Dim Sum in Hong Kong

Dim sum literally means 'touch heart' or 'dot heart'. And Hong Kong got to be one of the best place in the world to sample this Cantonese cuisine.
Traditionally, you choose from carts that servers push around. There is actually a certain order as to how dim sum is served: first, starts with lighter, steamed dishes; followed by heavier items such as deep-fried dishes and finally, ends with sweet dessert.
Now almost every restaurant that we encountered have done away with the cart system. Instead, the table have a menu list and a pencil which you use to mark off the items you want and the number of orders. The dim sum is still, fortunately, served in steamer baskets.
I rather missed the simple act of hovering in front of the hot steaming food carts ordering the dishes as they come in the traditional cart system.

Dim sum has to go hand in hand with "yum cha"- drink tea. You can ask for bo lay (pu erh), oolong, chrysanthemum or green tea. Chinese tea is said to be important as it helps to digest the rich foods.

Here are some of the dim sum we had in Hong Kong:

Steamed pork dumplings (烧卖 shao mai), Steamed shrimp dumplings (蝦餃 har gau),rice noodle rolls (腸粉 cheong fun), tofu skin rolls (腐皮捲)

Steamed spare ribs (排骨), Steamed barbecued pork bun ( 叉燒包char siu pau), Turnip cake (蘿蔔糕, lo bak go), Sweet cream buns (奶皇包).

The picture doesn't do this dessert justice. This is called 'liu sar pau' translated as flowing sand bun. When this pau is steaming hot the filling comes out like flowing lava. The filling consist of salted duck egg yolk, butter and milk (I am guessing here but the salted egg yolk I am very sure). Due to the present of the egg yolk, the filling has a sandy creamy texture, thus the name. The texture and the taste of this steamed bun when eaten hot is sooo exquisite...easily my favourite part of the whole dim sum experience.

Super Star Seafood Restaurant -- This restaurant, filled with locals, is one of Tsim Sha Tsui's better and moderately priced place for trying authentic dim sum in a typical Chinese setting.

Sorry no English menu and unfortunately, no more mobile food carts, so you'll just have to look at the pictures on the Chinese menu and tick the list given.

The Tsim Sha Tsui's branch:
83-97 Nathan Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui.

tel. 852/2366 0878.

Mon-Fri 10:30am-4:30pm; Sat-Sun 9:30am-4:30pm, for dim sum.
They also serve lunch and dinner, very popular for their seafood too.

Jo