Lucky us. We were able to arrange a private tour of the Asia Art Galleries at the Met with Joe Scheier-Dolberg associate curator of Chinese paintings and Pengliang Lu associate curator of Chinese Decorative Arts on a day the museum was closed.

In keeping with the Asian theme, we decided to lunch at Tri Dim Shanghai, an Upper East Side Chinese restaurant. My table ordered several dim sum to share including their crispy shrimp balls ($12 for 6) and Peking duck roll ($12), the steamed chicken dumplings ($12 for 5) and their classic crab and pork soup dumplings ($12 for 6). The latter were served with a warning not to bite directly into one to avoid getting scaled from the hot soup inside!

Our lunch classics included either a spring roll or soup with each entree. I enjoyed their hot and sour soup, prepared with the right balance of vinegar and pepper. I recommend.  Our table ordered the baby shrimp broccoli ($11.95), chicken with broccoli ($10.95), chicken with mixed veggies ($10.95), pork in garlic sauce ($10.95) and  sesame chicken ($10.95).

Worth a stop.

Tri Dim Shanghai
Upper East Side
1378 3rd Avenue (78th/79th)
New York, NY 10075
(212) 585-3388
tridimshanghai.net