Friday, January 30, 2009

If Only These Walls Can Talk @ Dean Sin World (Monterey Park)


They just took off the bakery sign and hastily put up a banner

Before you take a bite of that dumpling you just ordered in a tea house or a local Shanghai eatery, ask yourself this one question: Are these dumplings made by Dean Sin World? Chances are, it might be.

Dean Sin World comes to us at a time when dumpling houses are exploding everywhere in SGV as it seems. Dumplings were the rage in 2006 as the must get comfort food and was one of the most popular take out items that can rival a Taco Bell chalupa. Little did we know, Dean Sin World actually was here in the old days (as in a few years ago), but we just didn't know it.

Before starting up this restaurant, two sisters decided to go into wholesale business selling dumplings and other small snacks to supermarkets, bakeries, and other snack eateries places. Chances are, you might see some small items like their sesame cake being repackaged with labels of the proprietor's own brand. These two sisters also make their signature dumplings in huge packs for restaurants across SGV.

Think about it for a moment, it's not the boiling of these dumplings that are hard, it's the wrapping of each and every single one of these dumplings that will take so much time. Not too many places would take that much effort and energy into make dumplings from scratch.

The hard work effort finally paid off for them to open up a small place on Garvey Avenue on the same plaza as Giang Nan. The place is still going through *cough* renovations *cough*, but it's a work in progress to get the places more ready for a mini cafe experience.


Chinese menu on the wall

Barebone with almost non-existent decor and no ambiance of any kind to speak of, at least we were thrilled that most of the dumplings and four choices of noodle cost less than $5. We knew that we can eat a lot for cheap and that's how exactly what me and my pal Danny did that night.

To start off, we ordered a lotus sesame cake that only dinged us for a dollar each. Lao Bang Nian (English translation: old boss lady) gave us each a cup of complimentary soy bean milk to go along with this delicious starter.


Sesame Lotus cake ($1 each) with Hot Soy Bean Milk

The signature items were the juicy pork dumplings and their home made boiled dumplings are the specialty, we decided to divide and conquered to ordered one boiled pork dumpling with leaks to start off, then getting a bowl of noodle for a main course with the juicy soup dumplings to cap our night.

The boiled pork dumplings with leaks are very delicious when you dipped it in a chili sauce. I don't think dumplings have any kind of stink like some of these pork with leaks at other places would exhibit. They pretty much keep ingredients simple and fresh so that your taste buds won't get ruined by that weird after taste.


Boiled Pork Dumplings with Leaks ($4.25)

The Xiao Long Bao (Juicy Soup pork dumpling) were wrapped very well without breaking apart or having the soup leaked through before you picked it up with the chopsticks. I also enjoyed the fact there were plenty of soup inside the bao when it was piping hot. Give them credit for making it hot and fresh without being over cook which would lead to dryness on both the skin and lack of soup.


Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Juicy Pork Soup Dumplings) - $4.85

Before the noodle came out, we also ordered a pan fried baos. Regretfully they ran out of this item as it was sold out right before we came in. They gave us an option of replacing it with goyza (pan fried dumplings aka potstickers), but we politely declined. To make it up to us for the oversight, Lao Bang Nian gave me and friend Danny a bowl of Wine Blew. It's a bowl of sesame and rice bowl in a wine soup. You have to get a taste of this because it has a small hint of wine aroma, but when you take a sip of the soup, I thought for a moment I was getting a rice ball in a sake. It has a sour flavor mixed in with a bit of sugar in the soup.

The rice was fermented for a brief time and it extract the smell of wine. Think of stinky tofu from soy and you get the same idea for wine brew. You are not going to get a sake because ti's still need to be distilled, but this obviously will get still get a texture taste of wine in this fermented rice in this soup. Very offbeat and very cleansing right before our noodle soup.


Wine Brew ($2.75)

To end the night, our shredded pork egg noodle with mustard green was not bad at all. I think our original thought of sticking with the dumplings at this place should have been follow through. Since the dumplings were the specialty of this place, it would been wiser to order a different type of dumplings, but I guess we just wanted to see if the noodle was any good here. Next time, we can figure that out.


