Living in San Francisco one is spoiled with the riches of Chinese food options. From Chinatown to the Richmond district and other hoods, the chances you can find some tasty, authentic Asian fare are a lot higher than you are gonna find most anywhere else. From high end fancy to mom and pop neighborhood drop in to dim sum takeaway to combo donut Chinese food spots, living there you kind of take for granted the fact of how easy it is to find. That is until you move away.

Thus was my dilemma in NC. They are not as a plenty here as SF but the Triangle is home to its fair share. Though considering the square mileage of both areas, I am quite sure SF has more per capita than you will find here. I’ve actually seen more taco trucks than actual Chinese restaurants. But since I have been here in this past year (yikes! already!) I have managed to come across and try about six different places and, well, the results have not been encouraging.

When it comes down to it, it isn’t that they are bad per se, it is just the majority of items you see on the menus are of the Americanized variations of Chinese food. And here it all seems to be taken even another notch with a seeming excessive amount of oil use, more deep fried things (not surprising) and a lot of what I will same samey-ness of dishes. Take for instance one night while hanging with Ms. M and her family we ordered up a handful of dishes from their favorite take out spot. When it arrived and was all laid out they all kind of looked like each other. The meats were different but the rest—the sauce, the veggies, the taste was all one note.

Ugh, and don’t get me started on the sauce. Then again, let me! Pretty much every dish I ordered was slathered in gunky brown sauce. Think clear brown gravy that has been thickened up with corn starch then slopped on top, which is what a couple places seem to have done. Not mix together in a wok but just plopped on top right before serving. Maybe they think because it is the South everyone is into gravy and they will just be look, oooh, that’s good, I’ll take that! One place had something akin to the brown sauce mixed with tomato soup. Just weird. Usually you might see the brown sauce in SF on dishes with beef but here, doesn’t matter. Chicken, shrimp, pork, whatever, browns the thing. Plus it was bland as bland can be, unless you are really into salt, then it had plenty. Not that I don’t like a brown sauce occasionally, but this blobby mess was not it.

I was really on the search for the white sauce—the chicken stock with thickener, garlic and other seasonings and my first five places didn’t seem to have it on the menu. But I was undaunted because now it was my windmill (literary reference!) and I was determined to find some place that was at least acceptable Chinese food since at this point the realization had sunk in there wasn’t going to be a “SF type place” here in NC. Eventually I stumbled across a place called Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant located next to a car wash a few miles down the road from my abode. But then again, supposedly everything in NC “just down road” and in this case, that was true.

Pulling up the menu online, turns out they also do dim sum! Score! (maybe) Seems they sell it everyday and then do the whole rolling cart thing in the restaurant on weekends. But since I’m not quite at dining indoors (no outdoor seating here) I can at least get the takeaway to see how they measure up. And I got A LOT of dim sum.

Pan fried pot stickers because they are one of my go-tos. Crispy on the outside, juicy pork on the inside, I think these are pretty standard restaurant starter fare. And, hopefully a good start to the rest of the menu.

Now begins the deep dive into dim sum with some sui mai, fried pork dumplins and steamed pork buns. The sui mai was pork and….interesting. The meat inside was compressed somehow and when you cut into it the side view looked processed? for want of a better word. I’m not sure how they made this but whatever they’ve used to make this gave it an odd texture sensation when you bit into it. Not bad per se, just not the expectation of something like pork meatball. Not really sure how to describe the oddness of it. Compressed meatloaf maybe? Not much flavor either though I guess that is why there is soy sauce.

I think when I ordered the deep fried pork dumplings, I had something else in mind than what I got. I guess I had the idea they would be more like pot stickers but deep fried instead. These were actually rice flour pillows deep fried with bits of ground pork inside. They were super greasy and sticky and there was very little pork inside. Definitely not my thing.

Steamed pork buns have always been a fave of mine and these were pretty much spot on. Fluffy steamed dough and the hint of sweet red bbq sauced pork on the inside. These were the best of this batch though I will say they are smaller than what you will find at a dim sum place in SF. They are more like a fit in the palm of your hand size than big enough to be filled up by one.

