence. Not too airy.

Really nice and sweet. Plump, bouncy shrimp.

The red glutinous rice is for show.

How do you know it's a star item if it's not red?

You gotta be able to see it from across the room.

It's the Cantonese marketing.

This is a Lake Pavilion special.

And if you go anywhere else and they have it,

it's not gonna be red.

[Lucas] You have zhaliang,

which is yau char kwai in the middle,

and then slippery rice noodle over the outside.

This builds upon the classic success

of this dish texturally.

It's as if this had shrimp in the middle. Shrimp rice roll.

[Eric] Standard issue.

Every single Dim Sum restaurant will have one.

[Lucas] Back in the day, you used to have Dim Sum carts

that would roll these to order on the Dim Sum cart.

Beef rice roll.

I actually quite like these plainer ones.

'Cause you get to taste the sweet soy sauce

a little bit more.

[Lucas] Shrimp tofu skin roll.

This guy comes with a salad dressing.

Literally called salajiang.

So shrimp paste, ultra whipped.

[Lucas] The skin on the outside is tofu skin,

which is when you cook soy milk,

the top layer coagulated protein.

So tasty. It's warm, it's bouncy. Really nice.

Fried tofu skin pork roll.

Bet you can't fit this whole thing in your mouth.

Stop saying that, dude.

Yum.

So good.

This might be the first Dim Sum we've had

that's dressed in sauce.

A little bit sweet. Savory. I like it.

And the tofu skin is not crispy.

It's more like a elastic sort of dense texture

that holds everything together, which works,

because the shrimp is so bouncy.

That's the rolls.

[Eric] Fried shrimp roll. Still the one for me.

For sure.

[Eric] The rice batter isn't too crispy.

It's not too airy.

And the shrimp itself is chunky and coarse.

Paired with that super tender, light, fluffy,

almost rice roll skin, there's no way you can go wrong.

And the sweet soy sauce is just the cherry on top.

You look like you're struggling.

I refuse to believe that. You're right.

It's a mental game. And I'm ready for the baos.

Round four.

[Eric] Easy. All buns. Buns, baos. Light and fluffy.

Should be another cakewalk.

[Lucas] This is the custard bun.

It looks a little bit like a Mexican concha.

Not to be confused with a egg yolk bun.

The egg yolk bun is salted egg yolk, and runny.

This is not runny. It's a custard.

Sweet, aromatic.

We've been eaten so much savory, salty food.

It's a nice change of pace.

Here it comes.

[Eric and waiter speaking Cantonese]

[Lucas] This is the egg yolk bun that's in question.

It's really, really hot inside. Running hot lava.

Let that chill for a second.

[Eric] Cha shao bao.

[Lucas] Classic standard Dim Sum buns.

[Eric] Very good. Pork. Char siu sauce.

[Lucas] Honestly, one of my hot takes is I don't love bao.

Why not?

It's light, but it ends up being quite dense.

This is the chicken one. Same dough. Inside is a meatball.

Not my favorite also.

[Eric] But to be fair,

it's because we've eaten three previous rounds.

Yeah.

[Eric] So this coming into our stomach

and forming a dough ball in itself

isn't the most appealing thing right now.

[indistinct] good.

This is probably my favorite item at Dim Sum.

Salted egg yolk buns.

[Lucas] What the [beep]?

[both laughing]

Mm.

Oh yeah.

Salted egg yolk. Salty, savory plus sweet. Fatty, runny.

You saw the difference between the custard bun

and the egg yolk bun.

That's up there.

[Eric] So what's up with the pig?

[Lucas] It's a sweet potato bun. It's cute.

Fine.

You won't, you won't. You won't.

You won't.

[jaunty music]

You know when you chew something,

not outside in but inside out, like it's already-

It just keeps flipping in your mouth.

I think it's pretty good.

Surprisingly not bad.

Pineapple bun with char siu in the middle.

Oh, nice and light.

Thank God, right?

It's called pineapple bun

'cause it looks like the skin of a pineapple.

