dim sum

dim sum platters

different dumplings

If you've never had dim sum you are missing out on some amazing Chinese cuisine.  My grandpa says that "dim sum" is hard to translate, but it means something like, "a little bit of heart".  I'm half-Chinese, and while don't speak the language, I can definitely appreciate the food. My family goes to this hole-in-the-wall restaurant that, like many small Chinese restaurants, serves dim sum in the day and dinner in the evening.  Dim sum is just a bunch of Chinese dumplings and other savories that are served in small portions on little pans.  You just keep refilling this tiny little plate, so you don't feel like you are eating very much until you look up and realize that all the pans are empty and you just ate a whole weeks worth of carbs and seafood and greasy goodness.  But it's totally worth it because it is absolutely delicious.

egg tart

The entire atmosphere at a dim sum is loud and busy and bustling.  This time we went, the place was already packed.  But this one man who works there (one of the managers?) recognizes us because we were loyal customers to the restaurant he USED to work at so he got us a table right away...Anyways, first you are seated, then you are bombarded with successive servers pushing carts of steaming, yummy dim sum, shouting what different foods they have for you.  Then you take what you want , but sometimes they try to get you to take something you don't want , and you have to shout that you don't want it several times before they will try to sell it to someone else.  It's a very exciting way of eating out.

My favorites are

•  蝦餃 har gau, which are delicate little shrimp dumplings
•  燒賣 siu maai, which is pork/seafood in a thin noodle-like wrapper
•  叉燒包, char siu bau barbequed pork buns
• 蛋撻  egg tart, which is flaky pastry filled with custard
• 煎䭔 煎堆 jian deui, the most greasy and delicious: sesame seed covered balls of glutinous rice filled with red bean paste
• wow- did you notice half of my favorites are sweets?

(I just copied the chinese from wikipedia because I was looking up the spelling and it looked cool; I apologize to any Asian readers if I messed it up.)

So for those of you who haven't had dim sum before, you should try it if you ever get a chance! 

i had never had this before and i don't even know what it was called-  it was some kind of shrimp dumpling inside a piece of melon