Delightful Dim Sum

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: An array of yummy dim sum! We served up big bowls of congee—a rice soup with mushrooms, tofu, and spices—and filled our plates with crispy guotie (aka potstickers, these were stuffed with tofu and edamame), savory siu mai, and super-spicy cha sui bao. Faux meat fresh from the Asian market stood in for the traditional animal-based fillings for the siu mai and cha siu bao, and while these may not be the most perfect-looking dumplings anyone's ever seen, they certainly were tasty!

The Goods: In Asia, it's common to eat hot soup on hot days since the added heat helps get the sweat going, which of course cools you down. It's another gorgeously sunny day here in SF, so we thought, why argue with a tasty tradition? Maybe right now you're thinking that come January, you'd really like to have the recipes for all this dim sum for your Chinese New Year party. Maybe you're thinking that it would not anger you to see these recipes in the January+February issue of VegNews. Maybe you should totally make sure to keep an eye out for that issue, because these goodies are only a fraction of the insane eats you'll find in there!

The Extra: Guess what?! We have some very exciting news that warranted a special section on today's entry. In fact, it warranted a whole new blog! That's right, in addition to the, ahem, award-winning blog which you are currently reading, and Press Pass, our after-hours editors' blog, we are thrilled to bring you This Just In. Our brand-new blog chronicles all the insane, amazing, exciting, and sometimes strange loot that gets sent our way for product review. You want to be the first to know about a new vegan cheese? Look no further. Wondering what to load up on candy-wise before Halloween? We might have an idea or two. Since so much comes straight to us, we figure the only way to be fair is to give it straight to you. Well, okay, at least we'll blog about it right away for you. Now that you know about it, go check out This Just In, and tell us what you think!