Eat This: M.Y. China's Piggie Basket

BY TAMARA PALMER

San Francisco’s M.Y. China is celebrating the Year of the Pig with two special menus that will be served between February 5-23: a traditional banquet of eight lucky courses for six people and the new dim sum Piggie Basket for two to three people.

Knowing what a fiend I am for their dumplings and buns, the restaurant invited me in tonight to preview the Piggie Basket, which will cost $55 when it goes live on February 5. Let’s take a peek at the menu and Chef Tony Wu’s delicious and playful presentation:

M.Y. China’s Piggie Basket menu (Photo: Tamara Palmer)

M.Y. China’s Piggie Basket (TP)

Personal standouts are a beautifully fluffy sesame bun filled with pork floss and scallions, a turmeric-spiked soup dumpling filled with pork and crab and seafood dumplings taken up to another level with a generous lashing of housemade XO sauce with dried scallops.

I’m advocating for M.Y. China to consider keeping this or a similar dim sum collection available during Happy Hour, because it would be quite the fun social snack to share with some cocktails.

The Instagram star of the show here are the Lava Piggy Buns, which I’m also hoping will stick around for the whole Year of the Pig.

Lava Piggy Bun (TP)

Martin Yan aka M.Y. will close out the celebrations with a special cooking demo at Macy’s Union Square on February 23. Having grown up on episodes of Yan Can Cook, I’m looking forward to the possibility of interviewing him for a future print edition of California Eating!