Lunch at Pearl East in Manhasset

While I waited for my car to be serviced in Manhasset this weekend, I made my way over to Pearl East for a very pleasant Chinese lunch. This long-standing North Shore favorite has, in recent years, strayed into pan-Asian and sushi territory, but I stuck to the Cantonese classics and was rewarded.

The highlight of the dim sum sampler for two ($13) was the “hundred-corner juicy shrimp ball,” a fried sphere of shrimpy goodness whose crunchy exterior was amplified by the many (if not a hundred) incised “corners” and whose interior oozed a molten shrimp broth. The “swan-shaped shrimp dim sum’ was also a winner. The green-tinged snow-cabbage-with-roast-duck dumpling was a bit mushy, and I could not figure out why the pan-seared chicken dumpling hadn’t been made with pork. A dim sum sampler without pork? Unthinkable.

Next I had a dish of snow pea shoots topped with king crab, delicious despite being topped with the glossy, bland sauce that characterizes so many Cantonese dishes.

I had struck up a conversation with the couple to my left and learned a great deal about the husband’s profession, pawnbroker. It turns out that Queen Isabella of Castile pawned her jewels to finance Columbus’s first journey to the New World. Mr. and Mrs. Pawnbroker were exulting in their dessert, which they described as Pearl East’s caramel ice cream, while I was still working on my main dish. Out of my earshot, they arranged for the waiter to bring me a scoop of it after they departed. It was indeed delicious, not surprising since it turned out to be Häagen-Dazs “vanilla caramel cone.”

Pearl East is at 1191 Northern Blvd., Manhasset, 516-365-9898.

Pearl East's dim sum sampler for two features, left to right, snow-cabbage-with-roast-duck dumpling, "hundred-corner juicy shrimp ball," pan-seared chicken dumpling and "swan-shaped shrimp dim sum."