6/15/2009
Figured it was time to write this one up.
Lin Garden in Dracut does a dimsum buffet every weekend. I have gone the last 3 weekends in a row.

From the outside the place looks like a trailer-like polynesian restaurant advertising its comedy night and with plastic dragons and the like on the wall. But inside its a nice space with a terrific view of the river. The place could be no closer to the river so the views are great.

The dim sum buffet starts at 11:30 and has 3 tables of items. They are very good about keeping it all full and fresh. In fact i have yet to see anything empty. Costs aprox $15

From memory: (im sure im missing many things and they vary slightly week to week)
The first steam table has:
Chicken wings, pot stickers, meatballs w/ brocoli, chicken feet, s&p shrimp, fried tofu, bell peppers w/ shrimp, chinese eggplant, turnip cake, dungeness crab, dried tofu skin sheet stuffed w/shrimp, fried chive/shrimp wontons. Scallion pies w/pork/egg/scallion inside

The 2nd steam table has:
soy milk/fried dough, rice noodles w/toppings, house fried rice, beef chow foon, hot&sour soup, some sort of soup with rice noodles and thousand year old egg, some sort of tasty greeens with bits of pork, about 6 different types of buns in steamers. Including Pork, sausage, red bean, etc. Yesterday they had small bowls of silken tofu w/syrup.

Then there is a table with 3 trays w/sterno and steamers on top. In here there are hargau, shumai, pork/taro balls with rice outside, about 5 other pork based dumplings. The other 1/2 of the table are dessert type items. Various rice flour based sticky treats w/bean inside, noodle square things that look like rice crispy treats, tea infused rice w/bean wrapped in bamboo leaves, couple types of jello red/coconut, great almond cookies, moon cakes, etc..

Overall we like it as a suburban option. No driving to boston/parking issues. Great when there are only a couple of us so we can enjoy the variety. Of course being a buffet its not exactly the same as a fresh cart load of stuff in boston. I really like the S&P shrimp and the shrimp/chive fried dumplings. Also love the rice covered meatballs w/taro/pork inside. The skins on many of the dumplings are on the thicker side and many/most of the pork based dumplings taste very similar to each other. Scallion pies are very good too

Considoring how small the crowd of clients is typically, i would say they do a great job of bringing out a large variety of items and keeping them well stocked. Crowd is 99% asian.

I would definately recommending trying it if you are in the suburbs and dont feel like treking to boston or woburn. Attached a few photos of a couple plates.

5/25/2008 Winsor Dim Sum Cafe - Boston -Al, D, Jeff, Pam

1st time trying the Winsor. Place was rather quiet at 11 on a Sunday. Service was excellent, very attentive staff. Food all arrived fast , fresh and hot. Everything was excellent and we will return to try more items for sure.

We had:
Steamed Shrimp Dumpling (Ha-gau)
Pork & Shrimp Dumpling (shu-mai)
Steamed shrimp/chive dumpling
Spare ribs with Black Bean Sauce
Steamed shrimp rice noodles (chow-fun)
Bean curd sheet w/ pork & Oyster Sauce (tofu-skin-roll)
Fried Stuffed Bean Curd & Oyster Sauce (stuffed with shrimp)
Pan Fried turnip cake
Crispy spring roll
Fried stuffed eggplant
deep fried chive dumplings
Shanghai fried rice cakes
Crab meat dumpling w/soup inside (this turned out to actually be soup with 1 large dumpling floating in it)

3/14/2008 Dinner at Sichuan Gourmet framingham:
6 of us went last night to SG framingham.

We started with:

Dan Dan noodles - a favorite of the group. Angel hair like pasta with a spicy sauce and bits of pork.
Sichuan Wonton w. Spicy Chili Sauce (10) - Small wonton-soup-like dumplings in a similar red sauce as the dan dan noodles.
Scallion Pancakes - smaller then most and not cooked very dark, still tasty.
Shrimp Toast - These were nice. Deep fried white bread with shrimp paste on top. What made these ones interesting is they had bits of waterchesnut in the shrimp mix and generous amounts of sesamee seeds on top.
Main dishes:
Fresh Whole Fish w. Sichuan Chili Bean Sauce - Similar red spicy sauce with beans in it this time. Fish was moist and flaky. Some at the table got frustrated with the bones.
Beef & Napa Cabbage w. Spicy Chili Sauce - Again similar red spicy sauce but more of it and alot of crushed red pepper flake made this the spiciest dish we had i think.
Cumin Flavored Dry Beef w. Chili Sauce - Always a favorite of the table. Sort of a beef jerky with cumin sorta thing.
Smoky Hot Shredded Chicken w. Cayenne - The cayenne is not what you expect but more of a fresh green pepper sorta thing. Nice flavor.
Ma Po Tofu - chunks of tofu in a similar red spicy sauce as many other dishes. Wasnt a big hit at the table. I liked it but i prefer a firmer or fried tofu. This was your basic soft-white cubed tofu.
Cellophane Noodles & Minced Pork - We added this at the end and the waitress replied "have you had it before?" which made us think that she thought we wouldnt like it. Well it was interesting. Clear noodles with the consistancy of gummy bears in the red spicy sauce with bits of pork thrown in. Was tough to eat and wasnt a big hit of the table but most people were pretty full by then.
White rice.
Sesame Sweet Potato Cakes - These dessert cakes have mashed sweet potato and a dollop of red bean paste in the middle. The outside it a thin crust with sesame seeds. I would have liked them sweeter but they were good and very hot filling.

