Tuna Toast

I Want Some Dim Sum: LA Food Bloggers Get Together.....



After missing several LA Food Blogging events, I finally met my fellow City of Angels food fans last Saturday. D of eat, drink & be merry and J of Oishii Eats organized the outing which took place at 10:30 AM at Hop Li in Arcadia. I was so excited as A) I hadn't met any of the food bloggers in person and B) I hadn't been to dim sum since my only outing in Yokohama Chinatown years ago. I never met a dumpling I didn't like, so I knew my tummy would be happy, plus I told D about my love of turnip cakes and he promised that I would get my fill. Bring on the dim sum and good company!




Now you'd think, that with this many food bloggers getting together, it would be photography central with cameras clicking left and right. Not so. I was the only dork who took a few photos but then forgot to take any more since I was having such a great time! Of course I didn't take photos of the actual bloggers since we're all so great at keeping our identities a secret- check out stellar examples of headless and faceless photos here, here, here and here. What's better than great food with a bunch of people who truly have a passion for it? I was lucky and honored to meet the friendly personalities (and significant others) behind Colleen Cuisine, Pirikara/MikeHatesEverything, Rameniac, Best of LA, Daily Gluttony, Deep End Dining and la.foodblogging (in addition to eat, drink & be merry and Oishii Eats, of course!).



Thankfully, D and Daily Gluttony speak Cantonese so they took care of the ordering. Plate after plate of deliciousness were placed from the carts onto our table and we started to dig in. First off- I have to apologize that I do not know the actual NAMES of most of the dishes we ate, but they were all yummy. We had crispy egg rolls filled with mushrooms, sticky mochi balls stuffed with a ground meat mixture, my beloved turnip cakes, rice noodle rolls filled with shrimp and others filled with meat, Chinese doughnuts also wrapped in rice noodle sheets, juicy pork shumai, shrimp dumplings, braised tripe, beef short ribs, steamed beef meatballs, green peppers stuffed with fish paste, black sesame and anko puddings and sweet egg custard tarts. I'm sure I'm missing some other dishes but they came so fast and all tasted so good that I couldn't keep track.


After everyone had their fill, we spent the next hour or so going around and socializing with each other. It's a rare and wonderful thing to meet a group of such genuine, friendly people and J and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We talked food, careers and travel (I was happy to hear that a few of the bloggers had lived in Japan) and took turns fussing over Deep End Dining's adorable daughters. Such a perfect way to spend a Saturday morning!



So thanks, LA food bloggers, for welcoming J and I into your group and introducing us to some mouth-watering dim sum. When D told us that the final cost per person was $9.99, we couldn't believe it. Talk about bang for your buck! We hope there are many more gatherings in the future!



Oh- speaking of D.....don't forget to tune in tonight to Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations for the Los Angeles episode which features the king of eat, drink & be merry himself!!! Way to represent the LA food blogging community D!!! Travel Channel, 10:00 PM.