As I wrote in a recent post, I had stopped going to Veggie Dim Sum a couple of years ago when I felt the quality had declined, but Veggie Dim Sum has bounced back and now I need to make up for lost time.  Veggie Dim Sum has a lot of dumpling options and this time I tried the steamed shrimp dumplings and roast pork buns.  And I know this is Dumpling Hunter, but I have to mention the “Treasure Balls with Assorted Flavor”; the best potato croquettes ever, astoundingly good, three ping pong ball sized spheres of croquette goodness for $3.00.

Steamed “Shrimp” Dumplings

Roast “Pork” Buns

The Dumplings:  the steamed shrimp dumplings are crystal wrapper style mock shrimp dumplings.  Rather than being a whole shrimp tail or big chunks of shrimp as enjoyed in real crystal shrimp dumplings, the filling in these was more like minced or shredded shrimp and had a texture that was closer to fake crab legs.  They had a shrimp-esque flavor and texture but I found them bland and in need of dipping sauce.

The roast pork buns were a really great vegan interpretation of real roast pork buns.  The bun was really light and fluffy and the mock pork filling captured the texture and flavor of real roast pork bun filling.  The conversation with my dining companions was not about whether or not the filling had the pork-i-ness of a real pork bun but whether or not the barbecue sauce was too sweet or had too much Hoisin sauce. When the conversation is about the authenticity of the BBQ sauce rather than the authenticity of the mock meat, I think you have some successful fake meat. Don’t order these when you are really hungry, they take a while to cook.