Cakes And Ale: Longo Seafood Restaurant in Rosemead, California (Dim Sum)

Scallop Dumpling with Roe at Longo Seafood Restaurant in Rosemead, CA

Robin & I were eager to check out this new Dim Sum place after Jonathan Gold's glowing review, but also I've been hearing for years that this entire area, east of Downtown Los Angeles, is crawling with world class Dim Sum restaurants, and that the competition for business lunches here makes this the best Dim Sum scene on the planet. The over-the-top decor seems so LA to me, especially the massive High Definition Television on the wall on the left, which was constantly showing video footage of Chinese folks catching fish, harvesting herbs, gathering shellfish from the shore with huge nets, dispatching a sheep and cutting it into pieces, then grilling the pieces over live coals. Some of it seemed a tad bloody to me, but nobody else around batted an eye. After all the food on the video looked beautiful and delicious.

Speaking of dispatched animals, check out the carcasses draining just beyong the kitchen doors.

First Dim Sum Offering: Mixed Mushrooms inside Tofu Skin. Silky texture.

This was the one Entree selection we made: Salt & Pepper Squid. Absolutely perfect on many levels. The Squid was the perfect texture, cooked exactly the right time, the breading was light, and not too salty with just the optimal amount of black pepper. Even better, these were served with thinly-sliced scallions & chiles, the red jalapenos were a particularly delightful piquant touch.

Above & below: shrimp & chive dumplings. Similar to good ones I've had in SF, except the ingredients, especially the shrimp, is of particularly good quality. All the seafood I had at Longo was top notch, with a nice sweetness.