Eve S.
Yelp
Wait...how the hell...how in the hell is there a portal to San Francisco Chinatown in the middle of Greektown Salt Lake City? What manner of black magic is this? Should I write a review and put this portal at risk? Or do I owe it to my fellow Yelpers to reveal this magic?
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"Shut up, idiot. You know very well that we are still in Salt Lake City. Don't go being dramatic all for the sake of a review."
"Oh, really? Then you explain this," pointing at the char sui bao, "if this is Salt Lake City, then how the hell is this pork so perfectly seasoned and BBQd"
"Perhaps they're just the one exceptional place in Utah that can actually cook a decent char sui. It can happen, you know."
"Uh huh. Then what about these har gow...how is the shrimp so bouncy, so fresh....COME ON MAN, Utah is land-locked! There's no way."
"It was probably frozen, you dingus."
"Nope. The texture is too perfect. I don't buy it."
"But you buy that this could be a portal to another city in another state?"
"Shush. Smell these flaky shrimp dumplings. This is the result of expert level butter pastry. You can't tell me that this isn't San Francisco. And these black sesame dumplings..."
"Well. They ARE extremely Hong Kong-authentic. This transports me back to the semester that I lived in Hong Kong...oh the dim sum there ..."
"YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! MY GOD, YOU FIGURED IT OUT..."
"Excuse me, I did?"
"Yes! Don't you see? You're right...this CAN'T be a portal to San Francisco Chinatown. That's ridiculous..."
"Well, of course it...."
"No. I see it all clearly now. This is a portal to Hong Kong."
Facepalm. "You need to stop watching SciFi."
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All kidding and fictional dialogue aside, at some point Hong Kong Tea House switched from being "meh" in my book to being exceptional. I don't know whether they changed how they prepared certain key items or if I learned to order items that they're stronger in. Either way, this past year I have slowly started to replace my previous go-to dim sum restaurant with Hong Kong Tea House.
We go at least once a week these days, primarily just for their black sesame dumplings and their silver wrapped chicken. If you go even just for these two items, then it's not a wasted trip.