Not So Yum

Today, in honor of Chinese New Year, our tea group met up at a Dim Sum restaurant down in Chinatown. This was my first venture into the world of Dim Sum, which seems to be all the rage here. I was under the impression that the meet up would be held in some cramped tiny place tucked away on some Chinatown side street. However, upon arrival, I discovered that one had to ascend an escalator to enter the premises. Any restaurant that requires an escalator ride to get to your meal is going to mean big business. Hiding behind the plain facade outside was a vast banquet hall fitted with tons of tables and chairs. If you do an image search on Yahoo of the place, a whole host of Flickr pages devoted to the interior and the delicacies offered on the food cart will pop up and you'll see what I mean.

The meet up was for a later time so that we would have a better chance of getting a table large enough for our party (they don't take reservations). This affected what was available on the menu as they were to close up a few hours after we arrived. Despite the dwindling amount of choices, the place was packed. The protocol is to order off the carts that frequently pass by. Thankfully, our table passed on the chicken feet or else I would have vomited right then and there. In looking at this experience, it really wasn't my cup of tea, at least the items that were being picked weren't. I'm not a fan of shrimp or pork. I'll eat these foods, but not in the way they were prepared here. I did scarf down the vegetarian spring rolls, and the sweets were okay. The steamed yellow sponge cake was divine! I would go back just for that alone. Since it was Chinese New Year, we were served pots of jasmine tea.

Would I do this again? Perhaps. Maybe. It all depends on the choices on offer. I'm glad for the chance to try different foods and learn a thing or two.