SGV: Sea Harbour Dim Sum; Norton Simon Art; Nha Trang Soups

Kirk and Cathy both work too hard, so today they're letting Ed (from Yuma) post here.

I recently wrote about seafood dinners Tina and I had on our first and last evenings in the San Gabriel Valley. This post is about the day in between.

That Saturday began just after 10 AM at Sea Harbour where we were seated immediately and asked what kind of tea we wanted. We hadn't thought about that so we went along with Jasmine which showed up quickly on our table:

It was pleasant, but our minds were on dim sum. We ordered items we had not had before, so no pork ribs, chicken feet, or shu mai. Instead, look at this pork and shrimp dumpling with truffle sauce:

Truffle flavors dominated. The shrimp and pork provided more texture than flavor - and that was fine with us.

The ox tendon and tripe in brown sauce was full of tender chewy tripe and tendon seasoned with five spice:

A lot of tendon and tripe. We both enjoyed our first few pieces, but this was one of those dishes where we could have used more pairs of chopsticks at the table. Too much of a good thing.

Tina had suggested baked mixed mushroom custard tart:

This was very tasty, full of mushroom flavors. The textures were perfect. The pastry was light and flaky, and the filling had little bits of crunch amid easy chewing slices of button mushrooms:

We also ordered the shrimp, dried scallop, and Chinese celery dumpling:

Kirk really enjoyed this dumpling on one of his visits to Sea Harbour, so we wanted to try it. He's right, the wrapper is faultless and the filling flavors spot on, the celery balancing the seafood:

On the other hand, I was surprised that Kirk never mentioned the steamed preserved salted egg yolk bun, which arrived looking pretty ordinary:

But inside was sweet gooey egg yolk:

The overall effect was like a warm rich sweet egg custard. The only problem I had was egg yolk squirting out of the bun when I bit into it. That could make for messy eating.

We thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Sea Harbour lived up to its reputation, and the price seemed reasonable:

Sea Harbour Restaurant, 3939 Rosemead Blvd., Rosemead, CA 91770, (626) 288-3939

 

After dim sum, we headed up to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena (website). As you'd expect, it has a modern and attractive entrance:

Our friend Penny recommended it, and we are very glad she did (thanks Penny). Though we did detour to find Adam and Eve by Cranach, we concentrated on modern art. There were five van Goghs on display including masterpieces like this portrait:

And even more Picassos:

We also enjoyed a special exhibit of works collected by Galka Scheyer, the art impresario who introduced modern art and artists (including Kandinsky and Klee) to California. While the Norton Simon is not on the scale of LACMA or the Getty, it is an impressive collection.

Norton Simon Museum, 411 West Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, California 91105, (626) 449-6840

 

We wanted something simple and low-key for dinner. Vietnamese noodle soup sounded just about right, and Nha Trang - which specializes in bun bo hue and bun rieu - had a location about a mile from our hotel. It all seemed easy, we had no trouble finding a parking place, and then we realized it was closed (who knows why). So Tina's smart phone located another Nha Trang in Alhambra, not too far away:

Again we were eating early and were the first customers of the evening:

The small menu was printed on the placemats:

In addition to soups, we ordered eggrolls that were quite good, savory and crispy fried:

Originally there were more. They were served with lettuce and fresh herbs:

I only wish they had arrived before our soups, though we did manage somehow to eat all of them.

The soups came with a generous plate of shredded lettuce and red cabbage, lime wedges, bean sprouts, and abundant fresh herbs:

Really fresh herbs, bunches.

I got bun rieu:

It was decent with nice seafood pork tomato  broth. Compared with the version at Mien Trung, however, it fell a little short. The broth wasn't quite as stellar, and the tofu wedges were dense and chewy. The crab/pork meatballs were fine and flavorful, but I missed the light chunks of crab cake (?) at Mien Trung.

On the other hand, the thin noodles were well prepared and those abundant herbs really stood out when added to the soup. Took it to another level.

Tina had the bun bo hue:

Excellent. Lots of beef, tender and flavorful. The pork was represented by chunks of pig foot, which Tina enjoyed gnawing. The thick noodles, not all clumped together, were nearly al dente with a firm bite. The spicy heat got our attention, but was not overwhelming. While the broth was not especially beefy, it had a preternaturally dark brown color. All in all, a very good bowl.

We were looking for a low-key dinner with good Vietnamese noodle soups. And we found it.

Nha Trang, 417 W. Main St., Alhambra, CA 91801 (626) 588-2833.

Comments

[caninecologne]

That mushroom tart looked so good Ed. I like the look of the flaky pastry and how they made it look like a yin and yang symbol (even with sesame seed dots).

[Soo @ hungryones]

That was a great road trip! I gotta try those shrimp and pork dumplings. I like the museum too.

[janfrederick]

Excellent post!

[Ed (from Yuma)]

cc, good catch on the yin yang. I missed that. I hadn't had many pastry dim sum items, but I will try more in the future.

Thanks, Soo. We enjoyed the trip and the driving wasn't bad at all.

Thanks jan. Glad you liked.

[Cathy]

What a nice trip you had! Sea Harbor has been on our "list" and we need to make the time to go there; each of your choices looks great ( celery always influences my choices in a positive way). Norton Simon is right there at the start of the Rose Parade route and we've been curious for years.

[Ed (from Yuma)]

Nice trip. Sea Harbour was great. Their dim sum menu is huge, but has pictures. We prefer menu service. On the carts, I sometimes have no idea, and I think I'm not shown some of the weirder stuff.

[Sandy]

The salted egg yolk bun is a family favorite; I don't think any place in SD serves it. Jasmine does have the sweet version that isn't quite as gooey. Too bad Sea Harbour is such a trek from SD.

[Ed (from Yuma)]

I can understand your family's preference, Sandy. Kirk always laments the dim sum in SD, and a friend of mine here in Yuma says there's a quality dim sum house in Phoenix, better than anything in San Diego. I'll have to check it out.

[Steve]

About a year ago, I tried the Nha Trang bun rieu because Jonathan Gold likes/liked it. I was underwhelmed. It was really salty.

I guess I'll go for the one at Mien Trung next time I'm in LA

[Ed (from Yuma)]

Sorry Steve, I've been out of town. I didn't notice to much salt, but there are several branches of Nha Trang.

However, Mien Trung is in San Diego, not LA.