Total bill with some drinks and tip was $186.

Overall I felt it was all tasty but I would have liked more variety of sauces/flavors. I think we ordered too many dishes that had the same sort of sichuan red sauce/oil. Bill seemed a bit high for the amount of food we got but we did have 5-6 cocktails at the table as well.

2/10/2008 13 of us went back to Green Tea 2 in Framingham. Again, everything was excellent. We ordered much too much food though! Staff was very friendly and even gave us tours of the kitchen. All the wrappers and noodles are homemade in house. We got 3-4 of many of the dishes so some of the photos are of multiple orders on 1 plate.. I counted over 70 orders! We left $325 total with tax and a good tip. I counted 29 different items. (not pictured are sweet soy milk and stuffed mushroom caps) Some photos of items below with names: (you can click the photos to enlarge)

Taro Cake


Three Delight Fried Rice Sticks:
Chicken Chow Foon:
Shrimp Chow Foon:
Eggplant Stuffed w/ Shrimp:

Exotic Tofu:
Golden Sticky Rice Ravioli:
Szechuan Spicy Wontons:
Taro Cake:

Hargau:

Bean Curd stuffed w/ Shrimp:

Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce:
Singapore Deluxe Rice Noodles:

Fried Dough:

Salt/Pepper Calamari:
Spring Rolls:
Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf:
Shumai:
Shrimp& chive cake:

Vegetarian Bean Curd Wrap:
Stuffed Bitter Melon w/ pork & Shrimp:
Chicken Feet:
Steamed Pork Buns:
Scallion Pancake:

Shrimp Cheung Fang:
Crab and shrimp balls:
Steamed Chive Dumplings
Steamed Beef Balls:

Green Tea 2 Framingham - 2/3/2008

3 of us went today to the new Green Tea 2 in framingham for dimsum. http://www.greenteaframingham.com/images/dimsum.gif

WOW. We were blown away. Everything came out hot, fresh, and fast. Not 1 dish that wasnt exceptionally excellent. The owner came to our table many times and was very proud to tell us about how they make all the noodles and wrappers from scratch. After the meal i went to tell him how excellent it all was and he brought me into the kitchen to show me how/where they make everything homemade. Very impressive.

Shrimp Dumplings (har gau)- generously sized and full of shrimp, perfectly steamed.

Shrimp & Chive Cake - small expertly panfried on both sides with thin wrappers, loaded with shrimp and chives.

Shu Mai - Typical preperation, but very fresh and hot

Steamed Shrimp Cheung Fun - Homemade noodles with very large shrimp inside. Excellent

Spare Ribs w/ BB sauce- Lighter sauce then im used to, generous amounts of garlic, peppers, etc.. very tasty.

Vegetarian Bean Curd Wrap - This one was loaded with mushrooms and had sort of an egg dipped fry to it.

Taro Cake - Similar to a turnip cake but with chunks of taro. Pan fried on both sides to a golden crisp skin.

Stuffed eggplant with shrimp - huge pieces of chinese eggplant, sliced open and stuffed with shrimp paste like a sandwhich. Not the typical small chunk with a bit on the top like you get in boston.

Szechuan spicy wontons - Bean sprouts and dumplings in a mildly spicy sauce. Huge portion. Not spicy like you would get at a Szechuan restaurant but very tasty.

Three Delight Fried Rice Sticks - one of the highlights. thick rice noodle chips, shrimp, chicken and pork all browned/pan fried perfectly. Excellent.

The quality, freshness and flavors were all better then most dishes i have had in Boston. Plus easy to get to for us suburban folks, came to only $15/each with tax and tip + Free parking!

I had been to Green Tea Newton several times but this was also much better then there. Larger portions, faster service, hotter, tastier.
You gotta try it!

12/23/2007 7 people Emperor Garden Boston.

7 of us went today and spent about $100 on dim sum.

At first we were worried as they didnt seat us in the main dining area but in a lounge off to the side. When we arrived we were the 1st in this large room and obviously there were no carts/peopls. However as they promised, within about 10 minutes it was hoppin in there as well.

We got most of the normal standards hargau, fried dough, meatball, shumai, mushroom cap meatball, baked pork pastry, egg custards, chicken feet, shrimp chow fun, ribs in black bean sauce, taro dumplings, fried shrimp/chive dumpling, fried calamari, s&p shrimp, congee, tofu skin roll, spring roll, shrimp roll, sticky rice, roast duck.....

Out of that list the only thing i actually had to spit out was the calamari, not much seasoning and very fishy. Others didnt think it was so bad , but it remained mostly uneaten on the table.

Didnt have the soapy/soggy experience i had there 2 years prior so it certainly has improved since my last visit!

Most was on par with the other big places in chinatown.

The turnip cake cart didnt come around till we were done eating and leaving, which was sad as i love them. Also never saw any of the fried shrimp patties with the shredded taro on the outside. One of my favorites which they didnt seem to offer at all. We also wanted snails but they dont do those there, they did have clams but we didnt get them