Ode to Dim Sum

One of my many little obsessions is dim sum. When I'm trying to explain it, I say that it's like the Chinese version of Spanish tapas or Greek meze, though of course each is totally different with its own cultural significance and traditions. Basically, it's a lunch-hour meal composed of many small dishes, usually served in metal or bamboo steamers, that can take hours to eat and is totally delicious and satisfying. I'm writing about it today because I'm pleased to say that I've found a restaurant that serves dim sum within an hour's drive of my house. That's half as far as I thought I had to go, so I'm VERY excited. (Generally dim sum is only served in very big cities, which can easily handle the demand. They tend to have good tapas and meze, too...)

Cooking dim sum is one of my favourite hobbies, although it takes me a year or two to work myself up for another bout. It takes at least 8 hours for me to cook a dim sum meal, so I really need to be prepared and carve out a day for doing it. Usually December 26 is an excellent date for such a project. The book I have is by Ellen Leong Blonder, called Dim Sum: The Art of the Chinese Tea Lunch (Clarkson Potter 2002). I like it because the author describes different types of tea and how to brew it, supplies needed and where to find them, and gives a variety of sauce and dough recipes besides the main info about dim sum. She also includes cute instructional drawings of how to set up steamers and how to pleat dough, etc.

Here's a list of the recipes I've attempted so far, with a few notes:

• pork & shrimp siu mai--one of the easier ones, and really tasty
• boiled beef dumplings
• potstickers--really really yummy, also fairly easy
• steamed char siu bao--these are the fluffy white buns with roasted pork inside. They are insanely complicated (for me) and time consuming, but surprisingly authentic once attempted
• rice in lotus leaf packets--I love this, but other family members find the lotus leaf taste/scent overwhelming
• greens with oyster sauce & oil--not everything is a dumpling!
• stuffed bell peppers
• steamed sweet bao--with adzuki bean filling
• sweet red bean-filled pancakes--another use for adzuki bean filling

I'm really only scratching the surface of the recipes in this book. I haven't made anything with rice flour, and I haven't deep-fried anything. Also, I'm sure there are other great books out there to discover! Please add a comment if you have a favourite book.

So how does a small-town Northeasterner like me get such a taste for dim sum? I have my parents to thank. We used to go to Toronto a lot when I was a kid, and they often took me to a great place on Dundas St, near Eaton's Center, called the Pink Pearl. It had the carts and everything (and a small flight of stairs between the kitchen level and the street-level dining room, so 2 people would have to man-handle the cart up and down the stairs every trip). We'd mass up piles of dishes on our table, then go pay the cashier at the front who mysteriously knew just how much to charge. It took several visits before I figured out how our bill was totaled--they counted the number and sizes of the plates and steamers left on our table. (The Pink Pearl still exists--it has since moved uptown to Avenue Road.) Then came my college years, spent in the same multicultural city of Toronto. I found that dim sum restaurants come in 2 stripes--there are the big ones with the carts that really count on dim sum as a big part of their day-time business. These probably have the best selection and the freshest and most well-made dishes. (Most don't count plates. Instead you get a stamp for each type of dim sum you choose, and the stamps are added up at the end.) There are also the small Chinese restaurants who just don't have enough seating to maintain a constant parade of carts. Instead, they give each table a list of available dim sum and you check off what you want. Then, they bring dishes out to you as they're ready. Of the big kind of restaurant, I liked the New Pacific on Dundas. I think it's closed now. And there's the Bright Pearl on Spadina that I only discovered a couple years ago. It is fabulous. Of the small kind, I liked a little place on Baldwin St. and another little one in Kensington Market. When I lived in Boston we also frequented the gigantic Chau Chow City--it has the same "industrial dim sum" atmosphere that I love. Busy restaurant, plastic tablecloths, big line out front, multiple floors, and carts and carts of amazing selections passing by. Bean curd wraps, fried taro rolls, stuffed eggplant, rice flour rolls and any kind of spring rolls are among my other faves. My absolute favorite dim sum in the whole world is shrimp ha gow. I am not sure I could ever have enough of these.