Has nothing to do with pineapples.

It's margarine slash lard, sugar custard powder topping.

[Eric] To me, this is a better version

of a cha shao bao.

It has more flavor, more texture.

[Lucas] This snow white bun. I love the topping.

It's a sweet, crackly crumble.

I have to go with the egg bun. No questions.

[Lucas] Egg yolk bun is the winner.

It's an improvement on the custard bun.

It's sweet. It breaks up the meal.

Yeah. Crowd pleaser.

[Lucas] Round five.

The quietest we've been all day.

Yeah, I'm really starting to feel

all the carbohydrates creep up.

Very uncomfortable.

Especially when you're looking at this taro tower.

Under normal circumstances,

we would probably marvel at the technique,

and how you can see individual strands

of zhuli and taro inside.

Now it just looks like a tower of starch.

This thing is like two pounds.

It's just...

[Lucas] This is the extras, the miscellaneous category.

This is the stuff that didn't fit into the other categories.

I have to say,

spare ribs are one of my favorite things at Dim Sum

because there's so many of them.

So, if the adults are talking,

you should just sit next to it,

you can constantly just keep picking at it.

You just keep attacking it.

And hot take: I think spare ribs is the better rib.

I much prefer spare ribs over baby back ribs. It's meatier.

It's fattier, and it's got that cartilage.

[Lucas] This is also velveted and marinated in corn starch

among other things, so it's nice and slippery and soft.

Ultra tender.

Beef short rib. This is tenderized beyond belief.

The seasoning is black pepper.

[Eric] Super sweet.

Honestly, I am not the biggest fan

of how meat sometimes is over tenderized.

Not my favorite, I have to say.

You gotta keep into consideration

that a lot of old people come here.

They don't got your young teeth. I love chicken feet.

So we're doing one bite. I was thinking about this.

Oh yeah. Wow. I'm pretty sure

that I can probably eat this whole thing,

and just spit out all the bones clean.

Go ahead. It might take a while.

Do it.

[chicken squawks]

[mellow music]

Damn.

Say hello to your mother for me.

Honestly, earlier, I had believed

that my biggest mistake was taking single bites of food.

Now, I realize the biggest mistake is bringing him.

Even I'm impressed. Come on.

This is really good chicken feet.

It's not overly soft. And the gelatin, man.

The gelatin is just so delicious. It's icky, gooey.

Nice, sweet sauce. Is that your one bite?

You serious? He's got no respect.

40 rounds of Dim Sum later,

I don't have to play your [beep] games, dude.

Trying to walk out of this restaurant

with a modicum of self-respect.

Spring rolls.

When you come to Dim Sum too late,

everyone else who got here early,

they have all the fresh stuff.

Stuff like this doesn't sit very well.

[Eric] I bet if it was just piping hot-

[Lucas] It would've be good.

It would be delicious.

But it's too late in the afternoon.

Spicy peppers stuffed with fish paste.

Oh, spicy.

It's good. Back to that emulsified whipped fish paste.

Oh my god. Really spicy. Really spicy.

But you know, classics.

[Lucas] Lo bak go.

[Eric] Turnip cakes.

Taiwan has improved upon a lot of Cantonese dishes.

[Lucas] The lo bak go, they've decided to remove

all of the bacon and mushrooms and aromatics

and things that make it taste good.

[Eric] Because we have better quality radishes.

A little bit denser. Lots of rice flour.

You can't come to Dim Sum and not order turnip cakes.

Yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right.

You're obliged to.

Even if it's maybe not everybody's favorite,

it still sits there as a courtesy to your ancestors.

[Lucas] This is tripe. Cows have multiple stomachs.

This is one of them. I love this.

Texture that I don't think a lot of Americans grew up with,

but I love it.

Very good. There we go.

Tower of taro. TT.

[Lucas] Oh.

Little bit of chili oil.

Oh.

Quite nice.

Quite good. Oh that's delicious.

There's Chinese sausage in here.

It kind of takes me by surprise. It's very tender.

