Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Owner Daniel Kwan's restaurant, Loon Wah, is hardly empty these days with an expanded menu that serves both Mandarin and Hong Kong style dim sum.




Loon Wah serves two versions of dim sum

By Michelle Ku

Diners are faced with difficult choices when they visit a restaurant for dim sum, but Loon Wah on De Anza Boulevard turns up the heat a notch by offering not one but two different styles of the popular salty and sweet dumplings and pastries filled with meats and vegetables.

After 18 years of serving Mandarin-style dim sum, Loon Wah added Hong Kong-style last year to meet the needs of customers, says owner Daniel Kwan.

"We have very good dim sum," Kwan says. "Not too many restaurants [serve both Mandarin and Hong Kong style dim sum]. We are the first restaurant in the local area to do so."

The difference between Mandarin and Hong Kong dim sum is in the way it is prepared. Hong Kong-style is indicative of Cantonese cooking in the southern part of China, where most Chinese immigrants are from.

Mandarin-style dim sum is easier to prepare because it can be stored in the freezer until it is served, but everything must be freshly prepared and served in Hong Kong-style, Kwan says.

Serving both styles allows customers to mix and match the two styles by ordering traditional Hong Kong favorites like har-gaw, a shrimp dumpling, and su mi, a pork dumpling ($2.60) and Mandarin favorites like green onion pan cake ($1.95) and pot sticker ($4.95).

"A lot of Chinese in the neighborhood like Hong Kong-style [dim sum]," Kwan says. "Both styles are still really popular, but on Saturdays and Sundays there's a line for the Hong Kong-style."

Unlike other dim sum restaurants, Loon Wah doesn't serve its dim sum on steam trolleys that travel throughout the room. To preserve the quality of the food, the dumplings aren't cooked until customers order from the 57-item Mandarin menu or 28-selection Hong Kong menu. To help diners make their selections, Loon Wah has a large picture menu of both dim sum styles.

Dim sum, which loosely translates as "a little bit of heart" and is also known at yum cha, is traditionally served with tea. At Loon Wah, the restaurant offers a variety of six teas: Bonay, jasmine, oolong, sou mee, chrysanthemum and the house tea.

In addition to the dim sum, Loon Wah prepares a full menu ranging from the popular tossed shredded chicken salad ($11.95) to the honey walnut prawns ($11.95).

Other popular entrees include General Tso's chicken, a chunky dish of chicken dipped in batter and sautéed with traditional Hunan hot sauce ($8.95), and Peking duck, a whole duckling rubbed with herbs and spices, coated with honey and syrup and barbecued to a crackling brown and served with scallions, plum sauce and steam bun ($24.95).

---

Loon Wah is located at 1146 S. De Anza Blvd. in San Jose. It is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more information, call 408.257.1642 or 408.257.8877.

---

Public Safety

Stan Kawczynski: Fidelity, trust - and retribution

Sports Briefs

Monta Vista tops Homestead in football

Saratoga Invitational cross country