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Last night, we thought we’d check out the grand opening of Tom’s Bao Bao on Westminster Street in Providence. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones. After waiting in line for about 10 minutes, we decided to head to Faust down the street for yet another fine meal.

But we promised the kids to return for breakfast—well, Sunday brunch at least. This time, there were only a handful of people in line, and the service was fast.

We tried several kinds of bao—sweet potato, vegetarian, chicken, pork, and beef. For the uninitiated, a bao is similar to the pork buns in  Chinese dim sum—it’s basically a steamed doughy bun filled with vegetarian or meat ingredients. My favorites were the vegetarian, which contained lots of greens and tofu, and the fragrant sweet potato.

Tom’s Bao Bao
326 Westminster Street
Providence, RI
http://www.tomsbaobao.com/

We might have been inspired by the children’s book Yum Yum Dim Sum that we had borrowed from the library or perhaps from our lazy morning browsing photos from our Taipei trip–but suddenly we had the urge for dim sum.

We arrived at Lucky Garden midday Saturday to find bustling tables filled with both Chinese and American families sampling the dozens of dishes on their special dim sum menu. Our favorites included the crispy Pan Fried Tofu Wrap with chives, the Pan Fried Turnip Cake, Chicken Congee (a porridge-like soup with chicken), Scallion Pancake, Salt & Pepper Homemade Tofu, and Steamed Fried Dough Rice Rolls (basically a doughnut wrapped in a noodle–how can you not like this?). The desserts, also, were excellent–their egg tarts are made with a delicious buttery homemade dough, and although I tend to avoid the more gelatinous desserts, even I couldn’t resist their coconut pudding.

As usual, we ordered way too much, which is why the following weekend, we wisely decided to invite some friends along with us.

Lucky Garden
1852 Smith Street
North Providence, RI
www.luckygardenri.com

Also see their dim sum menu