Some Good Dim Sum

Today, I had my first one-on-one experience with dim sum on campus. The area that serves dim sum is some strange combination of cafes. It's the Grab'N'Go-Suns-Baguette's restaurant or something. The title of the restaurant is just as confusing as the ordering process. During lunchtime, the place is packed-- with locals. Not many people in there speak English, and as usual, I speak lots of English. The first thing I had to do was figure out where I should sit (do I wait to be seated?), if I needed a menu (one I could read?), and how I order dim sum (because that's what I wanted to eat!).

Anyway, I finally found someone to tell me what to do. The cashier just looked at me and semi-shouted, "Sit down!" So I wandered through about 30 tables before I found an empty one with two chairs. The "waiter" walked by and asked, "Just you?" I said yes and he brought me an empty bowl, spoon, teapot, cup and chopsticks. No menu, no instructions.

I sat there a while staring at everyone else. I've gotten used to the fact that everyone stares at me, so why not join 'em? Finally he came back and said, "Go. Eat." He gestured to the walk-up dim sum counter. Luckily a few guys jumped ahead of me in line (not uncommon here), so I watched what they ordered. I picked out three dishes to try-- all of which were unrecognizable in their steamed pouches, coatings and wraps.

I should have taken a picture. It was hilarious. To the locals, I bet I looked just as funny as the food.

My favorite turned out to be these spinach/vegetable puffs. From the outside they looked like giant white meringue puffs, three of them, stuck together. Once I stabbed them with my chopstick (not proper), I could tell that nothing was going to ooze out. I don't do oozing.

Maud, one of the French exchange students, taught me how to cut things with my chopsticks. Sounds impossible, but it's not. Jenn, it's also a good trick for cutting sushi rolls that are way to big to eat.

I ate all three of those before I had a sip of tea. They were really good. I had two other dishes, too. One was green and pink and supposedly made of pork. I didn't eat all of those if you can imagine. The other dish was made of shrimp and some veggies. Those were pretty good once I got over the sticky texture of the steamed coating.

The good news is that I got this awkward meal out of the way. Now, I can go back and appear as though I know what I'm doing (even if I don't).

FYI: Dim sum looks like this, although it's usually in bamboo steamer baskets. Not sure what's inside? Yeah, me neither.