It’s like I’d spent my life enjoying potato skins and suddenly got offered a whole stuffed baked potato.

If you know what I mean.

As you may know, I like fried turnip cake.  I liked it in Hong Kong.  I liked it in San Francisco.  I liked it in London.  I like it here in Boston.  I have not yet liked it in a boat or with a goat, but given the chance, I probably would.

I visited a new-to-me dim sum spot in Boston’s chinatown, Hei La Moon, at the lucky address of 88 Beach Street (note that google maps puts it on the wrong side of Albany street) and I discovered a new form of  turnip cake, confusingly with the same Chinese name as the other kinds: lobag gow.

This variation seems to be steamed, not fried, and it’s served in a pool of soy sauce, not the hoisin I’m accustomed to.  And it’s served in a cube, about the size of three or four of the usual type slabs stacked up.  There’s a bit more bacon or sausage on top than usual, and a festive sprig of green, too.  The scalloped lacquer dish is a nice touch.

It wasn’t brought around on the carts, but rather served from a tray carried around by one of the hostesses.  I don’t know if it was a special, an experiment, an accident, or what.  But I will be back to look for it again some time soon.