Today Food, a small unassuming shop at the corner of Sacramento and Kearny, is a surprisingly good dumpling shop that's open for early brunch. Half of the store is taken up by the counter leaving only about 8 seats separated into 2 small tables and 1 medium table. The menu is simple: dumpling can be served with soup, without soup, pan fried. Dumplings themselves can be had with various fillings, such as pork, chicken, shrimp, or veggie. They have a couple other things, but dumplings are their primary offerings, so I ordered that. It is interesting they serve everything in to-go containers and disposable utensils. Portion sizes are relatively small. The dumplings are size of a wonton, not jiaozhi, so a dozen of them would fit in a medium bowl. On top are some bits of cilantro and seawood, but the seaweed needs to soak in the broth first. If you try to eat them dry they're too chewy. The soup is a bit savory and good, however, they give you those cheap shallow plas...
New Woey Loy Goey (NLG from now on) is one of three "basement" restaurants left in Chinatown (the other 2 are "Cloud and Spice" ex-Chef Hung's, and Kam Lok). This one is an old restaurant that still has the "bachelor bar" setup on the left as you enter, a lot like New Tin Lung Cafe (reviewed earlier). Went in for lunch, asked the waitress to recommend a rice plate for lunch. She made an unusual choice: beef stir fried with winter melon, over rice. Winter melon, also known as bitter melon, is often stir-fried with beef and thick gravy so you can serve it over (or next to) rice, but it's an... Adventurous suggestion, something very... Oldskool. I accepted the choice, added a Diet Coke (which they don't have and I accepted the substitute, Coke Zero Sugar). They served the house soup (low-fuo-tong) which actually came in a generous large bowl, not the normal rice bowl. It has lotus roots, daikon, and carrots, plus peanuts and pork bits. It is qui...