It's more pronounced in flavor than the lo bak go.

Yeah. Dude, I think we owe this guy apology.

I would actually maybe, for this round,

put it at the top for me.

Yeah, I think so too.

Sleeper hit.

Sleeper.

[upbeat music]

It's the final countdown.

We did eat some things earlier that were sweet.

But here's dessert proper.

Malagao, which I think the translation is Malaysian cake.

So good.

Very, very airy sponge cake. Like a dark molasses-y flavor.

[Lucas] Black sesame rolls, in Hong Kong,

we call this feilum like film.

Like rolls of film.

Oh, like Kodak.

Yeah. Like Kodak. It is also made from glutinous rice.

It is a steamed, slightly sweet sesame flavored roll.

And when we were kids,

we would eat this by unrolling it.

Delicious.

Oh yeah. Winner this round for me.

Man, I really want another bite of this.

I think this is so nice.

This is the tofu pudding. Hen hao ah.

Super slippery.

[Eric] Slippery, velvety.

Silken tofu texture. Mango mochi.

This is theoretically one piece of mango inside.

Traditionally, that's how it's made.

But I can feel that it's multiple little pieces.

Look how soft and gooey it is.

I'm not an idiot.

Goodness.

No, we're gonna wait in silence

until you learn your lessons.

[Lucas] Water chestnut cake.

[Eric] I've never had this.

[Lucas] Dad's favorite.

Also, one of those jellylike rice flour things,

with a little bit of sliced water chestnut to give it crisp.

Light and sweet. Good.

Not for me. This is like jello shot consistency.

But there's no vodka.

It's like seared jello. Yeah.

But I can appreciate nostalgia.

And half of this stuff here is nostalgia.

Speaking of nostalgia, this is probably-

[Eric] Pinnacle.

[Lucas] Everyone's go-to dessert here.

Egg tarts, normally two ways to do it.

One's a cookie crust, one is a pastry crust.

If you don't see black spots, it's a Hong Kong style one.

If you see black spots,

it's a Portuguese Hong Kong take on pastel de nata.

[jaunty music]

[Eric] Mm-mm-mm.

It's really good. It's really good.

It's so eggy, and it's so glossy and consistent.

Barely sweet. Pastry is so buttery. So good.

[upbeat music]

All rounds done. So you can see empty tables.

Defeated men.

It's the most we've ever ordered for two people at least.

The next order of business is to figure out

what our accolades are.

The star: best thing we ate all day.

The repeat: what we wanna come back for.

And the regular on the corner of the menu

that you only get if you're here all the time.

It goes without saying that our favorite thing that we ate

was probably the steamed rice roll with shrimp.

[Eric] Yeah.

[Lucas] Very special fry on that shrimp.

Rice flour fry, like a Vietnamese house spring roll.

Very tasty.

And anytime you're putting deep fried thing

and then wrapping it with something

that's super hot and moist,

you run the risk of ruining the entire dish

and ruining the crisp, but well done here.

[Lucas] I think that might be the best selling item here.

The repeat I think is probably the taro puff.

I just think you can't deny the technique

that went into the taro puff.

I can see that. I respect it. It is a dying art form.

It is way more technical.

The secret one. The one that the regulars know about.

[Eric] Sesame roll.

[Lucas] The film. The sesame roll.

The Kodak.

[Lucas] Subtlety. Perfect texture.

[Eric] Fun.

[Lucas] A little bit nostalgia.

[Eric] Yeah.

That was fun.

Yeah, I'm good.

I'm doing alright. I think it's gonna hit

a little later.

I am just glad that we got to check off

this bucket list item. Yeah.

I've always wanted to do this.

Eat every single thing at Dim Sum,

because Dim Sum is in Cantonese, Whatever you like.

So why not actually figure out

definitively what it is that we like?

[Eric] You are struggling. You're struggling, bro.

I'm trying to remind myself to breathe.

Sit up straight.

Cheers to this. A great lunch.

New Lake Pavilion.