Dish in the District: Ping Pong Dim Sum

Excuse the dark photos -- such is the hazards of mood lighting in restaurants!

My friend Jamie and I ventured to try out the new Ping Pong Dim Sum restaurant, located just north of the Chinatown arch in DC. Although this would seem quite appropriate, DC's Chinatown doesn't actually house THAT many Chinese restaurants. The area has exploded in the past decade with restaurants of all genres popping up around the Verizon Center -- home to the Washington Capitals and Wizards.

In any case, we had heard about Ping Pong Dim Sum opening last December 2009, so when we were planning for a dinner together, it seemed like a great option. I arrived earlier than Jamie and found a spot at the end of the bar to sample some of their signature cocktails -- dotted throughout the bar were Caps fans in their bright red jerseys getting their pre-game eats and drinks (I made a mental note to come here before my next Caps game!). The bartenders were extremely friendly and helpful -- Ping Pong Dim Sum has an extensive cocktail menu with lots of delicious sounding options. My bartender suggested her favorite drink to me -- the Lychee and Roses (Bombay Sapphire gin, rose petals, lemon, and lychee juice). I LOVED this drink (and in fact ordered another one at dinner). The price was right too. During happy hour (until 7 pm! a relatively late happy hour in DC), cocktail drinks are $5 (as compared to their normal $11 or so price tag) (other "happy hour" specials are available after 7 pm Thurs through Sun).

When Jamie arrived, we decided to sit in the "lounge" area of the bar (to continue enjoying happy hour priced specials). The "lounge" area consists of several tall tables that could sit up to six or eight diners -- although there were only two of us, the managers at Ping Pong welcomed us to spread out at the 6 person table. Our waiter showed up promptly, brought by a paper menu for us to tick off which dim sum dishes caught our eye. If you haven't had dim sum before, dim sum consists of small plates -- kind of like tapas -- here, each dish consisted of 2 or 3 of the listed item. The waiter suggested that we order between 3 to 5 dishes for each of us -- with 40+ savory dishes to choose from, we sure had our work cut out for us.




Before coming to Ping Pong, I was forewarned by my London friend that the dim sum wasn't necessarily "authentic." And although I found this to be true, I also thought that the dishes were still, for the most part, flavorful and interesting. The dishes are broken down by category -- soups, baked, steamed, griddled, steamed buns, fried, sticky rice parcels, signature dishes, salads, pickles, and vegetables. My favorites were the "chicken puff" (Honey roasted barbecue chicken in hand made puff pastry topped with pineapple -- fairly substantial, flaky, and lots of flavor -- see photo above!) and the dumplings we ordered (including the pork shu mai -- pork and king prawns in an open pastry topped with a Chinese wolfberry).  I also enjoyed the choy sum (steamed in soy sauce and cooked with garlic) -- but really, this isn't a dish that is any different from what my parents cook up at home.  [We also tried, amongst other things, the crispy hoisin duck spring roll -- aromatic duck with cucumber and spring onion wrapped in wheat flour pastry, served with hoisin sauce -- this dish sounded amazing, but the duck gets mostly lost in the deep fried-ness and the satay squid -- steamed chopped squid in satay sauce, seasoned with ginger and spring onion.]

Basically, the dishes are loosely based on "authentic" forms of dim sum, with some having a definite "new" twist.  One example of this was the Valrhona chocolate buns -- imagine a steamed char siu bao (pork bun) but instead of roast pork on the inside, inside is rich dark chocolate.  This was our dessert of choice -- the light flavor of the bun offered a nice balance to the richness of the chocolate.

Overall, we enjoyed our experience at Ping Pong Dim Sum.  The service was very attentive and friendly, and there was a large variety of dishes to suit almost every palate.  This is a great addition to the DC food scene.

Ping Pong Dim Sum
900 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

A&J Restaurant - Northern Dim Sum to Comfort and Satisfy

For most dim sum weekends, my family and I find ourselves at New Fortune in Gaithersburg. New Fortune serves "Cantonese" dim sum, which is what people often think of when they think of dim sum. But, on some weekends, especially during the cold days of winter, we venture in a different direction and seek out "Northern" dim sum. Our favorite place for Northern dim sum (at least for the past several years) is A&J Restaurant in Rockville, Maryland.

A&J has been a fixture of Washingtonian magazine's recommended "Cheap Eats" for years and with good reason. Think of piping hot dumplings, steaming bowls of soup noodles, and flaky "pastries" filled with all sorts of savory concoctions. A heavier variety of dim sum than the often steamed options of Cantonese dim sum (although, perhaps that's just a reflection of what we order at A&J!), it was always comforting and always satisfying.

