Monday, April 7, 2008

Chicago Part 4: Dim Sum for Two

We had our first taste of dim sum for lunch on Saturday. Dim Sum is a kid of Chinese cuisine that involves a variety of small light dishes served with tea. A lot of the items are steamed, and served in steamer baskets. We placed our order at our table by checking off boxes on the menu of what we'd like. I've included photos above with what we ordered. We were served a large pot of tea with loose leaves, and then one by one dishes were brought out to us.
I was really excited to have congee, a kind of porridge, because I know that it is a first food of Chinese and Taiwanese children. I liked the congee, but was surprised that I found lots of bones in my soup, and would have to spit them back out into the spoon and then onto the plate. Guess I'm just not used to bones in my soup! The pan cake was really greasy and we didn't care for it. Kevin especially liked the fragrant chicken sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf. It was beautiful, and smelled even better. The BBQ pork buns were so so. I'd like to have regular steamed buns next time. The coconut milk cake tasted like coconut milk jello and cut the grease taste out of my mouth after dinner. When we were ready to leave about noon, the restaurant was packed and people were lined out the door to get in. One of the most challenging parts of our dim sum dining experience is that we weren't provided forks. We ate our meal with chopsticks like everyone else! Again, we were the only non-Asians in the restaurant. Guess we picked a good place for lunch!

4 comments:

  1. the green onion pancake is best FRESH . . . . if you see a street vendor in taiwan selling it . . . buy it and try it hot off the griddle. YUMMY!! Good with egg added to the middle too.

    i've never had "bone congee" before . . . but there are TONS of flavors to try. I don't think I'd care for the "bone version."

    I'm glad yall were able to try so many cool new things. Yall are brave!! :)

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  2. Sarah, SUCH fun reading about your trip and seeing all of these amazing pictures!! I felt like I could almost taste those yummy dishes!!! Next time we will join you for some Dim Sum. We definitely can't claim to be a multicultural family without trying Dim Sum & congee!! :)

    Love you!
    Rebecca

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  3. Looks like you had the best time.
    You guys needed a trip!
    Glad you got to do some cool stuff.
    The Dim Sum was my favorite while we were in China.

    xoxo,
    A

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  4. Those dim dun pics look sooo good.
    XOXO,
    Megan

    ReplyDelete

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