Da Food Hunting Diary, Dim Sum

My name is David Chui. I travel, I eat, I play, I eat, I sleep and then I gain weights.

This week we are heading to an oriental restaurant. To be more specific, we are looking into the Cantonese traditional lunch, Dim Sum. Dim Sum in Chinese meaning suggests "Snacks". However, these snacks are not equivalent to the North American snacks such as cookies, chips and candies but are more similar to a appetizer. In fact, the Cantonese Dim Sum are called snacks because of their small portions and delicate appearances. Before I take everyone into the restaurant, I want to just say why do these small Dim Sum consider as a breakfast or lunch to a person who has a Cantonese background. In the early 20th century, elder Cantonese enjoys excising in the dawn of the day. After they are exhausted with playing Taichi or walking around the park. Most of them tend to bring their lovely pets, birds, to the restaurant. Since their age does not require them to eat a lot, the restaurant decide to supply teas and Dim Sum instead of a large portion of food. The other reason is that the elder actually enjoy sitting in the restaurant and chat with everyone inside. Sometimes, one believe that the favoured Dim Sum restaurant is not only about the taste of food but the members of the community.  Regularly, an elder is willing to stay in the restaurant for two to three hours.

Now, the Dim Sum restaurant has become a cultural concept in Cantonese culture. Thanks to that, we can see large restaurant serving only Dim Sum around and innovative dishes are pumping out every year. And then, of course, we can also find such places in Austin as well.

Now I have to say you don't have to worry about if you don't speak any Chinese; the restaurant also serves a menu both in Chinese and English. In the photos, we can see Dim Sum are served in bamboo basket and you can see the waiters and waitress are pushing the steaming cart around the restaurant. If you are interested in what they are severing, you can also ask them to show you what is inside their cart. In the photo, there dishes that are most famous among Dim Sum are Shrimp Dumplings and Pork Dumplings (HaGao and SiuMai) but there are also a lot of derived dim sum such as spinach shrimp dumplings, mushroom dumplings. Sometimes, the Dim Sum comes with specific sauce to dip in. For example, if you order Shanghai pork dumplings (XiaoLongBao), a cup of vinegar will be served on the side as well. The tricky thing of Dim Sum is that each Dim Sum comes with it own specific sauce on the side and these sauces look alike but they taste differently. Make sure you don't dip in the wrong sauce and ruin your experience.

 Now, the Dim Sum looks very normal to a food hunting person because all of them contain are shrimp and pork. Sounds very unexciting for someone always asking for a surprise. However, if I have decided to post a restaurant, there must be something we don't usually see. One good example will be the chicken paws (or we call them the phoenix paws). In North American, these chicken paws are considered meat-less and are thrown away from the meat processing factory. In fact, the factory ships the chicken paws to China and Hong Kong because we have a such strong demand on this specific part of chicken. Phoenix paws are a very famous Dim Sum in the history. Now if this does not horrify you, I introduce you the beef stomach.  Especially in Hong Kong, the organs are considered as a gourmet dishes or snack to everyone. You can see pork intestine cooked in deep-frying, marinating and boiled. Yes, I don't want you to imagine the picture as they may disgust most of you already but yet if you have a chance and see them, I encourage you to take a small bite before you judge them just by their appearance. Chances are you may be surprise or you will feel puking for the whole day.

Now, the other famous thing about the Dim Sum restaurant besides the food is the drink. Yes, tea it is.  The tea we have are totally different from the British Earl Grey or breakfast tea. Instead, our tea do not have the taste of spice. There are a lot of famous tea in Chinese culture and we categorize them into green tea and black tea.  The one I have shown in this picture is the Jasmine green tea.

The good thing to always have a tea next to you is that sometimes your taste bud can be numbed by the strong taste of one Dim Sum. A tea can help you to get rid of the strong taste in your mouth so you can taste the other better. It is the same concept as Japanese drink Sake (an alcohol) when they eat raw fish. Another good thing about tea is that tea can help you to get rid of the greasy and oil feeling in your mouth.


May I remind you that Dim Sum are usually made of pork, and chicken. If you are not supposed to eat some kind of meats, please ask them what the Dim Sum are made of before you order them. Since they ground the meat sometimes that you may not be able to tell at the first sight. I think a thousand of words still are not as meaning as a bite. So, I will like to end at here and encourage to try the special Dim Sum when you are ready for surprises.


The address is 3407 Greystone Dr. Austin Texas 78731
and the name is called Chinatown on MOPAC.
Reminder: they only serve Dim Sum during 11:00am - 2:30 pm every Sat and Sun only.