Lao Bei Fang Dumpling House (food, MomVisit09)

After my mom got in yesterday and passed out for about 15 hours, we finally got around to eating today. We went to one of my favorites, Lao Bei Fang Dumpling House in Elmhurst. There's nothing particularly special about the place, but it's cheap and the ingredients are fresh. There are dumpling shops like this in chinatown or flushing, but this place is more convenient for me.

This place is truly a hole in the wall. You order from the counter and take your food to the two tables or separate counters with stools to eat. When you're finished, you have to throw away the trash and empty any noodle soup bowls into a pail before returning the bowls to the main counter. The place is not particularly clean, but I've also seen much worse from some "real" restaurants.

We shared a bowl of beef and tendon noodle soup (hand pulled noodles you can watch the guy make behind the counter), 8 fried pork and chive dumplings, 8 boiled pork and celery dumplings, and 8 boiled vegetable dumplings. All that and two sodas for $15.20. Really hard to beat that price.

Here's a picture of some of the boiled dumplings. Many places will say "steamed" dumplings when they really mean boiled. Here, the dumplings are filled to order before cooking if you order the boiled ones.

I'm not sure if it's evident from this picture, but the inside of the vegetable dumpling looks fresh and green and filled with chopped veggie goodness. Notice also the nice green bok choy in the bowl of noodles.

One of my favorite things about the place is the freshly made chili sesame oil. Very fragrant and not at all spicy, this adds a real depth of flavor versus just dipping the dumpling in soy sauce.