Shredded Pork Egg Noodle with Mustard Green ($4.50)

Overall, we did have a very good meal where everything came out to be less than $17 (before tips). It was probably the bargain of the century for two people that were ready to pig out. The service was very good and we even get to share some stories of our foodie adventure with a couple that was sitting next to us.

We were talking about places that we have visited in SGV and compared notes on where else to go for certain cuisines. Good ol' Lao Bang Nian shared us some of her stories as well and told us about the deeds regarding the businesses in all parts of SGV. Right before we left, we all complimented on how we love her dumplings and have made comparisons to others. She then let us know on a little bombshell: some of those places served her dumplings.

The sisters are still in the wholesale business of selling dumplings to restaurants. When some of the names of popular tea house chains and a few of the well known Shanghai restaurants have all served her dumplings, that's when my jaw had dropped. It's one thing to have your innocence shattered, it's another to have been told there was no Santa Claus. One of those place she mentioned of serving her dumplings was a well known place I have frequented before.

So before you take that bite of the dumpling you have just ordered, ask yourself that one question: did you just ordered a Dean Sin World dumpling? If so, why not come here and ordered here?

Dean Sin World
306 N Garfield Ave #2
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 571-0636

Grade:

Dean Sin World on Urbanspoon

Dean Sin World in Los Angeles

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Mike, that was a good dinner, so good that I went back on Saturday to eat again. This time the Boss Lady gave us free NRM (not on the menu, she was using us as tasters, I couldn't tell her it was GOD awfully sweet. She also gave us 2 more of those flaky baos that we got last time along with soy milk). That bean we got last time was actually Daikon bing and not sesame bing. But ya man, unless I'm going to the overrated DTF, I don't think I'll be getting anymore XLB from other restaurants. LOL

Wandering Chopsticks said...

Alright, 'fess up. Which dumplings and which restaurants are Dean Sin World's? :P

I ate at a Korean restaurant where the owner makes her dumplings for a lot of the Korean restaurants too.

Right Way to Eat said...

Hey Danny,

Oh man, I didn't want to tell her that her noodles are bit underwhelming. The soup was okay at best. I have to see how she stewed her beef before I order NRM. Start posting reviews on your blog! LOL

Hey Wandering Chopsticks,

I'll tell you in the email. Be on the lookout for that.

EatTravelEat said...

This is a very interesting post! Their dumplings do look really good; the XLB has so many pleats too! I also wonder where their items are being served at. Could it be at places like Mei Long Village too? (predicting only as we went there early once and the XLB could come before the "chef" arrived so he could then cook the main courses).

Right Way to Eat said...

Hi EatTravelEat,

This place is trying its hardest to upgrade their menu by adding newer items. They started to add noodles now. When I was there last week, they only have 3 types of noodle dishes. I have heard they might add fried rice and maybe Chinese breakfast items.

Mei Long Village is not one of their customers. I didn't want to list the places because I don't want Dean Sin World to lose restaurant wholesales since they are still doing very good in that portion of the sales. Let's just say it's places you would never thought of visiting. The popular restaurants won't enlist their help.

EatTravelEat said...

I agree with your thinking :). The noodles and other items you tried look good too! It is obvious that the owner of the place is a hard worker who likes her job.

Right Way to Eat said...

Hey EatTravelEat,

Yeah, the owner is very hardworking. They could have simply sell stuff out of their kitchen (which they were doing for many years now). They wanted to open a restaurant and this was what they start off in.

They'll expand their menu once they open up more hours. I have a good feeling they will need to find a large space soon. Nice success story and I wish them very well.

Unknown said...

Hey Mike,

Ya, I will start up my blog soon, but I'll probably make it a non "cute" name when it's all said and done.

The noodles here needs some help. The NRM and the noodles that we got were just OK. I hope the NRM is a lot less sweet b/c we're gonna get cavities eating it :P

Let's do a mini dumplings crawl next week!!

Right Way to Eat said...

Hey Danny,

Let me contact you through email. We might need to set it up on a weekend. I'll talk to you more about it.