Dim Sum with Po Po

Hmmm. I have noticed that this blog has made a course quite different than I had planned. I thought that I would be writing about my experiences with pastry, but that has only become a small part of this short-lived blog.

But who cares...and now onto dim sum with Po Po (the Cantonese word for maternal grandmother.)

What would food experiences be without a good dose nostalgia? Growing up Chinese American, dim sum has such a deep rooted part of my childhood, and it it not just to food, it's the whole atmosphere.

I don't get to see my Po Po too often, and I had a feeling that it was that time to make time. We ventured to Mayflower Restaurant and Lounge, a restaurant that my family have been long time patrons to. So long, that my grandmother gets the hook up with extra dishes. We sat down at a small round table for five, the three other seats for an unrelated uncle and two aunties.

Waiters and waitresses dressed in their uniforms: the men either in a green vest or a peach suit jacket; the women in black vests. All have bow ties and black pants. Managers have their suits. Carts of dim sum maneuver their way around the packed tables. Trays with egg tarts, taro dumplings, and other assorted dishes make their way to every table as each member of the waitstaffs announces their featured dish.

My dim sum experience would be incomplete with my childhood favorites. The first is har gau, the shrimp dumplings that are enveloped in a thin wheat starch wrapping. Then, of course, the steamed barbeque pork bun (cha siu bo). And it must be steamed, not the baked one. Cheong fun, the rice noodle rolls filled with beef or shrimp accompanied with soy sauce. Then of course the cups and cups of tea. Going out for dim sum is also refered to yum cha, which directly transtlated means to drink tea.


And, yes, the dishes sometimes do get, well, wierd: like the barbequed chicken feet (in which B is absolutely appalled by) or duck beaks. But that is such a small part of this varietal feasts.

One more thing that is part of my experience of this tradition: the "fight" over who pays the bill.