OK, moving on to the breaking news, I found a restaurant in Florence, Massachusetts, that serves dim sum every Saturday afternoon from 11-3. It's called the Great Wall and I think it's best described as "sweet." They have 1 dim sum cart. Here's a photo after about 6 tables had their way with it--lotus leaf packet in bottom right corner, spare ribs in bottom left.

Also on the cart were 2 kinds of siu mai (pork, chicken & shrimp), 2 kinds of bao (chicken & char siu) and shrimp ha gow (hooray!). There was also a table in the middle of the room that had other offerings, but the waiters (there were 2 and both seemed under 15) said we had to ask them to get items from there, but we didn't know what to ask for so didn't get anything. On the way out I took a peek and saw there were potstickers, sesame balls, tofu in sauce, scallion pancakes (I think), lo mein, and salt & pepper whole shrimp. I have no problem with missing that stuff because it just means we'll have to go back for more. We cleaned up our choices from the cart pretty fast. The chili sauce, in the middle right of this pic, was really really good.

I will definitely be going back to the Great Wall because they have something I madly crave. Will probably be dragging other family and friends there too on dim sum pilgrimages. This discovery has pretty much made my month. I wouldn't say their dim sum is the best I've ever had. But it's got something on all the other dim sum in the world: proximity. A parting shot from a satisfied customer:

Dim Sum comes to Brattleboro

This past weekend we got a chance to go to Cai's Dim Sum Tea House, which is a dim sum extravaganza put on at the C.X. Silver Gallery on Western Avenue, Brattleboro, Vermont. The gallery has been open for several years, but they just this spring started a monthly "Tea House" where dim sum is served from 11am to 8pm. Of COURSE we had to go, since I heart dim sum so much.

What we found was a real revelation for me and my dim-sum preconceptions. There were no stacking steamers, no thick, heavy dumplings, and actually none of the items that I usually conjure up when I think "dim sum." Instead, there was a series of unique "small plates" packed with fresh, light flavors. The main notes in many dishes seemed to be ginger, hot chiles and cilantro. And several of the items were cold, which is also not something I expect from dim sum--but which was very welcome on a bright summer morning. (OK, it was 12:30, but I felt like we were just getting going after a late July 4th nite!)

Wide shot of the whole table.
Top row from L to R: Vietnamese spring roll, mango yogurt drink, shao mai dumplings,
marinated Chinese eggplant
Middle row from L to R: Dan Dan Mian (Sichuan hot & spicy noodles), chicken & celery dumplings, Chinese spring roll, Stir fried rice noodles with tofu & vegetables & turmeric, marinated beef with tea egg
Bottom row from L to R: Marinated tofu, fellow diner's plate with spring roll dipping sauce, Cai's chicken with turmeric & maple syrup


Close up of Dan Dan Mian (L) & chicken celery dumplings (R)

Close up of marinated beef with tea egg

We really loved the Dan Dan Mian, which was a cold noodle dish with lots of spice and complex flavors. (I circled almost everything on the menu labeled HOT.) The chicken & celery dumplings were also excellent, and we were fascinated by the marinated beef and tea egg. They both seemed to have an anise-y flavor that worked well with the solid texture of both the beef and egg. The egg seemed to be smaller than a chicken egg, not sure what it was. I was also a big fan of the marinated Chinese eggplant, another cold dish that just melted in my mouth (and was also HOT--hooray). My dining companion really liked the stir-fried rice noodles. Our smallest member had no problem polishing off a tasty fried spring roll and was interested in the neat cross sections of the pale brown tea egg.

Basically we loved the food and are enamored of the whole idea of a dim sum tea house in our town. We got to sit outside on the porch on a gorgeous day. We sipped jasmine tea with our meal. It felt like we'd lucked into an invitation to a special family occasion with the host turning out her favorite dishes, rather than being at a restaurant. The cool gallery setting didn't hurt. They accept credit cards too! Recommended--don't forget to call ahead for reservations. Let's keep this thing going!

Special thanks to Someone Special, who not only had the idea, made reservations and treated us, but also went home after we ordered because I FORGOT MY CAMERA and retrieved that item. This post is brought to you by him. <3

Mother's Day Update, with dim sum

A lot has happened in the past few weeks!

Spring came.

