!!!Warning!!! If you’re hungry, read this post later !
When we lived in Shanghai, we used to eat dim sum a lot. There was a nice Cantonese restaurant near our school (RIP Billy Brothers). We also used to go to Hong-Kong to see Audrey’s family. We are telling you, there is NO WAY you go to Hong-Kong without getting dim sum !
I went to Hong-Kong for the first time when I was 11. It was like 10AM, and my grand parents said : “let’s do yum cha” (drink tea in Cantonese). It was so cool ! The waitresses had a trolley with the dim sum, you just have to choose what you wanna eat ! It was like Wonderland ! It’s too bad that today dim sum places with trolleys are difficult to find in Hong-Kong.
If you’re not familiar with dim sum, these tips can help you enjoying yum cha :
-It’s a family style meal. You order a lot, and share.
-Queue, find a seat : local people queueing is a good sign
-Select your tea. Our favorites : Pu er, and chrysanthemum tea
-Clean your plate and ustensiles with hot water before use
-Turn over the lid and leave it on the teapot if you want a refill
-You can get sweet dishes in the middle of the meal
Our favorite dim sum (in Cantonese) :
Har gau : steamed shrimps dumplings
Haam sui gau : fried glutinous rice dumplings
Cha siu bao : steamed barbecue pork-stuffed buns
Bao lou bao : barbecue pork baked buns
Cheong fan : rolled rice noodles
Wu kok : taro puff
Of course, we haven’t even tried 1% of the dim sum restaurants in Hong-Kong, but here are 3 of our favorite dim sum restaurants.
–Serenade, Tsim Sha Tsui : not the best dim sum in the world, but the view is amazing, and they still have trolleys !
–Eaton hotel, Yau Ma Tei : Expensive and fancy, but so tasty !
–Tim Ho Wan, Central, Mongkok, North Point, Sham Shui Po : BEST value ever ! BEST bao lou bao ever ! Get ready to queue !
Here is a beautiful sketch Catherine made for Audrey’s birthday; can you recognize all these dim sum ?
Do you see any other tips to enjoy dim sum ? What are your favorite ones ? What are your favorite places in Hong-Kong ? We wanna try !
3 Comments
Labeauphoto
et du coup, où bien (vraiment) manger asiatique (chinoise, vietnamienne, coréenne, japonaise…) sur l’île ? 🙂
Audrey & David
On aime bien Est Bento (article ici).
Chinois : Resto Lam, Délices de l’orient, Ying bin, Le délicieux à St-Denis
Jap : Sushi d’art à St-Gilles. Le wasabi à St-Denis a pas mal de succès aussi.
Viet/Coréen : on cherche toujours. Si quelqu’un a des adresses à conseiller… 🙂
Labeauphoto
Plutôt fusion ?! au Est Bento mais est ce celui qui se rapproche de la cuisine traditionnelle asiatique ?! AH viet je peux conseiller le jade d’or à saint pierre ! ah oui les restos jap difficile de trouver mais c’est cool à tester comme ceux chinois ! parce que dans le sud on fait rapidement le tour, à mon goût !