I Popped Three Dim Sum Cherries At Once Today!

In My Humble Opinion
1

In another modern day miracle I managed to find the last three remaining people in the San Francisco bay area who hadn’t ever tried that pinnacle of Chinese culinary tradition, namely Dim Sum, and sat them down at one of the finest Chinese restaurants in the Silicon Valley area.

We had Char Siu Bao, Har Gao, Har Fun, Hom Sai Gok, Siu Mai along with scallop dumplings, beef meatballs, fried tofu, braised ribs in black bean sauce and shrimp dumplings. I also whipped up my favorite dipping sauce using some fire oil I smuggled in along with the house soy sauce.

A splendid time was had by all. The innocent victims included Jack Batty and Mrs. Batty, Snooooopy and my own self. Massive quantities were consumed and all agreed that this strange and exotic cuisine was indeed very toothsome.

Anyone else have any Dim Sum tales? I can still remember my first Dim Sum experience back in 1967. It was Number Three Pagoda Place in San Francisco’s Chinatown. That was back when they still calculated your bill by counting the plates at the end of the meal and tallying the sum from their number and size. The special spring rolls they served were the best I’ve ever had and have never been matched since.

All through high school I lived on the 25¢ steamed Char Siu Bao (barbecued pork buns to the uninitiated) sold by a street vendor in front of the Berkeley public library. They were my favorite lunchtime or after school snack. Now a days, a bag of ten uncooked ones costs me $6.[sup]00[/sup]! I’m happy to report that I am still thoroughly hooked on them. They make a perfect break time snack at work.

So, out with it! What are your favorite Dim Sum dishes and places to eat? Where did you first have it and what are the strangest dishes you’ve tried?

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Well, my first DimSum experience wasn’t spectacular, but enjoyable, and I am also addicted to the BBQ pork buns, as well as the sticky rice balls wrapped in banana? leaves.

That said, I get to introduce my mother to DimSum next week or so when she comes to visit, that or good Indian food, not sure which will be chosen.

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Damn, Zenster, your thread title makes me feel so DIRTY.

4

You lucky Silicon-Vally-ite! Do you know how upset I am? Do you know how jealous? You can buy uncooked dim-sum and take it home?! I am paralyezed with envy. :slight_smile:

Y’know the wide range of places I can go for Dim-Sum?

One.

There is exactly one resturant in the entire state that serves dim-sum (luckily, they’re very good), but they only serve dim-sum on weekends. Techincally, that means there is 2/7[sup]th[/sup] of a Dim-Sum resturant in town.

They print much of their menus in Chinese (point-at-the-picture menus) so I don’t know the actual names of some of the dishes, and it’s hopeless to try to ask most of the folks pushing the little carts, since their English is as non-existant as my Chinese.

I like the BBQ’d pork buns when they’re baked, but not when they’re steamed

I like taro cakes, in that earthy-flavored brown sauce

Crystal Dumplings are delish, as are shrimp-balls

They had some sort of chicken-feet that my buddies and I tried on a dare which were…weird. The chicken part was no big deal: like eating either chicken wing tips or necks. But they were coated in a powder that tasted exactly like pepperoni pizza. I liked it, but it was bizarre.

Har-Gow is great.

There’s a dish that involves short cross-sections of ribs in a sort-of hoisin-like sauce. (Not black-bean sauce, I’m allergic to beans, so I’ve avoided that one)

But my all-time favorite, bar-none, is Siu-mai. I could eat pounds of the stuff. I’ve managed to duplicate the ones at this resturant, almost.

Fenris, now hungry for dim-sum without any chance of getting it until Saturday.

5

Sheesh, you guys. Go to Hong Kong where this stuff originated. You can buy dim sum in 7-11 and microwave it on the spot.

Make sure you get the chicken feet next time. Admittedly, there isn’t much meat on 'em, but sucking the skin off and then spitting out the bones on the table will win you many friends and converts among your buddies. Oh yea, a good dim sum restaurant is LOUD.

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Not only do we only have one restaurant locally that serves Dim Sum, and only on weekends, but only from 11 am to 3 pm weekends. So we have a total of 8 hours availablity each week.

My son, being the culinary explorer he is, was thrilled with the find. Now, of course, since we moved out to the country, we’re about 30 miles away from it, and haven’t been in ages.

We may have to schedule a trip soon.
(I’ll have to check the local Chinese groceries for the frozen variety)

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One of the best things about living in Sydney is Yum Cha. Some say it’s the best in the world. The stuff I’ve had is as good as I’ve had in Hong Kong.

Anyways, I love the various dim sum, especially ha gau, but I think my favourite dish is the fried turnip slice (providing it’s cooked right). Anybody able to fill me in on the Cantonese for this?

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Yes. This was my first exposure to Dim SUm, and what a treat and somewhat bewildering experience it was.

You see, I didn’t even know what Dim Sum referred to. Whenever I heard anyone way “lets go out for Dim SUm in Chinatown” I was picturing boiled monkey balls in sesame and bamboo sauce or some kind of exotic Chinese root mixed up with Ramen noodles. What a fool I was. They should have just said Chinese buffet, I would have been all over it.