Here we have the ubiquitous egg tarts and something they called turnip pudding which can also be called turnip cakes. The egg tarts were suitably eggy and not super sweet which was fine with me. I mean you could really taste the egg in them more than a custard flavor. I’m still not sure I’m sold steamed crusts as it can be a little too soft. I think I prefer baked crusts to get some good crumbly-ness but this comes down to more personal choice than whether it is good or not. These were perfectly fine.

The turnip pudding really is a bit of misnomer seeing as how it really isn’t pudding or turnip for that matter. These are really made of daikon radish, another root vegetable like turnip. But it doesn’t have that sharp radish taste. I looked up their history and it seems someone somewhere along the lines started calling them turnip cakes and the name kind of stuck. Go figure.

It is more like a vegetable version of tofu and has the texture of a medium firm tofu. The little square kind of reminded me of the a piece of frozen fish for some reason. Of course the addition of ground dried shrimp in them also heightens that idea in my senses as you do get notes of fishy. Not in an unpleasant way but if you are not into it you probably won’t like these. I’m not sure I am sold on them myself. Like tofu they will absorb the flavor of whatever you put into or pour on them like soy sauce. Even though I could not get past the fish back taste, these were done well and I liked how they were pan fried up.

Turns out for these baked pork buns (like the egg tarts) they only offer them on weekends as special additions to the regular dim sum menu so of course I had to make a special trip to try them since I rank baked pork buns just below steamed ones. Sadly, these didn’t quite live up to my hopes/expectations/wants/etc. They are small, even more so than the steamed. More like a Parker House roll with the same red bbq pork inside. The batch I got were also overbaked. The bottom was darker than the top and the bread inside was on the dry side. They could have benefited from more filling to counter act this, probably. I was bummed as I had been looking forward to them. Maybe I just went on a bad day but I can’t say I’d make a special trip again to try. I can just stick with the steamed ones.

Something to note, ricing on dim sum seems to be more than your standard spot, which I guess makes sense seeing has how restaurants aren’t really located in walkable neighborhoods like a big city and people heading here are not just passing by but driving on a specific goal of eating there. $3.75 seems to be the rate for quantities for 4 sui mai or 3 fried pork dumplings or 2 steamed or baked pork buns or 3 egg tarts or 3 turnip puddings. It all adds up fast.

It wasn’t a complete dim sum party as I dove into the menu to see what else was on offer. First I came up with this shrimp and vegetable dish with Hong Kong style noodle (which means pan fried instead of boiled or steamed noodles). You get the pieces separate for take which helps keep the noodles crisp and crunchy. There were plenty of shrimp and assorted vegetables in a light red broth with notes of tomato. I’m guessing tomato sauce or paste mixed with chicken stock or something. It wasn’t too thin or thick or greasy for that matter. It also had just a tiny little kick on the end which made it quite lovely and I could see this being really good on a cold day, if one of those ever happens again here in NC. It is a big bowl and copious amounts of noodles thus most likely enough for two people to share which is good since this will run you $17.95.

YES!! I found my white sauce dish! Sixth times the charm! Chicken with snow peas which is usually my default go to at Chinese spots when I’m overwhelmed by the too many menu choices or have ended up there because everyone else wanted to go. Large pieces of chicken, lots of snow peas and other assorted additions like bamboo shoots, mushrooms, carrots and water chestnuts. Yes, I know, a “classic” Americanized Chinese dish but I like it and they did it well which was all that mattered in the moment. At $12.95 a pop, pricing is pretty spot on to other restaurants here and SF. And you may get two meals out of it depending on your hunger levels.

I am well aware comparing Chinese food in NC to SF is rather a losing battle just from shear breadth of offerings and quality. Adjusted expectations seem to be the thing when attempting to find or recreate what one once had and enjoyed. For all its offerings Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant will suffice to fill my occasional want for decent Chinese food in a seeming desert of choices. At least I know I can find me some steamed pork buns and my coveted white sauced chicken and snow peas. That enough alone will keep me coming back until such a time when or if I stumble across another spot. Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and it will be right next door to an actual donut shop.