Oh Jodi how sad for you! And in this thread I discoverd that two of my favorites here (Zenster and Fenris - don’t take anything from the order listed) are fans as well.
I’ll let others more knowledgeable fill you in completely, but to ‘do’ Dim Sum, it’s kinda like having a bunch of appetizers - you have long lists of choices of nice little things (often they are bite sized or nearly so, most I’ve seen were on small plates or in small bowls as oppposed to a large platter for example). So, it’s an opportunity to try a bunch of different things at the same time…
I know. Let’s have Zenster fly us all in to SF for a treat ! You’d do that, **Zenster ** old pal, wouldn’t you? for us!?!?!
Either HSF at 46 Bowery (just south of Canal St) or the Golden Unicorn at 18 East Broadway (near the corner of Catherine St). Both feature horrendously ugly decor, but you’re not going to LOOK at shit, right? The dim sum is great and the prices are more than reasonable.
I think weekend dim sum is an American thing; urban hepcats in San Francisco and New York adopted it back in the late 1970s/early 1980s because it fit in with their usual brunching plans. Dim sum is available every day here in the Brooklyn and Manhattan Chinatowns, and in Frisco…the flyover states may not be so lucky.
Did you west coasters try the tripe? The tripe is very good. (Zenster: Order the tripe for them and don’t tell 'em what it is until they’ve finished it!)
Another San Franciscan dim sum lover checking in. I have never been to a dopefest, but I could easily be persuaded to join the SDDS.
My favorite dim sum comes from the Yank Sing in San Francisco. I know some purists call it overpriced and inauthentic, but I don’t care. I’ve been eating Yank Sing dim sum since I was five years old and it was a tiny dive on Broadway.
This is a sad, sad week for me because they just closed the Yank Sing on Battery, where I used to eat at least once or twice a week, and where I introduced many, many people to the wonders of dim sum.
I have many favorite dim sum dishes, but chicken and mushroom dumplings always top my list.
Hi SpoilerVirgin, I had it for the first time at Yank Sing too. I had no idea they were moving. That meal marks the last time I used chopsticks in public. I tried to pick up some slimy bean thing, while a waiter happened to be pouring tea at the next table. It flipped out of my grip and nailed him in the face. Fortunately he was nice about it. My companion screamed out laughing when it happened and I just wanted to crawl under the table and die.
Actually, according to Westword there’s a second place that serves Dim Sum! But the place I go to is The Emperess. It’s at roughly Federal and Alameda. I know they serve Dim Sum on Sunday mornings, and I think they serve it on Saturday mornings as well. You must try the sui-mai (pronounced shoe-my) if you go. (Get there early: 10:00 am or so, or the line will literally be out the door and around the block.)
And wring I agree: the Zenster has to fly us in and treat us to all the dim sum we can eat because he made us hungry.
I like the way you think!
So waddaya say, Zen? When can wring and I expect our plane tickets?
Jodi, wring described it pretty well. The kind I’ve had, there are these little metal bowls, about 4 inches in diameter, straight sided, with holes in the bottom. The bowls are stackable. Due to the holes, steam can rise through large stacks. Waiters with steam carts trundle around the resturant, stopping at your table. You either tell them what you want or point to the pretty pictures on the menu and they give you the appropriate bowls and note what you’ve ordered on a bill.
Each of the bowls contains a small number 3-6 of little, bite-sized tidbits of wonderful-ness.
My favorite, sui-mai are…um…y’know what won-ton soup is right? Take the wonton skin. Instead of folding it into a won-ton, bend it so it’s more of a bowl shape with the top open. Fill it with a mixture of chopped shrimp, pork, spring onion, water chestnuts and other stuff. Steam it. Eat it. Yum.
Crystal Dumplings are…made with something like won-ton skins, but thinner and clear (I think they’re made with rice flour not wheat flour). Inside put a single shrimp, some chopped up stuff and steam. Again, yummy.
Taro cakes are…er…taro is a sort of root. Imagine a small flat square of very smooth mashed potatoes that had been steamed then lightly pan-fryed. Serve it with a sauce that every single person I know who’s tried it has described as tasting “earthy, like dirt, but in a good way” and snarfed down more.
The BBQ pork buns are hard to describe. Take a very sweet hamburger bun. Put some shredded pork in a sweet-n-sour sauce (sort of) inside. Magically seal the bun so there’s no seam. Bake 'till golden on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
There’s a fried shrimp ball that I can’t remember the name of. Grind up shrimp and veggies, form into a golf-ball sized sphere and deep-fry.
The chicken feet weren’t bad at all. Have you ever made chicken soup and tossed the neck in the stock? Have you ever eaten the skin and what little meat there was from from the neck afterwards? Chicken feet are just like that, but there’s a powdery coating on it that tastes exactly like pepperoni pizza.