These are our mysterious new tulips last Sunday, May 4. (We planted them last fall so had not seem them yet--couldn't wait to find out what they look like!)

Same tulips 3 days later... They are incredible! Like a tulip channeling a sunflower. The neighborhood is agog.


In other news, I ran my second half marathon. Here's a small selection of what I took along. (I packed 3 bags! I love local racing!) Chocolate agave gel, Bearded Brothers energy bar, Action Wipes for cleaning up post-race. I also took a complete change of clothes, a protein drink, a towel, and an ice pack.

The race is called the Western Mass Mother's Day Half. I did better than my first half marathon last September, though I must say that 13.1 miles feels insanely long. Here's the data...

 

Compared to my first half marathon, I made it another 2 miles before I hit the wall around mile 8 and started to slow down. For all of my great intentions to maintain a certain pace for 13 miles, or maybe even speed up at the end, I did start to get tired and slow down whether I wanted to or not. But it wasn't awful, just a bit uncomfortable, and it was wonderful to crest a hill at the end and have the finish line right there. The best part was that my mother came along with me to support and cheer me on! It was great to see her at the finish line and I even pulled off a little bit of a final kick--check out that 7:26 above!

For a double treat, we went out for dim sum brunch after the race. This is definitely my half marathon tradition now, since every time I run one (and that would be two times!) I eat dim sum afterward.  If you've been reading this blog for awhile you may have noticed that I have a huge soft spot for this special Chinese luncheon. (Read all my posts about dim sum!) I used yelp.com to triangulate dim sum options and came up with Oriental Flavor in Amherst, MA.

Oriental Flavor is totally charming. And they open at 8:30am on weekends to start serving dim sum.

Shrimp Har Gow

Char Siu Bao 

Beancurd Sheet Roll

 Pork Siu Mai

Sticky Rice in lotus leaf. YUMMM.

For the rest of mother's day I hung out with my lovely children, which included a trip to the ice cream stand and a chicken-n-biscuit dinner with steamed fresh nettles from the farmer's market. Fabulous!

A morning in Kensington Market, Toronto

I went to Toronto! The main purpose of our visit was to attend one of the Best Weddings Ever. It was everything I was hoping for and more in terms of seeing 2 fabulous people get married and then celebrating with a super-fun party with lots of old friends. Congrats J&B!!! You so rock.

We stayed 2 extra days to explore the city a (tiny) bit. On Sunday morning, we went to Kensington Market to get dim sum. It was kind of a sleepy day in the city--sunshine, blue sky, very little traffic.

Doorway on Augusta Avenue.


Sandwich board for a store called Good Egg.

Our main goal was to visit the Bright Pearl at the corner of Spadina and St. Andrew's for dim sum. Below is the glow-eyed phoenix & dragon display at the far end of the room.




We had several yummy shrimp dumplings right off the bat. Then a really fine rice noodle roll with barbecued pork and garlic chives (I think that's what those green flecks were). I've only ever had the shrimp or beef version of this. The small savory flakes of pork plus the herbal pop of the chives was really unexpected and delicious. We also got a steamer of siu mai (above left). Then came The Thing (right). It was on the far side of the cart and looked vaguely like steamed ribs, but when we ordered it and took some helpings we realized too late it was likely some sort of offal. While I like to be daring, I sometimes have texture issues. This stuff looked gelatinous and fleshy and fatty, with various tubes and segments and... I just didn't want to get involved!

At this point, we had to admit our smallest member was getting extremely antsy. We were also kind of full already. So we let The Thing be our last dish. Note that we were there at 10am and I think the service is slow at that time. It's 10% off between 9-11, but one is likely to get a faster rotation of carts if one goes later. We'd probably have eaten a lot more if we'd gone at noon. I also felt like the service was a little confusing for the non-Chinese dim sum novice. Several carts just passed us by completely, probably because they figured we wouldn't like what they had. That may have been true, but I'd still like to know what I was forgoing. Also, they provided a handy pictorial key at the table, but many of the dishes we saw were not on the card.

I like the idea of the card, but would like to know how it's used. If the servers had just assumed I was a total idiot and pointed to the pictures, I might have been happier. So I'm thinking we should branch out and explore other dim sum spots next time we're in town. Where in Toronto do you like to get dim sum?

