![]() There are no carts here, no chicken feet, and no roaring white noise: just serene service and elegant options (all gorgeously presented) such as roasted duck spring rolls, Chinese bacon and scallion mini-quiche, shiitake and salmon satay with a wonderful noodle salad, and savory spare ribs with hoisin sauce. ![]() But if tripe seems a little too intense, the new weekend dim sum menu at Dragonfish (722 Pine, at the Paramount Hotel, 467-7777) offers a well- executed beginner's selection. A block over, at China Gate (516 Seventh at King, 624-1730), a favorite for Peking duck and karaoke, the dim sum ain't too shabby either-especially if you're crav-ing Szechuan ox tripe, chive and shrimp cake, or mashed black sesame dumplings with peanut sauce. ![]() A plate of Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, vibrantly green and steamed to a perfect, tender-but-not-mushy texture, is the perfect companion to Four Seas' excellent sweet 'n' sticky BBQ pork hom bows and meatballs. You can avoid long Sunday-morning lines at Four Seas (714 S King at Eighth, 682-4900), an enormous banquet hall where your dumplings are not only wheeled right up to you, they're also heated up tableside in a portable wok. Plus, the Honey Court's hostess is an extremely tall Asian woman who slices through the room with efficiency and grace (and looks like a CIA operative who could kill somebody with a finger). Although many swear by the top-notch fare and exciting pace at House of Hong (409 Eighth at Jackson, 622-7997), my heart belongs to Honey Court (516 Maynard at Weller, 292-8828), where the dim sum experience includes, in addition to the standard dishes, delicious steamed curry squid, scallop dumplings, Cantonese sponge cake, and my favorite, the crispy seafood roll: crabmeat, scallops, water chestnuts, and scallions wrapped in seaweed, dredged in a light batter, then briefly deep-fried. These days, in a different city with a different job, I no longer have to put up with the annoying brunch crowds and their special requests, but dim sum remains a weekend constant. Enjoying dim sum is more of a weekend treat, more about being social, and about savoring the labor-intensive little delicacies. Everyday Chinese breakfasts are actually not this elaborate the simple breakfasts of my childhood consisted of hot rice porridge with soy sauce and pickled vegetables. In Chinese, dim sum means "snack," or eating a little bit translated literally, it means "dot on the heart." It's an old-world Cantonese teahouse tradition: a variety of bite-sized food and pastries meant to be sampled and shared with a group over tea. ![]() This was my idea of brunch-cheap and fast, with plenty of meat and aggressive flavors, eaten with people shouting over each other in a room throbbing with activity. "turnip") cake glossy egg custard in a flaky pastry cup stuffed wide rice noodles and fragrant sticky rice with chicken, mushrooms, and pork butt wrapped in lotus leaves, like a tamale. No frittatas, no scones-just pork, shrimp, or beef dumplings sesame balls with sweet bean paste scallion pancakes seasoned short ribs steamed chicken feet with garlic sauce daikon radish (a.k.a. There we'd have dim sum in a crowded, noisy dining hall, where servers yelled out items as they pushed stainless steel carts stacked with steamers and small covered plates. I squeezed gallons of OJ made countless mango mimosas served egg-white omelets, hazelnut French toast, chicken-apple sausage, and eggs Benedict and smiled through clenched teeth as freshly plucked and exfoliated women restructured the menu and requested everything "light oil, sauce on the side."Īs soon I ended my morning shift, exhausted and starving, I'd head down to Chinatown with a couple of busboys. One year at a busy, obnoxiously chic SoHo spot, I got stuck with brunches every single weekend. Back in my restaurant days, I hated working the brunch shift.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |