Fooding: NBC Seafood, Teazzi, Pho Fever

Fooding

NBC Seafood, Teazzi, Pho Fever United's new "Stars and Stripes" livery on N78285, a trusty old 737-800.

United's new "Stars and Stripes" livery on N78285, a trusty old 737-800.

Carts at NBC Seafood.

Must resist mango pudding.

Ngau paak yip (steamed ginger beef tripe) was very good.

Har gow execution was nearly perfect.

Shu mai also very good.

Carrots instead of sugar cane for the deep fried shrimp ball, weird.

Har cheung fun fail, skins too thick. Flavor of both that and the lo bac guo was good, tho.

Gai lan. Necessary.

Deep fried shrimp ball close-up. Definitely weird with a carrot insteaf of sugarcane or lobster claw.

Lo mai gai and pai gut, both quite good.

Normal sized bean curd pork wrap, not pretty, but nom.

Feng zhao (chicken feet).

Pei dan sau yuk jook. Yum.

Shrimp paste and eggplant.

Cross-section. Aka more veggies.

Char siu bao hit the spot.

Ender looks unimpressed.

Ender was decidedly unimpressed with his aunties and uncle.

Teazzi at Atlantic Times Square.

Menu at Teazzi.

Mango fruit tea. Quite good if you kept it stirred up.

Strawberry milk tea had a coupon.

Keep calm and drink tea.

30% sugar might not be enough if you like it sweet.

Teazzi at Atlantic Times Square, northwest corner.

Sue crushing everyone in Terraforming Mars.

Mountain Goats.

Monopoly.

Mountain Goats.

Fun game but character and pace changed quite a bit when the wolves appeared.

Pho Fever.

Goi cuon (shrimp summer rolls) are okay. Pho.

Pho.

Shrimp fried rice is a big portion.

Banh mi, house special.

The 4M kids.

Bread was very nice, meat was just okay.

Morning arrival at LAX, then straight off to NBC Seafood for dim sum with Stanley, Ender, Sue, Ophelia, and Christine. NBC did a particularly good job with the har gow and ngau paak yip (steamed ginger beef tripe) today, the shu mai and feng zhao (chicken feet) were also particularly on-point. This was quite a contrast to the past two dim sum stops previously, although also to be expected, given those stops were not in areas known for their Chinese food.

That was not to say NBC had everything going well this visit; in particular, the deep fried shrimp ball was weird, with a baby carrot instead of the usual sugar cane or crab claw. Quite weird. Lo bac guo was good but rather plain, although that seems to be the standard for NBC Seafood.

Second stop before leaving 626 was Teazzi, one of many new tea shops opening these days. Their fruit teas were quite good, Sue and Ophelia looked pleased with their strawberry milk teas, although the mango fruit tea I chose did have to be constantly stirred for optimal flavor.

Tea powered us through an afternoon of board games. Sue cleaned up with Terraforming Mars, while Mountain Goats was a new and interesting game for everyone. Mountain Goats is similar in concept to Can't Stop, although with a good bit more complexity, especially as the game advances through subsequent rounds. Seems solid, but might need another play-through before a proper determination can be made.

The 4M kids couldn't decide on dinner, so the 4M parents made an executive decision, and we all ended up at Pho Fever. The pho works for most of the group, and Milo had a massive shrimp fried rice. The house special banh mi had nice bread, the right blend of soft, not-too-hard crust, although the quality of the meat used was forgettable. The banh mi pricing was super affordable though, so it was hard to complain.