Dim Sum Delight

Good dim sum is hard to find. Good and cheap dim sum is much much rarer. By good, I mean those with standard, usually your genuine Hong Kong Cantonese kind of dim sum with thin, translucent skins for their har gaos (prawn dumplings) and tasty stuff that don't stinge on the main ingredients (ie: the meat & fillings) and attempt to replace them with cheaper ones (ie: flour.) Sure one can find good dim sum in various chinese restaurants of reputable standing but they tend to cost a bomb. So when Sean told me about this two bucks a plate dim sum place that is good, I was naturally quite sceptical. TWO bucks is bloody cheap, FYI.

For those who have never tried dim sum and are clueless as to what dim sum is (pity, you're missing out so much), it's basically small portions of chinese snacks/confectionaries(the savoury type) that are either steamed, broiled or fried and can be eaten at any time of the day. Goes splendidly with congee and chinese tea. Very tasty, very addictive, not very healthy. But really who cares. And mind you we're not talking about the kind of 'chinese' food you get for your takeaways. No 'chop suey' or disgusting 'egg rolls', I can never fanthom how such food gets passed off as being 'chinese'.

But I digress, this place while deceptively cheena-biang that looked like an aunty haunt, served really good dim sum. That Hong Kong Dim Sum label wasn't a mere puff after all. Less talk, more pictures.

The entrance of the eatery. In case you can't really make out the words on the glass door, it's 香味, the name of the eatery which when translated roughly means 'Good Taste'. Ok la, they do live up to their name for their dim sum. Situated somewhere along outram road near Chinatown. It's at the row of shops opposite People's Park Center. Opens from 7am-3am on weekdays, can't remember the weekend opening hours but it's rather long too. And it's Air-Conditioned too!! Yep enjoy that dim sum in cool comfort.

The interior of the eatery. As you can see, rather cheena biang(they even have an altar to some old thai monk) and the kind of place that your average auntie and ah peh would frequent. Which as the Boyfriend said they do and that youngsters seldom know of this place. A state of affairs he was perfectly happy with. Sorry dear but the dim sum was so nice. And I doubt there'll be a sudden deluge of visitors from the readers of this blog anyway.

We ordered nine dishes that included char siew pao, carrot cake, Wu kok (yam with fillings), har gao, fried prawn dumplings, siew mai, chee cheong fan, etc. And everything was nice, which in my books when combined with the 2 BUCKS a plate factor (it's cheap damnit) is an incredible feat. Even the 皮蛋(Century Egg) with shredded pork porridge was superb. Those nine dishes and two glasses of barley left us comfortably full and cost us about $21. Which like I said for good dim sum is really cheap.

They often say that one can tell how good the dim sum is from the char siew pao( stewed pork bun) and that certainly has a lot of truth to it. This char siew pao was perfect... THIN soft skin for the pao, lots of char siew filling with a lof of char siew that you can actually see and not just the sauce. The night would have ended perfectly if the incredibly delicious Dessert Hut had remained open but alas it was not to be. Save up on all those calories.. but still I miss their Black Sesame Paste with Glutinous rice Balls. Sighhh...

One more day till the KL trip with the Boyfriend, in the meantime I've been watching Bleach with a vengeance, I can tell why it's shonen anime or that aimed at straight guys. All those bouncing boobs, lesbian lolita connotations abound and a cool hero with a big ass sword. Still, a very nice series so far... Even my 87 year old granny is hooked on it ok! She got out her plastic container of Gua Zi(melon seeds) and settled down on the sofa beside me, happily munching away while interrupting with the intermittent question. So as you can see anime's appeal is universal indeed.

And you'll excuse me now. I still have 112 more episodes to finish.