Here is a quick little directory to your more common dishes:
Siu Mai shue-my
Arguably the most famous of all dim sum tid bits. A nugget of spiced ground pork and shrimp is held like a miniature cupcake in a egg pasta wonton wrapper. Har Gao har-gow
One of the most delicate of all, a whole srimp is bound with spiced ground shrimp inside a translucent rice paper ravioli like skin. Char Siu Bao char-sue-bough
Favorite of children and adults alike, slightly sweet Chinese barbecued pork is tucked inside billowing steamed bread. The contrast of the bland bread with the highly seasoned meat form the yin-yang contrast in this dish. Har Fun har-fun
A wide flat rice noodle is rolled up with whole shrimp to make one of the all time great challenges to chopstick users around the world. This is served with a special lighter and slightly sweet soy sauce.
Hom Sai Gok hom-sigh-gock
An envelope of sweet glutinous rice dough mantles a filling of pork and mushrooms. The sweet deep fried shell serves as a foil against the savory interior.
These are but a few of the delights awaiting you at such a meal. The staff will roll by carts stacked with small individual servings that you may select from. You are never stuck with a huge plate of something that you dislike and you will have fun experimenting. It is one of the great dining delights on this green earth.
PS: Snag yourself an unused teacup from another table (or ask the waiter). Mix some of the soy sauce with a spoon of the red chile oil in the little jar at the table. It makes a wonderful (if not treasonously modern) dipping sauce for most of the morsels being served.
Zenster, I am planning a dim sum morning brunch this Saturday in Chicago to kick off the Spiffled tour for the ChiDopers!
It will be at Phoenix on Archer Sat. the 7th. We will get there around 9 hopefully.
Anyone in the area is welcome to join us- email me for details.
I can’t wait…it’s been almost 6 months since my last dim sum !
purluvr; The restaurant was Sam Kee, at Wolfe Road and Homestead Avenue near the Valco Plaza on I280 near Cupertino. We all really need to meet for SDDS brunch there sometime.
wring and Fenris; Would that I had a corporate jet to whisk you both out here. Suffice to say that if either of you are ever in town, the Dim Sum’s my treat.
SpoilerVirgin; You really do want to consider attending a SDDS brunch. Another location might be the Jade Garden in Oakland’s Chinatown or The Mayflower in Milpitas. A great time will be had by all, rest assured.
Mike; Go for the gusto. Make sure to try the Chinese brocolli with black bean garlic sauce or the dry fried string beans. Both are perfect compliments to all of the meaty little dishes.
PS: What kinds of cheese did you select?
[sup]That’ll keep 'em wondering…[/sup]
So, what about it? Jack Batty, Snooooopy, slackergirl, wevets, Sue Duhnym, Democritus, pugluvr, Oldscratch, Camster, stuffinb, spellbound eddie, Rasa, tradesilicon?
Straight Dope Dim Sum anyone? If we do this on the 14[sup]th[/sup] or 15[sup]th[/sup] of April, we all can meet Triskadecamus, our wandering road trip SD’er.
IF it is the Mayflower, I would probably be able to make it. I used to only live about a half a mile from there at E’Lan apts. And I do love the Mayflower, there is a small place over on Calavaras and Milpitas next to the swagat that is pretty good dimsum as well.
Zenster isn’t Har-Fun the one that is served chilled?
Fenris and Zenster…you are the best! Thank you for the simplified Dim Sum menu… I don’t know where to find it in St. Louis but if I do I’m definitely going to try it! It sounds great! What do you drink with it?
Did I hear someone say “BBQ Pork Sno-Balls?” Count me in. Just let me know the time and place and I’ll check my social calendar, although I can say it does seem relatively clear.
Also available in beef (aow-yolk), pork (jhew-yolk), and barbecue pork/Char Siu (char-sue) varieties. Just stick “-fun” on the end of my mangled translations. If you like the Char Siu bao, you definitely want the Char Siu fun – yummy!
Almost literally, “saltwater balls,” IIRC. There’s also a wu gok that’s similar but different.
And if I remember right, taro is a kind of turnip.
I’d recommend some of my favorite dim sum dishes, but since I don’t know how to Anglicize Cantonese, I’d probably end up making a mess of things. Definitely go for the “sticky rice and chicken in lotus leaf” (laur mai ghai), though – it’s almost a meal in itself…
Fenris, keep on driving east on Alameda (from the Empress) for a few more blocks. King’s Land, the “other” place Westword mentions, is on the right, in a big old strip mall with some Asian supermarkets. It it soooo good. You may never go back to the Empress. King’s Lang serves dim sum every day, I believe, from 11-3. But definitely both Saturday and Sunday.
Thanks, Fenris and Necros! I’ll check out King’s Land, their schedule fits mine better. I’ve been to that market before, but not for several years.
All of that stuff sounds yummy! The only one I think I’ve tried before is the Siu Mai, when some people I worked with in Tokyo took me on an outing to Yokohama, where there is a large ethnic Chinese population. I’m really interested to compare that memory to what I might be able to find in Denver.