Ever since I was little, I have loved scallion "pancakes"... but my favorite was not the scallion pancakes, but instead, the deliciously flaky scallion pastries that are somehow both light and dense at the same time. The flaky crust wraps around the scallion filling and is often sealed with a layer of sesame seeds. For years though we had been unable to find these scallion pastries at dim sum; instead, many restaurants started moving towards the ever popular scallion pancakes. Don't get me wrong, these pancakes are fantastic as well (especially heated up as leftovers the next day!), but they were never quite what I remembered from my childhood. And then, perhaps a year ago, we found that A&J had mini scallion pastries on their smaller "breakfast" menu (the small menu that accompanies their main menu) -- so now, everytime we go, we get TWO orders. One order to eat there and one order to take home. Yum.

My dad's favorite thing to order at A&J are the xiao long bao, or steamed dumplings. Although these xiao long bao often are not as juicy as xiao long bao from our favorite Crystal Jade Restaurant, my dad still cannot resist them when we are there. He often wants to order FOUR orders (=16 xiao long bao!) for four of us on top of everything else we love there... we can usually talk him down to three orders though :)




Perhaps one of the main reasons why we love A&J are the wide variety of noodles available. For every noodle dish, you can get thick or thin noodles, both appealing for their own reasons! I believe these noodles are handmade on site, and the texture of the noodles show it. Our current favorite noodle options are: (1) za jiang mien -- noodles with salty ground pork, shredded cucumbers, and bean sprouts (a favorite of mine since I was little!) (above), (2) the spicy beef soup noodles (below), and (3) soup noodles accompanied by deep fried pork or chicken (I prefer the skinny noodles with this!).

Finally, there are... "sandwiches" available. Ok, perhaps sandwiches isn't the right way to describe these treats, but imagine instead of "bread" you have a thousand layer flat pastry that folds at the center and inside is shredded pork...or beef... I love these for leftovers as well for days after.

And then the "hamburger" (beef xien bing). An exceedingly juicy beef "patty" (I recommend lots of napkins, a bowl to catch excess juice, and caution to be used because the steam that escapes is VERY HOT!) encased in potsticker dough, panfried so the two sides are crispy. These are best fresh and straight off the pan, so eat these at the restaurant! (Mr. J eating one of these below)


If you couldn't tell, I love Northern dim sum...and its many leftovers. We often order much too much for four people, justtt to be able to take some home to enjoy during the week to come! And, if you can't make it to Rockville, A&J also has a location in Annandale, Virginia. I recommend arriving on the earlier (or later) side because around 11:30 to 12:30, the small restaurant is packed.

A&J Restaurant

1319-C Rockville Pike

Rockville, MD 20852

(301) 251-7878

Saturday Dim Sum with my Family

(Some dim sum to "touch your heart" -- here we have from the buns on the left, clockwise -- baked roast pork buns, steamed roast pork buns, egg custard tarts, pan fried chicken buns, pork spare ribs with black bean sauce, steamed rice crepe with shrimp inside, pan seared waterchestnut cake (maa tai gou), and in the center, shu mai)

For as long as I can remember, we would make a morning weekend trip to our favorite dim sum restaurant of the moment. Now that life is a bit busier, the weekend trips have evolved into monthly, sometimes every-other-month trips, but still a fun and delicious experience each time!

Our favorite of the moment is New Fortune Restaurant in Gaithersburg, Maryland. We've been going to this one for some time, and I do admit that if you've never been for dim sum before, this restaurant can be a bit intimidating. But you should still go!! The restaurant is quite large (I would estimate about 50 tables? Don't quote me on that, my estimation of numbers isn't great) and offers push cart dim sum seven days a week. The best is to go on the weekends when there are loads of carts and loads of people so the dim sum is always hot and fresh.

When you sit down, tea is a must (we usually get jasmine ... and ok, I usually get a glass of ice water too) and comes steaming hot to your table. Literally on the heels of the tea are the carts... and let the food rush begin! Think of it as a smorgasbord of Chinese tapas (I'm mixing up a couple too many food cultures here...), but really, that's what it is like. You can see what the dishes are, point or ask for certain dishes, inquire about what is in them. But unless you're with a big group, I would say only take one plate of the dishes of your choice - with nearly 90 different options, you don't want to indulge too much in the beginning (I'm often guilty of this though, with my "eyes being bigger than my stomach).

There's something for everyone. Deep fried, steamed, pan fried... chicken, pork, beef, shrimp (lots of shrimp), vegetables... buns, dumplings, noodles, skewers... and yes, dessert too. Often the steamed dishes come out first (some in the first picture) and these are very tasty options.

Below are some highlights of the day:

"Deep fried taro dumpling" -- the outer shell is made from taro and inside is ground pork and vegetables.


For lack of a better description, like a spring roll but warmed in a black bean sauce and not as crunchy. Filled with pork and veggies.


Bean curd stuffed with shrimp (warmed in black bean sauce)

I didn't get the chance to take many other pictures, but perhaps next time I'll take some of the desserts and show them here!