Toronto FOOD 2012

We went to Toronto! I didn't take pictures of the 10 million book stores we visited. (Other travelers put the number closer to 7.) But I did take photos of food, because being in such a huge city (2.6 million) means there are so many good places to eat. We did our best to try lots of things in our ~45 hours there.

After settling in at our B&B, we walked over to Kensington market. Our first Toronto food was a spicy beef Jamaican patty. Why don't they have these in Brattleboro?? They seem so simple, and cost less than $2 each. Check out Hungry Canuck's patty post for a photo and musings.

After a lot more walking, we had a late dinner on Baldwin Street at Etsu, an adorable Japanese place nestled next to a Chinese place and a Korean place. It had a cute water feature and lovely planters full of flowers creating a mini-jungle on the minute patio. My companion had Bulgogi (below), a Korean beef dish that was highly spiced and highly succulent. I had a Japanese sampler (sushi, tempura, teriyaki). We both got awesome seaweed salad & miso soup for starters, and tiny scoops of ice cream for afters--one tasted like Thai basil and the other like burnt caramel. Afterwards the owner came out to chat. Baldwin Village is ADORABLE.

This below is at Shi Shawarma for lunch the following day. We'd walked MILES down shopping streets Queen St. West and Yonge St before we finally agreed on a lunch spot.

I was very happy with my chicken shawarma--it had strange flavors and large skinny peppers that I wasn't expecting but totally loved. The fries were clearly handcut and served with a dollop of mayo (see blob in center). They tasted like a Middle Eastern vacation. Shi Shawarma had free wifi and said they were open til 4am to cater to drunk Torontonians. I highly recommend Shi Shawarma.

Next is another photo fail--I did not take a picture of the yummy PEI oysters or the sautéed mushrooms with bleu cheese & toast, that we enjoyed in Leslieville's Ceili Cottage for dinner that evening. But they were SO GOOD. I'll blame it on the local hoppy beers that I was trying, which were also so good. We sat out on the patio on a perfect summer evening, but The Ceili Cottage was so cozy inside I almost wished it was winter so we could pile in to the Irish-looking bar area and recite poetry scraps.

After Ceili Cottage we retired to Fynn's of Temple Bar on King Street West--more Irishness. At 1am it was imperative that we have some snacks from Hero Certified Burgers. The beef in these burgers is described as 100% hormone free and antibiotic free. I didn't have a burger though.

I had a giant container of poutine. This made me feel very happy and very Canadian.

The next morning, my ultimate brunch request: dim sum.

I've been to a few places that are OK, but I wanted something new. So we wandered Dundas St. in Chinatown until we found the answer. Dim Sum King.

I may have some problems chilling out in life, but quality dim sum is so grounding and satisfying. What are these dumplings? Who knows! Bloody good though.

What I loved about Dim Sum King was the Chinese-speaking ladies who Did Not Care if you couldn't understand them, the amazing flavors that I really can't remember ever tasting before, and the little chin-lift-smile that you learn, which indicates: "Please show me what's on your cart because I have no idea what you said."

There is even dim sum with greens in it! This fantastic rice noodle roll was filled with some bitter yet perfect tender green, a little like pea shoots, a little like nettles. Fabulous.

The last items we got were the first I recognized--shrimp har gow and pork siu mai. I wish I could come back here every week with 20 people each time and try everything. Maybe even the chicken feet.

The dining area at 10am.

Now you know.

Whirlwind Boston Weekend!

Redbones in Somerville, MA. Known for their excellent BBQ & generous southern-style cuisine. These are the signs above the kitchen area.

We spent about 24 hours in Boston this weekend, and when I say "Boston" I mean Boston proper, plus Chelsea, Somerville and a little bit of Arlington (hello, Trader Joe's). We just walked in the (home) door about an hour ago but I wanted to get these pics up while they're fresh! Here are some food-related highlights:

We pulled into town around lunchtime on Saturday and hit Redbones near our old Davis Square neighborhood. I'd forgotten How Much Food they give you at Redbones. I got the sausage of the day as a "solo" sandwich (meaning without extra sides). It had a great snap to it and a wonderful smoky flavor. Not smoked like bacon, but smoky like it had just come off a grill (which it had). My companion had a pulled pork sandwich that looked pretty good. I ordered hushpuppies that came with a vinegary dipping sauce, then remembered that you get huge chunks of cornbread with every meal as well. We were SO FULL and satisfied.