Here’s my take on the afternoon. Zenster invites Mrs. Batty, Snooooopy and myself for Dim Sum after a pleasant visit with Daisy-dog. I relunctantly agree, not wanting to be the kill-joy of the group. We arrive at the restaurant with conservatively 10,000 other people wanting a snack. After a short wait we are seated. From then on out it’s pretty much a blur. Trays of aromatic little I-know-not-whats are being wheeled past our table. Zenster is rattling off names of the treats to the servers in Chinese so quickly I would have swore he was Chow Yung-Fat.
Next thing I know my senses are reeling as I’m stuffing shrimp dumplings, meatballs, pork and mushroom somethings in my mouth. And those heavenly BBQ Pork Puffs! I could eat a ton of those!

Congratulations Zenster on creating a Dim Sum fiend. I am kicking myself for not frequenting Chinatown more often when I worked right near there. Now, I just might have to take long lunches to get up there for my Pork-Sno-Balls, as I’ve decide to call them.

:smiley:

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It’s been a while since I’ve gone for Dim Sum. There are quite a few good places in Oakland’s chinatown, unfortunately most of them don’t have English names, so I couldn’t tell you. I go shopping every Sunday with a friend and many times we have pork bun cravings and must stop to pick some up on the way from the Farmer’s Market to Trader Joe’s. We found one place that has good sized buns for $.70 each - baked, not steamed.

When we want to try a new place we generally drive around until we see a place that is packed with locals. We haven’t made a bad choice yet.

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Never had it, but glad you all had a good time.

How is Daisy-dog doing here in SJ anyway?

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I live in NYC and used to go a little place on Grand St. a few years ago, but lost track of it, and after returning recently, found it had changed owners, and it just isn’t the same. Can anyone recommend another one?

Also, a few people mentioned they can only get dim sum on weekends. Am I wrong, or is dim sum traditionally eaten only on weekends by most Chinese people?

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That’s debateable.
Not really, it’s just I know this has been a little pressure filled for Zenster. He is a prince for taking my baby in, but I know it’s not the easiest thing in the world to take of two dogs and a cat.
But Daisy is faring very well. Zenster’s dog Zen is her bestest buddy. And she even tolerates the cat (mostly).
The semi-good news (which Zenster may learn of here first) is that I have a tenative appointment to see a room where Daisy would also be welcome. With any luck, this situation may be rectified soon.

[sub]Mmmm, Pork-Sno-Balls[/sub]

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Good for you, Zenster for breaking those lucky folks in, so to speak.

When I was in the Navy, back in the days of wooden ships and iron men, Well, maybe not that far back, but in 69-70, I found myself on beach detachment in the Phillipines. Being a normally equipped young man, I made friends with a local lady who used to take me to Manila on occasion, where I discovered one of the most wonderful things. On a certain street there was a wizened little Chinese street vendor who appeared to be 900 years old, and for .25 American, would deliver to me three marvelous steamed buns each the size of both your fists. Inside these buns was barbequed pork with some shredded veggies, and in the center of the pork was a hard boiled egg! I think he called them (phonetically) Shoe Bow. Hmmmmmm. Does that sound familiar Zenster?
Anyway, that was my virgin experience. While I was there I also found out that with enough barbeque suace, monkey tastes a lot like chicken, but that’s another thread.

Fast forward 30+ years. Here in Portland’s ‘Little Chinatown’ there is a wonderful buffet style Dim-Sum restaurant that we frequent, but not nearly often enough, and yes they have chicken feet.
But for those who need their fix more immediate than that, we now have Uwajimaya where one can purchase all sorts of oriental delicacies. My favorites are the steamed buns with curried chicken inside, (sorry, can’t remember the name). I have some in my freezer right now! Too bad I’m not home.
Oh, and Uwajimaya has a sushi restaurant inside. :smiley:

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Just wanted to say that char siu bao kick major ass – though anything with char sui is awesome IMHO. And ordering chicken feet (a.k.a. “fung lung,” or “phoenix talons”) is a great way to gross out the dim sum virgins in your party… :smiley:

(Okay, so the thread wasn’t exactly what I thought it’d be about, but it’s still fun :))

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I don’t know why, but the replies to this thread leave me in stitches. Thanks everybody for your responses. I’m thinking we need to start a monthly SF Bay Area Dim Sum club.

We could call it SDDS (Straight Dope Dim Sum)!

::checks watch::

Well, that’s it, I’ve been home from work for all of two hours and it’s time for bed. Sigh! Another twelve hour work day is over.

PS: Bumbazine, in the Philippines Char Siu Bao are called Sio Pao (show pow).

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Can we skip the chicken feet?

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I’ve decided that when I die, I want to be buried in BBQ Pork Sno-balls.

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I thought this thread was gonna be about Zenster having a four-way with three virgins from Beijing.

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Where’d ya take 'em, Zenster? I like the Mayflower Restaurant over in Milpitas, and the Hong Kong Flower Lounge up in Palo Alto.

Put me down as another dim sum junkie. I was eating them as a wee pug in Los Angeles’s Chinatown, and was hooked early. Then Mr. Pug and I moved to the Ventura area for 14 years, and I suffered serious dim sum withdrawal symptoms. We moved to Silicon Valley about 2 years ago, and on our first trip to the Mayflower, I believe I went up a full jeans size in one day. Moral: never deny your dim sum habit for too long.

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::: timidly :::

I have never had Dim Sum. I’m not even 100% clear on what Dim Sum is, though it sounds yummy. Except for the chicken feet. I’m so :o