My sausage sandwich--came with a bunch of tasty dijon. I just ate the sausage and gave the bun to my dining companion so he could make TWO pulled pork sandwiches.

Hush puppies with vinegar sauce.

It all comes with cornbread!

Mason jar of lemonade. I think their margaritas are this big, too.

Saturday evening we ate at the Salty Dog, which is your basic seafood restaurant. It's fairly unremarkable except for the fact that it sits smack in the middle of the Faneuil Hall area. So with the outdoor seating, you're in a fun busy atmosphere with lots of tourists and families and couples enjoying their seafood just a stone's throw from the wharves. I had a creole shrimp-scallop thing over rice. One companion had a fried combo (shrimp & scallops plus baked potato) and the other picked a mouthwatering scallop carbonara (heavy on the bacon, I like that they weren't afraid to bacon-ify those precious scallops). Our smallest member dined on ice cubes, two peel & eat shrimp, and lemon wedges dipped in milk. We decided to say nothing.

The next day came the moment I've been waiting for ever since I moved away from the Boston area--dim sum on Sunday. YAY! We went to my favorite dim sum place in Boston, Chau Chow City (83 Essex Street).

Chau Chow City, approaching from the west.

The 3rd floor of Chau Chow City is like a dim sum facility--one huge room where the carts circulate all day (starting at 8:30am!) and you can stuff yourself and 3 friends for under $40. Today we had shrimp har gow (my favorite), siu mai, a shrimp & scallop dumpling, beef rice roll, some kind of rice pancakes with scallion and tiny shrimps, a sticky rice bowl, bean curd roll with meat (my second favorite), some nice scallion dumplings and an excellent piquant-crunchy-sweet-spicy seaweed salad. I didn't see any bao (char siu bao would be my 3rd favorite)--or any chicken feet (which I am game to try after they were recommended by Wandering Chopsticks).

Average view of our table, covered with steamers and tea.

The bean curd meat roll (probably not the right name--do you know what these are really called?) I so love these things. Very savory, soft and firm at the same time, melt in your mouth and give way until you meet the tender meat filling.

A Monday in Los Angeles

Maybe you've noticed that I love dim sum. I also have strange ideas about what might be a fun tourist attraction. For example, the last time I was in Paris, I visited the Paris Sewer Museum... neat!

Anyway, on our recent trip to Los Angeles we stayed an extra day to be touristy, and my family was super sweet by accommodating BOTH of my touristy requests: to visit Lunasia for dim sum, and to visit the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Lunasia--super premium dim sum restaurant. Five stars!

 

Lots of dark wood and sunshine.

 

Deep-fried Taro Cake (wu gok!!) Perfectly crisp and sweet.

 

This was a new one for me and a fast favorite: Pan Fried Turnip Cake with XO Hot Sauce

 

Pork Siu Mai

 

Pan-Fried String Beans

 

Soup Dumplings were another first, also known as XLB (xiao long bao). Inside each whorled dumpling is liquid soup--place one in your mouth carefully and all at once to get a delicious exploding soup experience.

Veggie Bean-Curd Wrap

 

Our table

 

Oh wait, more is coming...

 

Excellent and fluffy Char Siu Bao.

 

Shrimp siu mai.

 

Rice Noodle with Beef

The finisher: Sticky Rice Wrap. I learned from our hosts that when you eat these, you're admitting that you are done with everything else and ready for the "filler."

 

But it is such good filler! I'd eat a sticky-rice wrap anytime.

Lunasia doesn't have carts, instead you order from a menu. Our hosts told us that menu-ordering can be good because food is super-fresh and hasn't been pushed around on a cart for X minutes. It was pretty yummy, though I also enjoy the adventure of cart service.

Saying goodbye to Lunasia. I love you!!!

Next stop, Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood.... and the people who rest in peace there.

The younger Chaplin and his mother

We drove around a bit and could not miss Johnny Ramone. 

Till next time, Hollywood!